![]() We embedded them into all of our versions of Balsamiq and began testing with users, and adding more characters. We did a lot of tweaking of the diacritics and normalizing of line weights as a first pass, generated the oblique versions in TypeTool and exported as TTF fonts. Creating the TTF filesĪfter all the glyphs were drawn, I converted the TTF files for editing in FontLab's TypeTool, another tool for modest font editing. I was also doing a lot of testing of iPad styli at the time, and settled on using the Griffin Stylus. This was the longest part of the process, and took several months. I began by drawing each of the glyphs in both regular and bold weights using iFontMaker for iPad, a really easy to use app with editing tools and guides for drawing letter forms. I found two tools that helped make the process easy. Then I started looking for a tool that would allow me to draw the glyphs cleanly, while still retaining some of that hand-drawn feeling. So I began practicing my lettering, which is actually pretty neat to begin with. ![]() While the comic typeface made the point of low-fidelity unmistakable, we know that using it comes with a stigma akin to wearing socks under flip flops to a meeting with the Queen of England, and we didn't want to impose that on our friends. If you haven't used Balsamiq before, you can try Balsamiq Cloud to see the font in action. So here's the process Mike, the hand of Balsamiq Sans, undertook to make it happen. We thought it would be fun to tell you how we made the font, in case anyone wanted to go out and make their own. Now we're making the font available for free for anyone to use on their desktop or in web and software applications, as long as it is not in a tool that competes with Balsamiq's. The main thing we wanted to do was create a font we could embed that had a hand-drawn look, but was cleaner, and less distracting compared to a comic font. It was exciting and fun, and got us out of Comic Sans land - he manually created 942 glyphs! So Mike started a coffee-fueled journey into a space we've never gone before, creating a handwritten font. ![]() It's hard to take Comic Sans seriously, although, for a lot of people that's the point of using it. The fonts we previously used in Balsamiq (Chalkboard for Mac, Comic Sans for Windows) were problematic for us from a technical standpoint, and for our customers when it came time to do design reviews. We're now making the font free for you to use outside of Balsamiq as well! You can download or embed the font via Google Fonts! Maybe you've already met? It's the font that's used in wireframes made with all versions of Balsamiq since version 2.1.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |