Hand-written font style

**mg.architect** · 01 June 2006, 01:29 AM

Is there a way to make text appear as if it were written with soft lead or perhaps charcoal? I've tried transparancy, blurring, fills, and the plug-ins to no avail. I also have spent hours searching this site but as yet have not located such a topic. I've found plastic text, gel text, gold and silver text but not what I seek.

I have several "hand" type fonts that look good when used but they are all uniformly black. Their use as a hand lettered font would be more convincing if they had the texture of lead on linen (slightly blurred edges and tiny specks missing).

[There is irony here: using a computer to produce a hand-written look. Go figure.]

Is this possible?

many thanks,
mg

**jamesmc** · 01 June 2006, 02:04 AM

I suppose you could do it a couple of ways.

Make your own fill, like charcoal, save it to a new folder, then import that fill to the Fill Gallery. Convert your text to shape and use your Charcoal fill. Text is so tiny though, not sure how that would work.

Or fill a shape with your charcoal fill and create a brush with that shape. This make take some trial and error how to get the "nib" proper looking for handwriting. It would be better with a wacom tablet, because you could use the pen to handwrite your message. However it can be done with a mouse if your patient.

Probably another or better way that someone already has done.

**Soquili** · 01 June 2006, 02:57 AM

MG,

If you have a drawing tablet you can use the Freehand Tool and a natural media brush. There are also fonts that you can use.

**mg.architect** · 01 June 2006, 03:27 AM

I think I found it. I haven't printed the results out for a visual critique though.

Type the text using a hand lettered style font (like Solquili shows)
Select the text
Select transparency tool
Select bitmap from the 1st dropdown
Select bitmap name > Bark 3
Apply as a transparency.

It looks close to being right on the screen. Tomorrow I'll see how it looks printed. May need to tweak it some...

mg

**gwpriester** · 01 June 2006, 12:53 PM

Desrel is an excellent font that looks like handwriting and it is free from DaFont.com.

Here is what I would do to make the font look like pencil.

Gary

**gwpriester** · 01 June 2006, 01:18 PM

And Charcoal. Charcoal would look best on a charcoal paper background.

Gary

**mg.architect** · 01 June 2006, 01:24 PM

Thank-you for the helpful suggestions. I'll try them out today.
mg

**mg.architect** · 02 June 2006, 06:12 PM

Just in case anyone needs them...
There are some nice hand style fonts at www.autofx.com. Go to the Download Software menu drop down and select Free Designer Fonts. The Hand Script collection is quite good. You do have to register with a valid email but it is worth it.

mg

**Ross Macintosh** · 02 June 2006, 07:28 PM

mg -- The attached image shows how I do it. In context I think the result can look pretty good -- here's an example. The Architext font by my friend Grant Marshall is available here. Although I use the 'Jiggle' filter any filter that introduces a swirl or ripple could probably be used -- the trick is to use very minimal settings.

Regards, Ross