SPQR Blues part XXVII

[spqrblues]

I don't think I like it—not even if I got a better font. Maybe if I got a better font. I'll go back to hand lettering for now.





How about this, then:

Comments

[squarkz.livejournal.com]

your handwriting is so lovely. the computer ruins everything.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I wonder if I can make a font out of my own handwriting? I didn't save any time by typing in the text and fiddling with it, which was one benefit I was hoping for. Easier to correct a mistake, yes, but there's always white-out :-)

[squarkz.livejournal.com]

i've seen ads where you could send in a writing sample and they'd make a font for you, but i've only seen such ads on the back of skymall and that level of advertising. so i'm not sure i'd recommend it.

[avram]

I’m pretty sure I read about a webcartoonist who did just that, but I can’t remember which one.

Trying with Comic Sans was probably a mistake. I think just about anything involving Comic Sans is a mistake. The first comment in this comment thread in the Scary-Go-Round forums has links to some good alternatives.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I'll look into the alternatives and the handwriting-to-font options. This gives me yet more projects to do while at work instead of working. I like.

[avram]

The second strip's lettering is better than the first, partly because the stroke weights are thinner, so they go better with the line weights you're using for the art.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Aha—that's a good observation. The bulky font just doesn't match.

[ktempest.livejournal.com]

there are programs, perhaps even free ones, that can do this for you...

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

The font renders better on the PC at work than in OSX so far, though.

Humbug!

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

(swoons) - I love fonts and typography. I would've got into the whole small press and old type printing "hobby"/obsession, except that I have a phobia about getting ink on my skin... For years I played with Lettraset (sp?) dry transfer lettering. Since affordable Windows & Macs came along, PCs allow me to be a virtual fontslut. (grin)

Dr. Phil

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

In the basement of my dorm we had a circa-1900 (1910, maybe?) printing press from the NY Times. Big beautiful black hulking thing of cast iron. Spent a summer down there setting type, slathering ink, swapping pages, spinning the wheel. I loved it. I remember the smell of it fondly. I had memorised the layout of the trays with the type in them (which must have some sort of specific name I am forgetting). I got a lot of ink on my skin. But it was so beautifully mechanical.

I played with Lettraset once upon a time, too! Great stuff. I labelled everything that stayed still long enough.

I guess this counts as a sort of spoiler for my own story:

There will be a printing press in the Herculaneum story eventually. Yes, a printing press. You may say: the deuce, you say. But I say: wait and see.

[tmcm.livejournal.com]

ack. That font has no soul. The balloons are too mechanical too.

[tmcm.livejournal.com]

nice drawing though.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Thank you, thank you much.

I agree, the font is absolutely soulless. It was the only one that wasn't serif, Verdana, or Arial that I have installed on this laptop, so I gave it a go. But, yeah, you're right. Bleh.

But, uhm, er, the balloons were drawn freehand. Er.

(p.s.-maybe I'll make a Trekmas tree this year)

[tmcm.livejournal.com]

try drawing the balloons an overlay and using a font like the comiccraft shannonwheeler font. Ha.

[(Anonymous)]

I have a font called Herculaneum... of all things. It might go very well with your comic. DRW.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Fontifier is a cheapie program (US$9) I found via one of the links someone suggested. But I'd still like to see the Herculaneum font :-)

[avram]

Here's Linotype's page on Herculaneum. It's an all-caps font, intended for display uses.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is a loverly font. I suppose it might be too much for modern comics-reading eyes, but I might try it sometime just to see how it looks in speech balloons.

Herculaneum

[(Anonymous)]

I once printed up the first five or so pages of a manuscript in Herculaneum. It looked absolutely great...simultaneously ancient and authoritative... but it was a bit hard on the eyes, and there no apostrophes... etc. If nothing else, you could do sineage in your Herculaneum in... Herculaneum. I would like to see it in the balloons for at least one strip. It might do good things. DRW.

[colleenaf.livejournal.com]

First panel is absolutely STUNNING and I got quite a laugh out of the "you think with your hair" joke AND a cliffhanger ending! Wooo this may be my favorite SPQR Blues yet!

Hmmm if you look back in the "webcomics" community I had a whole thing about fonts and someoen was explaining a program that does people's handwriting into fonts. I'll find it for you! I love your handlettering though!

[hieran.livejournal.com]

I love klio's handwriting too! If you can make a font out of your handwriting, then ... maybe ... but otherwise, your demanding public demands hand-lettering! :-)

I absolutely love this strip, too. The detail is fabulous. The columns on the building in the first panel are absolutely architectural. And Mus' lack of personal space cracks me up ever since amedia pointed it out. "You think with your hair" -- bwahahahaha!

Love it.
R.

I think with my hair, too! I am also a bear! And a little groggy.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I was going to add a wordy note about the first panel:

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

I love hand lettering. And yours is nice.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Thankee. I'm going to play with the fonts I created on fontifier.com (http://www.fontifier.com) (see image up above somewhere). It's my own handwriting, but it still doesn't quite look handlettered to me. Go figure.

[tekitsune.livejournal.com]

I've done both sides... handlettering and using the computer. It all depends on what one is comfortable with. If you want to look for a better comic style font, I highly recommend checking out Blambot (you can find them at http://www.blambot.com/ ). They have a wide wariety of comic fonts and a fairly decent set of free fonts. I've used their stuff in a few differnet projects.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Hi there :-)

Some of those Blambot fonts are very nice. There are only a couple that I think fit in with this comic, but I was pretty sleepy when I looked at them last night.

[dr-phil-physics.livejournal.com]

Gosh -- didn't this whole series begin with a cow on the top of the arch... and now we have a bear? Clearly the plot thickens! (It sounds like a job for professionals -- grin)

Dr. Phil

[kyleen66.livejournal.com]

I like Mus' haircut.

And Carol's art. And hard writing.

Hrm.

Kyleen is jealous. ::sigh::

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

Now that I've been playing with Fontifier, I'm really noticing the variations in my own writing.

I suppose I could spare yet another $9 to create yet another font--no no no, I have holiday packages to mail (and boy is it going to be expensive sending things out on the 20th and 21st).

[perilousknits.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Ho9liday Packages, you should be recieving some soon. Make sure your evil housemate doesn't hide them from you.