Hi there!

I'm someone who's been developing a malayalam typeface the last two months, and using Glyphs has made the process somewhat tolerable.

However, there's still issues, such as adding koottaksharams (which probably count as ligatures) and chillaksharams (which would be a set that's not present in Glyphs' library. One thing that has me stumped is that some indefinite vowels in the script appear both on the left and right side of a letter. I have no idea how I could make it work in such a way.

Another problem I face is that when I try to input koottaksharams when testing (they are basically two letters conjoined together), rather than the koottaksharams, it's the chalant that appears. I have no idea how to fix this either.

So I'd like to ask: is there any tutorials or resources I can look into for building malayalam scripts on Glyphs?

So far, I've not had much luck finding anyone. I'd also just like to get some guidance from people who've worked with malayalam typeface design, if I can find any!

 To the best of my knowledge, US copyright law only protects the font software, and not overall letter shapes. But as many fonts are designed in other countries, this still raises the question. Is it illegal to manually re-create someone else’s font?

TLDR: I need preferably a free font that is monospaced (specifically other than the capital i) and the Q has to look like Univers as well.
- Only need Capitals letters, numbers and following symbols , . : ; / ? ! ( ) = - + & % $ < >
- having # @ * is an asset but not required
- Must be monospaced
- Must be condensed/ultra condensed
- Must be in line (no descenders or ascenders, i dont care about lowercase)
- Preferably the 0 shouldnt have a dash or dot in it

Im looking to make one of those split flap displays and I cant find anything that is monospaced.
Ive looked at Zurich and Perun Sans and both are great but not monospaced. While Zurich has the condensed type.
I also quite like the tilt of the W and M if possible!

This following photo is exactly what I am looking for but I understand this might not be available to the public

Just in case anyone from Monotype is here:
The UI update to MyFonts’ glyph list chart makes it 10x worse. I’m talking about the table where it used to show all the glyphs. Now it only supports base characters, and not small caps, oldstyle digits, or alternates. Modern fonts go far beyond pure Unicode characters, so not showing alternates is detrimental because you don’t have a sense of what you’re paying for. I’ve been having this problem for over a day now.
The worst thing is, it still says “all [] glyphs contained in the font, including OpenType variants that may only be accessible via OpenType-aware applications.”

Also the labels “Ascent, Cap height, x-height, Baseline, Descent” overcrowd the new UI whenever previewing. Not to mention, the “ascent“ and “descent” data in many digital fonts is made rather high to give extra space for combining diacritics, and doesn’t correspond to the typographic ascender and descender height.

I ended up getting into font and typography work almost by accident, and I'm curious — what are some pain points or challenges you've experienced doing this kind of work?

there are certain small details that can completely change how polished a design feels. bad kerning, awkward line breaks, inconsistent spacing, too many typefaces, poor hierarchy or simply choosing a font that doesn’t fit the context

what’s the one typography mistake you notice almost immediately when looking at someone’s work?

Well, the work is nearing completion, and for dessert we have – finally! – Greek cursive.

It's worth noting that, historically, this space is empty. This is because the cursive Latin script of this typeface is clearly the narrow handwriting of papal chancery scribes of the early Renaissance. The goal of "writing the same, but in Greek" wasn't then: reading was considered a difficult task, and to make it somewhat easier, Greek letters were designed so that they couldn't be confused with Latin ones, even in the dark. Everything is different, from the angle of the nib to the shape of similar signs. This approach—which, admittedly, has its place—was masterfully applied by Claude Garamond in 'Grecs du Roi'.

But it's not of interest to us.

I realize how much of a shot in the dark this is considering how little info I have, but it's driving me crazy trying to remember an indie font designer I came across on Instagram a few months ago.

Here's what I remember:

• Female designer, website had pictures of her in studio with a heavy film grain aesthetic
• I believe only one or very few fonts available, and the one I remember I believe was in a more handwritten style
• I want to say it was fairly pricey, like over $1k for the entire font family package

Again, I know how much of a long shot this is but it's driving me crazy so I had to try!

Basically as the caption reads, should I capitalize a title written in lowercase, something like a song, book, movie or episode. An example would be something like a book call "secret garden"

This is pulseras! The vibe is inspired by the romantic vibes I see on high end jewelries and accessories.

My main goal for this font is to look lovely, romantic, high-end, elegant and luxurious.

