I hate font hunting/graphic design
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I am sure that there are tons of fonts out there to get at what I want but I feel like I am striking out.
I'm working on a card game project tentatively called "Fancy Animals" and I need a font to fit it. The title will be very fancy but I will need a more readable font for the rule book--but I don't want to just go with Times New Roman or something.
A paid font would not be out of the question but cheap/free is always better. I'm kicking around the idea of farming out the design of the name to a free lance site but I keep thinking I should be able to come up with something good.
Any ideas on a fancy font?
Here is one of the (mostly done) portraits that go with the game (my avatar is going to be modified to be one of the other portraits):
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Oooh, a font question. I do myself generally invest in paid fonts as much as I can afford to, because they're worth the investment, but there are decent free fonts out there too... At first I thought you were asking for suggestions for the title font - and I was going to suggest Rechtman as a free choice. But re-reading I think you are asking for a font for the smallest text...in which case there must be so many to choose from. I'd try a traditional-looking serif font for that.... Taking a quick look at www.fontsquirrel.com (which collects all fonts free for commercial use)... there's one called 'Linden Hill' which I quite like, to match your vintage frame and traditional look. Then if you wanted a slightly bigger one for sub-headings in the rule book, then Rechtman might still work for that - it's fancy but still very readable. I did wonder about Little Lord Fontleroy too (again fancy but readable), though it's quite distinctive and you might hate it.
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@mattramsey I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you, but holy cow this is awesome!!
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@mattramsey Btw, did you paint that border or did you get it from somewhere? I'd like something similar, but in an art nouveau style for the tarot set I'm doing. I'm looking at having to hand draw it on 78 cards though - ugh.
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@Dulcie I was seeking advice on both actually--I wasn't very clear. I will check out all those suggestions!
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@amberwingart I used a reference but I painted it--then I used the reference as an overlay layer in order to punch up the color and add some of that "grainy" detail. It's not 100% done--I have a couple spots to clean up.
The nice thing about digital is that I really only had to paint sections of this and then stitch it together. I can't imagine having to do the whole thing traditionally, let alone 78 copies.
Glad you like it!
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@mattramsey nice!
Try http://www.dafont.com/ too ( @Dulcie ). On DaFont, when you go into a category, you can type your text in the "Preview" box and under "more options" choose which type of fonts you want to see (Public Domain, Free, Paid, etc.)
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@QuietYell The only problem I have with dafont is that most (all?) the fonts are actually pretty bad if you need to use them as they are--i.e., no tweaking.
I could go with them for the main logo because I'll probably be painting over it anyway. But for the rules text and box text I've been striking out trying to find something of quality.
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@mattramsey I see - I haven't had issues with dafont, but as I think about it, I don't know if I have ever used a font from there for anything other than pseudo-logotypes or headlines. I'll have to keep an eye out for what you mentioned
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Have you tried Font Forge? When I was doing a lot of graphic design, I used them a lot - they have thousands of good ones and a lot of them are free.
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@amberwingart no I haven't--I'll check them out
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This is absolutely awesome. If the whole game is like that, I am booking a copy right now!
Are you using Adobe CC? If so, you should be aware that a pretty large collection of commercial fonts is included in the license via a web application called "Typekit". There is a menu item somewhere called "Add font from Typekit", which leads you to the Webportal where you can select fonts and add them to your cloud.
I am not a font expert myself - but I have a lot of awesome designer friends
Normally, they are all too happy to give free advice (especially on fonts, which is a designer^s pride and joy). So it is worth asking, if you know somebody... -
@smceccarelli ha ha thanks! it will be all that style. It's a rummy type game (main mechanic based on Rummikube) so if you don't like that you may not like this game. However if you just want it for the art...
I do not have CC (I have CS6)--don't get me started on Adobe's marketing idea with CC, it won't be pretty.
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@mattramsey Yes, I know how your reaction to CC is because I had the same when they launched it
But, I was on CC in the office (where my company pays) and after using it for 3 years now, I am sold....Being on CC has led me to learn to use InDesign, AfterEffects (awesome software!!), Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, the MediaEncoder, and a bunch of other minor things that I would not have approached before. It has accelerated my career in many ways and given me familiarity with all sorts of workflows that are important also for the illustrator job. The way the whole software works together and with the cloud is a boon for a team environment and I can see how it helps our efficiency in many measurable and not measurable ways...
So I decided for a private CC licence when I could not get the educational package anymore at home. I am not advertising for Adobe, just saying that I also did not believe in the cost-benefit of CC and I changed my mind about that after actually using it. -
@smceccarelli I would absolutely love to be able to use InDesign and it'd be fun to try out the different video editing and website editing programs....I just cannot get around not owning the PS program and although I can see the silver linings in their decision (the options you mentioned), I'm positive they did it, not to help the community, but to line their pockets (not that I'm against companies making money!).
I imagine the execs saw all this massive amount of work being created with their product (and saw how much pirating was hitting their bottom line) and decided that going with a subscription was the best option because they knew that for artists to continue to earn their living/engage in their hobby they'd have to keep coming back and plunk down their money.
Most people will be fine with spending much more than they ever would like as long as it's done in small increments over time.
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@mattramsey Yes, I am sure there is a lot of positive bottom line behind their decision. A lot of software companies are going the same way now, especially all that have cloud-based solutions. Some of the reason has probably to do with the costs of cloud storage and management, which are non-negligible and continuous. I would still tend to defend Adobe because the amount of services and support they offer as part of the CC license is really massive (including huge cloud storage and a variety of web-hosting services - I can for example share InDesign files as flipbooks stored online). The release cycles are super short and the upgrades are sometimes so big that I believe in a short time-span there will be a noticeable efficiency gap between designers on CC and designers on CS6. There already is for some of the video software. Photoshop for illustration work is probably still going to remain comparable for some time - but for other types of work the advantages are considerable.
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@smceccarelli said in I hate font hunting/graphic design:
@mattramsey Photoshop for illustration work is probably still going to remain comparable for some time
And that's the main thing--all I really can see myself ever needing (for illustration) is the program as is. And to be honest, I don't need over half the bells and whistles CS6 provides now.
I actually felt offended by CC and I can't really think of another company that has made me feel that way. It put a really bad taste in my mouth. But I know other people like the business model.
