How To Find & Use The Glyphs In Fonts

How to Find & Use Font Glyphs In Design Space

Or: How Do I Add Those Tails?

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Quick Links:

• FREE Maintype Logic Character Map (You only need the free version)
• Using FontLab Pad With Design Space
• How to Install System fonts to use in Design Space
• Fonts With Tails Cheat Sheet (The Easy Glyph Fonts)
• Free  Fonts With Glyphs That Require A Character Map 
• Tip - Install OTF versions whenever they are offered, they may have more glyphs

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WHAT IS A GLYPH

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Glyphs refer to all of the fancy extras in fonts.  It might be an alternative of the letter, with extra swirls, or it might be a design that is not part of the alphabet.  Many premium fonts come with dozens , even hundreds, of extras that you cannot see without using a character map.  Other fonts come with simple extras you can access just by using different keys on your keyboard.  

Full Glyph Fonts - Using A Character Map

A character map shows you all of the extra glyphs included with a font.

Daftont fonts are frequently DEMO VERSION fonts

Sometimes you will see a font on dafont with all sorts of extras - but they will not be included in the download from dafont.  That's because it's a demo version of a paid font.  You may have to pay to see all of the extras. [There are also thousands of free fonts with the glyphs included!]

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Character Map Options:

• Windows Built In Character Map
• Apple Built In Character Map
• Apple Ultra Character Map ($10)
• Babel Map - Windows
• My Preference - High Logic Maintype Character Map (windows only)

Windows has a built in character map, but it is small and difficult to use.  I like the Maintype Logic Character Map - and you can use the free version without ever needing to pay for a full version. 

 I do not use apple devices, but I am told that Apple has a decent built in character map.

Go to the Apple menu and open Systems Preferences. Click the Keyboard option. In the Keyboard window, check the option Show Keyboard and Character Viewers in menu bar at the bottom of the window. 

In maintype logic, choose your font, then on the right you will see the character map with all of the glyph options.  Right click on the option you want, then choose "add sample" and it will add it to the sample panel.

OR you can choose Copy To Clipboard, and paste the glyph right into a text box in Design Space [or fontlab pad]

Create a text box in Design Space

Make sure the font is the same font you have chosen in your character map

Copy your text from your character map

Paste into the text box in design space.

The pasted text, with the glyphs.

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When using fonts with glyphs, you must have the EXACT SAME font selected in both your character map, and whatever other program you are using.  If you select Samantha Upright in your character map, and then select Samantha Craft in  Design Space, for instance, the glyphs will not display properly.  You must select the exact same font in each program!

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The Easy Glyph Fonts  - Fonts With Tails Cheat Sheets

There are a variety of "Easy Glyph" fonts, the most popular being I Love Glitter.  For these fonts, you can add tails or extras just by typing [ ] or ( ), or sometimes *, etc.  I have cheat sheets for these fonts here: https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/09/fonts-with-tails.html

This is an example of an "Easy Glyph" or "Fonts with Tails" Cheat Sheet. 

I have a bunch of cheat sheets for fonts like this, here:

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2017/09/fonts-with-tails.html

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Maintype Is also the program I use to organize my fonts - see how I did that here:

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2019/05/how-to-manage-organize-all-of-those.html

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I do not install the vast majority of my fonts - I prefer not to have a cluttered font list.  Instead, I store my fonts in folders by type/use, and use maintype logic and Fontlab Pad [both free] to use my fonts, saving them as svgs and uploading the svgs to Design Space.

Here's a closer look at how I do that:

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2024/02/no-i-do-not-install-my-fonts-for-cricut.html

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Where To Find Free Fonts By Style, By Type, And By Holiday

The Crafting With Fields Of Heather Font Index

And Tips & Tricks For Properly Spacing, Adding Glyphs, Organizing, Making Shadow Text, and more!

https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2020/05/where-to-find-loads-of-free-fonts.html