I started designing type about a few years ago, and Nimx Foundry has licensed Scat, Scat Dingbats, Jitterbat, Jitterbug, Holiday Mix, and Faces (see examples below). I've also designed some typefaces that are currently in need of a good home at a foundry (click on the Orphan Fonts typeface below). If you're interested in licensing my orphan typefaces, drop me an email.

I started designing typefaces to teach myself more about Corel 4. There's something very basic and clean about designing with only black and white. Designing type forces you to make very clear design decisions.

As with almost every design project, I start a typeface design by looking at stuff. Lots of stuff from lots of places. It could be almost anything that has visual strength - rewatching Fantasia, playing with a grab bag full of stuff from Archie McPhee, (home of high quality rubber chickens), looking at the Duc de Berry's Book of Hours, a book of sketches from Charles Rennie Mackintosh, rereading Where the Wild Things Are.

Then I usually sketch. I'd like to report that I work from an antique mahogany desk overlooking the Pacific surf, surrounded by classical music, but it's usually more like sitting on a couch, balancing paper and my youngest on my lap while we watch the cartoons. I sketch out the design on graph paper, and ink the sketch, and scan the sketch into the computer. I still clean up all my type designs in CorelDraw, export them as TrueType, and reimport them into Fontographer for all the final spacing, etc.

View an example of Jitterbug

View an example of Jitterbat

View an example of Scat

View an example of Scat Dingbats

View an example of the Holiday Mix

View an example of Faces

View an example of Nature

View an example of some fonts in need of a good home

Okay, so you've decided to become rich and famous and design your own typefaces. I don't mean to disillusion anyone, but the most I've ever made in royalties from a typeface in a month has been about enough to take my kids to McDonald's for dinner. The latest catalog from Precision Type had samples from twelve thousand different typefaces. Designing type and licensing type can be a lot of fun and a very useful skill, but not a great way to make a living. For more on this topic, and a (nearly complete) listing of US foundries, dig up a copy of Publish magazine's November issue or browse some of the type links here at mccannas.com.

Okay, you've got Corel, and you'd like to make your own typeface. Corel's manual has only a handful of pages to help you start. View an example to read more about using CorelDraw to create fonts.

Having problems exporting the typeface you've created? There are two common problems in exporting from Corel. Find out how to correct them.

Still having problems? Please call Corel Tech support, not me. Thank you.

Home | Email