With regards to Comic Sans

Varethane · Post by **Varethane** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:30 pm

I've been using it for the last eighty pages or so of my webcomic, and have since learned the error of my ways-- but unfortunately, I can't seem to locate a suitable alternate.

I've looked through the sites like Blambot and 1001freefonts, and they do have some which look nice, but all of the fonts I've located which are both feasable for a comic format and have a lowercase option require money, and I lack a credit card.

Is there anywhere else I can go (or a handy font someone can point me to)? I don't really want to switch to all-caps, but it would be nice to stop using Comic Sans too. If this keeps up I might end up trying hand-lettering (....which is a last resort, because I am incapable of writing coherently. My notes look like rows of squashed mosquitoes <_<;; ).

(And once/if I've found a font, because I am very new to all this fonting business, this question has a second part... Would it automatically load itself into my Photoshop drop-down as soon as I've downloaded it? Or are there some fancy steps I need to take?)

Thank you. (:

Duralict · Post by **Duralict** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:48 pm

When you download a font, it usually comes in a zip file. The actual font file (I assume you're using Windows, here) will be inside that, and have an icon of a page with a big letter T on it. You'll know it when you see it. Once you've downloaded it, here's what you do:

1. Unzip, if necessary.
2. Open the WINDOWS folder. This is usually on the C drive.
3. Open the folder FONTS.
4. Drag the font file you want into the FONTS folder, and it will self-install. Now it should show up in the Photoshop dropbox.

As for font choices, I use Digital Strip from Blambot, but it doesn't have lower case. There are a lot of free font sites on the Internet, but you are going to have your work cut out for you trying to find the perfect one

Varethane · Post by **Varethane** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:06 pm

Ah, thank you. (: That's one part of my question sorted out... now all that's left is to actually locate a viable font.

Blast the fact that all the made-for-comics fonts have no lowercase... *anger*

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:56 am

Back before I started hand-lettering, I wanted a mixed cap font as well, so I spent awhile looking. I could only find a few, but since then some more freebies have popped up.

I made this post a few months ago in a different thread:

Mercury Hat wrote:
I needed a readable font with lower case letters. There are only two free fonts that meet that description -- Comic Sans and Mighty Zeo, and I do not like MZ.
http://blambot.com/font_ashcan.shtml
http://dafont.com/lacartoonerie.font
http://dafont.com/komika-text.font
http://dafont.com/i-hate-comic-sans.font
http://dafont.com/kronika.font
http://dafont.com/gosmick-sans.font
http://dafont.com/fawn-script.font
http://www.1001fonts.com/font_details.html?font_id=2678
http://www.1001fonts.com/font_details.html?font_id=1386
http://www.1001fonts.com/font_details.html?font_id=1224

And that's after about 10 minutes, there's more out there.

dafont.com is my favourite source for fonts, it's way bigger than 1001Fonts.

Phact0rri · Post by **Phact0rri** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:05 am

Mercury Hat wrote:Back before I started hand-lettering, I wanted a mixed cap font as well, so I spent awhile looking. I could only find a few, but since then some more freebies have popped up.

I really need to get around to making some new hand written fonts, now that I've gotten studying caligraphy (course even his normal hand writing could be font actually). Was wondering if other than Fontographer, if there's any other decent font making software, Merc or anyone knows of.

[geoduck] · Post by **[geoduck]** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:09 pm

Mercury Hat wrote: http://dafont.com/komika-text.font
http://www.1001fonts.com/font_details.html?font_id=1224

Out of MT's list, I particularly recommend these two; I use SF Cartoonist for my Nome characters' dialogue. I also still use Comic Sans for Humans; shrunk way down and bolded, I haven't found anything I like better.

Ripnormality · Post by **Ripnormality** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:34 pm

Fontgarden.com is a personal favorite of mine--I don't know how free it still is, though. Also, have you considered that you might just be so used to seeing Comic Sans that anything else looks weird?

Varethane · Post by **Varethane** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 3:54 pm

Ah, thanks to everyone who's posted! I rather like the Gosmick Sans font that was posted, so if I make a change I'll probably go with that one (or hand lettering, haha... if it works out)

Funny how rare lowercase is in comicking fonts. I suppose most comics do write in all-caps, but still... (And the majority of the fonts that do have lowercase are serifed/too heavy/look italicised/blocky/other)

(As to me being used to seeing Comic Sans, I'd never used it before prior to starting my comic a few months ago. I don't really think it has a place in any other medium, to be frank, I just never quite thought that it might also be a detractor in comics)

RobertBlake · Post by **RobertBlake** » Wed Oct 24, 2007 7:45 am

If you want to do hand lettering, there's no better time to start than the present. Eventually, you'll get better at it. A straightedge or Ames guide should help keep everything in line.

As for comic fonts, some good sites have already been listed. I used to use something called Witzwork or something like that for a while. It was alright. Nowadays, I just use a font (Arial) to put the title and copyright stuff on the comic.

Scientivore · Post by **Scientivore** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 1:55 am

Almost two months late to this topic, sorry. There might still be interest in it, though?

Note: I'm not a webcomicker, just a megafan of the medium. I've also made a lot of fanmixes of various webcomics, since I can't draw but I can find my way around Photoshop Elements or GIMP.

I don't know about earlier versions of Windows (since I didn't get into fonts until recently), but in Vista, I can drag & drop from the zip file folder to a regular folder; then select the font files, right-click and install. I keep all of my downloaded fonts in a "[profilename]\Downloads\Fonts" folder. I unzip newly downloaded fonts to a sub-folder of "Fonts" called "1" (so it's at the top of the list), then empty the "1" folder after installing the fonts.

I generally recommend Komika because of the sheer number of sub-fonts, good European character support, and excellent terms (even free for commercial use). You can see it in use at Metrophor, and Legostar Galactica recently switched to it too.

Aside from the other fonts with lowercase already mentioned in this thread, I know that Erfworld uses Gorilla Milkshake.

I haven't purchased any software for making my own fonts yet. In my research, aside from Fontographer and other Fontlab utilities, I found FontCreator. Apparently CorelDRAW can be used to make a font from your lettering; I'm sure that it's great at the glyph tracing part, but I dunno how good it is at the rest.

InkTea · Post by **InkTea** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:19 pm

Wow, this is a really good thread guys~~~ I've also been considering making a few font's that have special characters enabled. . . . it gets frustrating when you find the perfect font but it doesn't have special characters. .__. )

But the rest of those websites for free fonts are fantastic

Montyandwoolley · Post by **Montyandwoolley** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:24 pm

Choosing a font is a very hard thing to do, and if you use it long enough it eventually gets stereotyped to your comic! (well, probably..) - Either way, i stumbled upon mine in a font pack i downloaded and its a music script font!

Lance · Post by **Lance** » Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:15 pm

montyandwoolley wrote:I stumbled upon mine in a font pack i downloaded and its a music script font!

I really like that font you're using.
Also your banner just slays me!

I found a free blambot font I'm now using for The Cates (that makes 3 different types of lettering in one comicstrip... consistency? Hah!)
I wanted TB to have a lowercase option for that dialog so I'm using a font called "chalkboard" that was in my Photoshop ( I don't know if it's a PS loaded font or something my wife put in there, tho)

Jin-roh · Post by **Jin-roh** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 8:13 pm

Why do some fonts only have caps anyway? Is there some aesthetic or practical reason to type in all caps?

I wish I had found a lower case font, but Anime Ace has been working out fine for the 10 months now.

Lei · Post by **Lei** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:13 pm

A lot of comics are in all caps. I know some people whose handwriting looks like that.

I am so addicted to Dafont. >>

Blackhole · Post by **Blackhole** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:00 pm

As long as it's readable, I personally don't care what font people use. I've never said,.. "Pshaw! That cartoonist is such a hack because he used a convenient and readable font!" No reason to take it so seriously.

Pessimistpixel · Post by **Pessimistpixel** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:56 am

I never actually put too much thought into what kind of font I wanted to use. I guess the best thing to do is pick one to go with your art style. I'll look into that Komika, it does look pretty freakin' sweet... casual enough to fit in a comic but professional enough to be readable.

Redtech · Post by **Redtech** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:15 pm

I use Komika, I think the only noticeable complaint is that ! and i look the same and the default kerning is a little tight for my 'default' uses.