The first step in organizing my fonts was to create my own categories. These do not need to make sense to anyone else, they are strictly for my own reference. They may not technically be the correct description of the font. That doesn't matter. This step of the organizing process is all about how I see the fonts. Because I may not be able to find them if I have to remember terms like serif. :-) Your categories may be completely different! Think about what works for you. I'm including a break down of my categories, along with visuals of some of the fonts I have in each category, below.
Each category gets its own folder. I don't hesitate to put the same font in more than one folder - font files are generally pretty small and do not take up much space.
====================
CATEGORIZING MY FONTS
====================
The Categories you use need to make sense to YOU, so only use mine as a suggestion!
Banners are fonts that have banners around them.
Basic Fonts are.. well, basic every day fonts.
I have these labeled as Comic fonts - this is where I typically store my fonts that I think of as "Boy Fonts" - fonts that work well for the grandsons designs. But it's more than that. They are typically thicker style non script fonts.
Duos are fonts that come in pairs - typically a plain print version, and a coordinating script version. When working on a design, sometimes it's really nice to just see fonts that were designed to go together, rather than try to mix and match myself.
Some of my fonts come with entire files of "extras". These are dingbat files that work as cut files, even though they are not svgs. I store these in a folder named Flourishes So many great design elements in there!
This is a very niche category. That's ok, I can have as many categories as I want. :-) Flower Names are fonts I have specifically for making a flower out of a name, most frequently used on tumblers. The glyphs for these fonts are flower heads and leaves.
Easy Glyph Fonts
For most fonts with glyphs, you need a character map. But there's another whole category fonts that I call "easy glyphs" - for those, no character map is needed. You just add ( ) or [ ] - and pretty extras appear. I keep a list of these type of fonts, with cheat sheets for using them, here:
Fancy Glyphs simply means a character map is needed to add the glyphs.
See the text on the bottom left - the word glyphs? That's the SAME font. The first time I just typed it, the second time I added glyphs. Not all fonts have glyphs. The ones that do, I put in this folder.
Here's a step by step for how to use font glyphs:
Extrude is a font offset. For the first few years I used a Cricut, Design Space did not have an offset option. To create a "shadow" layer behind text, I used a layered font - one with an "extrude" layer. I also keep the fonts with a layered outline in this category too.
Find a printable cheat sheet of font terms here:
Ligatures are like glyphs, but they are automatic. You do nothing but type, and the glyphs will appear based on certain letter combinations. GT Herina and Garlic Butter are two of my favorite fonts, because they often look fancy with absolutely no effort at all from me.
Unfortunately, because Design Space does not actually read fonts properly, they will not appear when using these fonts in that app. I use fontlab pad - type my text in FLP [it's free] and then save it as an svg to upload to Design Space.
More about using Fontlab Pad
Fonts that were specifically designed to be monograms
For more about how to use monogram fonts, where to find free ones, and how to make your own split monograms:
Script fonts
This is seperate from glyph fonts, but it does not mean the fonts do not HAVE glyphs. It does actually, often mean that, but it could also be a font where it has glyphs but I don't really ever use the glyphs with it. Often this is where the "demo" fonts I download from dafont go. When you download a font from Dafont, it is frequently a demo version - the demo version does not include the glyphs. While I have a Creative Fabrica Membership, I've been going through all of my "demo", and "sample" fonts, and checking to see if there is a full version on CF that I can download for free while I am a member.
Single Line Fonts
These are not all "True" single line [although most are] - but any font that I have tested with the pens and liked how it wrote [without bubbling] when using the pens in cricut.
I've tested HUNDREDS of fonts over the years. In a variety of pen sizes. See the FREE options I've found, here:
Stencil Fonts
Fonts that work when cutting text out of a card front [the centers stay attached, no little pieces!] or when making a stencil.
Find a list of free stencil fonts here:
And lastly, the Unique fonts. These are fonts that are limited in purpose - they are overly specific.
I never install these. I don't install much, actually - I try to keep my installed fonts to things I use a lot in word processing programs, or that I really use enough in Design Space to make it worth having them installed. Everything else I use in fontlab pad, saving it as an svg , or png, and using it that way.
=======================
Step Two -
Importing these all into High Logic Maintype Font Management
[FREE version]
This is an amazing post. Thank you so much for all this effort. Much appreciated.
ReplyDelete