How to Make Fonts in Photoshop

By Emilia Lamberto

Updated September 28, 2017

Certain fonts add a personal touch to websites, documents or images. Downloading fonts is easy enough, but creating your own font is as personal as it gets. Create your own font with Adobe Photoshop and have it generated and ready to use in minutes.

Open Adobe Photoshop and click "File" and "New." Adjust the image size to 375 pixels by 300 pixels.

Draw a letter on the canvas. Start with the capital letter A. Use a tablet or draw freely if you have a steady hand. If these options don't work, hand draw the letters on a sheet of paper and scan and upload them to Adobe Photoshop.

Copy the image to the clipboard by pressing "CTRL" + "A" and then "CTRL" + "C."

Open Fontographer. Click on "File" and select "New Font." Choose the letter you created and double-click on it.

Paste the image to the Fontographer canvas by pressing "CTRL" + "V." Resize the image so that it is the proper size in the square provided. Stretch the image by holding the shift key and dragging the corners of the image.

Create an outline of your letter by pressing "O" on your keyboard. In your layer palette, click on "Outline." Press "CTRL" + "SHIFT" + "T" to trace the image.

Save the image. Don't risk losing your work.

Adjust the tracing around the image to ensure that it's all around the letter. When using the autotracer, the image is not always completely traced. Use the dots around the image to help outline the letter.

Use the arrow tool and press "CTRL" + "8" to create a curved point instead of sharp edges, if desired.

Adjust the lines sticking out of the point. Press "CTRL" + "SHIFT" + "U" to place curve points. Move the points around for a more shapely letter.

Press "CTRL" + "K" to preview the letter.

Save the letter, close it and repeat the steps to create other letters.

Open all the characters you have created, highlight them and press "CTRL" + "SHIFT" + "K." This will auto-fix any problems with your font.

Click "Auto Kern" under "Metrics" to kern your font.

Under "Element," select "Font Info" and then "General." Type in a name for your font and add a description.

Set a vendor ID for your font under "Element," "Font Info" and then "OS/2 Data." Set fsType embedding to $0000.

Click on "File," "Generate Font Files" and generate a Truetype font. Rename the file to a .ttf file and upload the font to your computer.

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