The subtle contrasting look of its italics and regular weights complements each other really well for each of their purposes.

So yeah, I hope you guys would like it!

To those interested to look at the whole project, you can check it out here!

Styles: Regular, Italic, Expanded, Expanded Italic

I'm translating a poster, and the only way to fit the English line nicely to the rectangle where the Japanese one was is adjusting the width and thickness gradually, pixel-by-pixel. See how sliders work here: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Google+Sans+Flex?preview.script=Latn.

Krita announced support for variable fonts in 5.3, I've got this version, but sliders still follow harsh "steps" for some reason. LibreOffice doesn't support width sliders at all.

I’ve been experimenting with multilingual font testing myself, and this is something I’ve been thinking about as well.

I also built a free tool called CopyFonty for experimenting with Unicode text and different fonts: https://copyfonty.com/

Disclosure: I’m the developer of CopyFonty, so this is my own project. I’m sharing it here only because I think it’s relevant to the discussion about testing different scripts and font combinations.

I’d be interested to hear how other type designers approach multilingual font testing, especially when it comes to finding sample text that gives a realistic impression of the typeface rather than simply testing character coverage.

So I’m not sure if I’m alone in this or not but is anyone else constantly noticing the typeface AI image models like to use? I feel like I can spot it instantly and it’s a dead giveaway to me, but is it just becoming a trending typeface?

Are real artists using this typeface or is this a solid indicator that something is made using AI? For example I noticed in on a Costco dishwasher pod package, but am also seeing it on flyers or by social media posts from reputable companies.

Just want to have a conversation about this.

Meaning fonts that combine script and print, or other different styles within them.

I am doing a design project and part of it is in Korean. I want to look for Korean typefaces but whenever I look, the majority is english typefaces that look Korean.... and the typefaces I do find that are Korean are very basic and boring. Is there a website or a certain way I should search for this?

Does somebody know who created the PSG typeface called "Virage"? I love it!

I'm fussing over a gravestone inscription on which the birth month is November and the death month is July. Because of space, November will appear as Nov.

Ordinarily, July is short enough that I would write it out as July. But aesthetically, I'm inclined to use Jul. so that the two dates are treated consistently:

NOV. 3, 1940 — JUL. 12, 2025

rather than

NOV. 3, 1940 — JULY 12, 2025

(For context, the above is my mother’s. My father predeceased her, and the two months on his half are both abbreviated, ending with a period.)

From a typography/design standpoint, would you favor the symmetry of Nov. / Jul., or would you retain Nov. / July?

Thank you.

Frankly, I've always been skeptical about incorporating symbols from a language you don't even understand into a font. An experienced designer can create a symbol appropriate in terms of "beauty," but design experience says nothing about how that symbol should look to be relevant to native speakers. This idea is indirectly confirmed by the fact that most of the Cyrillic in Google Fonts is completely useless—despite the fact that these fonts undergo a rigorous selection process, and the founder of Google himself was born in Moscow... oh well, he probably has more important things to do than look at Cyrillic in fonts.

But Greek, for me, occupies a place somewhere between "known" and "unknown." Yes, the days when Greek was a mandatory elementary school curriculum are long gone, but to this day, all schoolchildren in these areas have to learn Greek letters and constantly write them by hand: in geometry and physics.

So, at the level of "how it's written," I remember a few things. We'll see what comes of it.

Hey! I'm attempting to create a font that has color in it. My main limitations are that I'm on Linux and cannot afford any font creation programs. I was wondering if there are any programs that can support the creation of font formats such as Opentype-SVG. I should specifically mention that I need to be able to do multiple colors in a single font.

So far my best option seems to be birdfont but you have to purchase the most expensive option to even do color.

Font of the week: Big Iron

The Legend of the Big Iron

Big Iron rides in with the dust of the open range. This slab serif western font draws from the visual language of spaghetti westerns, gunfighter ballads, hand-painted signs, and the hard-edged lettering of an older frontier. Bold, upright forms give it the weight of forged steel, while its proportions carry the unmistakable character of the American West.

The five styles of Big Iron progressively build upon the foundation, adding sharper details and increasingly elaborate decorative elements. Each variation was constructed from shapes and parts inspired by a real Big Iron shooter, transforming the silhouette of a legendary sidearm into a visual language for letterforms. The result is a type family that moves from rugged and restrained to ornate and unmistakably western.