{"id":11229,"date":"2013-12-06T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T20:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/?p=11229"},"modified":"2024-03-27T01:50:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T08:50:02","slug":"how-to-make-any-font-a-handmade-font","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/how-to-make-any-font-a-handmade-font","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Any Font a Handmade Font"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Design and technology are getting more and more refined, allowing graphic designers to streamline and speed up their process. However, people are still enamored with handmade art, lettering and illustration. I have deep respect for those fantastic artists who can create beautiful works with a pen, pencil, brush, or piece of chalk. To me, handmade art is both appealing and inspiring.<br \/>\nAs a result of our fascination with handmade art and lettering, there are many fonts on the market that come ready-made with a handmade look that can provide a fun, easy, and attractive way to &#8220;hand-letter&#8221; our designs. Today I&#8217;m going to demonstrate a quick and easy way to make any typed lettering look handmade in Adobe Illustrator. Thanks for following along!<br \/>\n<strong>What you&#8217;ll need:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Basic to intermediate knowledge of Adobe Illustrator (I&#8217;ll be designing in CS4.)<\/li>\n<li>Any fun font of your choice. I don&#8217;t recommend choosing a font with lots and lots of detail.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nWe&#8217;ll be creating the effect on the word &#8220;PEACE.&#8221;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11462\" alt=\"Handmade-Font-Tutorial\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014527\/Handmade-Font-Tutorial-560x372-1.jpg.webp\" width=\"560\" height=\"372\">\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Create a new document in Illustrator.<\/li>\n<li>Pick a font and create your lettering.&Acirc;&nbsp;I&#8217;m going to be creating a holiday card, and I&#8217;ve used two different fonts that I want to match more:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11447\" alt=\"before\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014550\/before-560x366-1.png.webp\" width=\"560\" height=\"366\"><\/p>\n<p> The lovely <a style=\"font-style: normal\" title=\"Melany Lane Complete\" href=\"http:\/\/crtv.mk\/cQYG\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Melany Lane<\/a> is a delightful script, subtly artisanal, but the other font, Otama, is decidedly clean-cut. I&#8217;d like it to take on a more rustic appearance.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use the tool palette to remove both fill and stroke from the lettering.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11450\" alt=\"nofill\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014553\/nofill.png.webp\" width=\"56\" height=\"55\"><\/p>\n<p> You can&#8217;t see the lettering anymore, and your appearance palette looks like this:<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11468\" alt=\"appearance1\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014558\/appearance1.jpg.webp\" width=\"234\" height=\"216\">\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>On the bottom left of the appearance palette, click &#8220;Add New Stroke.&#8221; I&#8217;m going to make my stroke a nice, healthy, rounded 5 points.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11451\" alt=\"resultwithstroke\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014622\/resultwithstroke-560x370-1.png.webp\" width=\"560\" height=\"370\"><\/p>\n<p> You can control stroke settings easily by using the stroke palette.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11472\" alt=\"stroke1\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014630\/stroke1.jpg.webp\" width=\"336\" height=\"141\">\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>With the stroke selected on the appearance palette, I&#8217;m now going to roughen the lettering a little bit by going to Effect &gt; Distort &amp; Transform &gt; Roughen. Here are the settings I used:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11452\" alt=\"roughen1\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014646\/roughen1.png.webp\" width=\"407\" height=\"241\"><\/p>\n<p> Play around until you&#8217;ve got an effect you&#8217;re excited about.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11469\" alt=\"resultwithroughen\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014706\/resultwithroughen-560x164-1.png.webp\" width=\"560\" height=\"164\">\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Great! Now, we&#8217;re going to use the appearance palette to add a fill to our lettering. The &#8220;add new fill&#8221; button is right next to the &#8220;add new stroke&#8221; button. Now the appearance palette looks like this:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11445\" alt=\"appearance2\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014719\/appearance2.png.webp\" width=\"230\" height=\"289\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11470\" alt=\"resultwithfill\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014738\/resultwithfill-560x165-1.png.webp\" width=\"560\" height=\"165\"><\/p>\n<p>\nHonestly, your lettering would look amazing if it were left as it is now. However, I&#8217;m going to take it a bit further and create a scribbled effect to make it look more authentically handmade.\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>With your new fill selected in the appearance palette, apply a scribble effect by going to Effect &gt; Stylize &gt; Scribble. Here are the settings I used:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11453\" alt=\"scribble1\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014802\/scribble1-560x369-1.png.webp\" width=\"560\" height=\"369\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11473\" alt=\"resultwithscribble1\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014823\/resultwithscribble1-560x159-1.png.webp\" width=\"560\" height=\"159\"><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I&#8217;m now going to put the last finishing touch on my lettering. In the appearance palette, I&#8217;m going to duplicate the fill I just scribbled by choosing the &#8220;Duplicate Selected Item&#8221; button on the bottom.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11475\" alt=\"appearance3\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014830\/appearance3.jpg.webp\" width=\"231\" height=\"289\"><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Now I&#8217;ve got two of the same scribbled fills. On the top one, I&#8217;ll click &#8220;Scribble&#8221; to edit the effect. I&#8217;m going to change the angle of the scribble effect very slightly (10 degrees or less) to achieve a more authentic colored in look. Here are my settings:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11454\" alt=\"scribble2\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014854\/scribble2-560x369-1.png.webp\" width=\"560\" height=\"369\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11476\" alt=\"finalresultPEACE\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014915\/finalresultPEACE-560x160-1.png.webp\" width=\"560\" height=\"160\"><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wow! It looks great, and it&#8217;s even editable! I can change colors, effects, stroke weights, and more, all from the appearance palette. I can even change my lettering. I&#8217;m so excited about this effect that I&#8217;m going to save it as a graphic style so I can use it for future projects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11477\" style=\"color: #000000;font-style: normal\" alt=\"graphicstyles\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014919\/graphicstyles.jpg.webp\" width=\"215\" height=\"204\"><\/p>\n<p>\nYou&#8217;ve just created a fantastic hand drawn effect. Thanks for following along! I hope you have a great holiday season.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-11462\" alt=\"Handmade-Font-Tutorial\" src=\"https:\/\/d3ui957tjb5bqd.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2013\/12\/27014928\/Handmade-Font-Tutorial-560x372-1-1.jpg.webp\" width=\"560\" height=\"372\"><br \/>\n<em>Beth Rufener, the shop owner of&Acirc;&nbsp;<a title=\"Ornaments of Grace\" href=\"http:\/\/crtv.mk\/fRUo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ornaments of Grace<\/a>, is a wife, mom of two, graphic designer, amateur photographer, aspiring foodie, occasional musician, and avid collector of fonts. She and her family live outside of Rittman, Ohio.<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Design and technology are getting more and more refined, allowing graphic designers to streamline and speed up their process. However, people are still enamored with handmade art, lettering and illustration. I have deep respect for those fantastic artists who can create beautiful works with a pen, pencil, brush, or piece of chalk. To me, handmade [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[101,129,384,418,440,521,697,698,699,48],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-11229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-tutorial","tag-lettering","tag-adobe-illustrator","tag-hand-drawn","tag-vintage","tag-handmade","tag-illustrator","tag-rustic","tag-text-effects","tag-font"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Make Any Font a Handmade Font - Creative Market Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/creativemarket.com\/blog\/how-to-make-any-font-a-handmade-font\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Make Any Font a Handmade Font\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Design and technology are getting more and more refined, allowing graphic designers to streamline and speed up their process. 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