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 Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 2:49 pm
Can anyone give me suggestions on making runes/fonts for creating languages?
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Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 2:58 pm
Uh... well I could give you an example of my own runes that I made into my own font, if you'd like. No better way to show than by example.  Those are my runes for the Shadaam language. I just made those by hand and scanned them onto the computer. Then I used FontCreator to insert the runes into a usable font. I think Forgedawn posted a link to a free trial version of FontCreator, so you might like to consider looking into that.
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Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 3:39 pm
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Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 8:15 pm
I know how to create writing systems, but fonts elude me. DDD:
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Eccentric Iconoclast Captain
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Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:58 pm
I recommend Softy Font Editor. It's shareware, costs only $25 to register, but you can access the whole functionality for free. It creates both TrueType (.TTF) and Bitmap (.FON) fonts. For modern computers you'll want to make your conlang alphabet as a TrueType font. It takes a little while to get the hang of drawing glyphs (characters), but after a while it's easy. It's best to start with a template font. You can copy your computer's Times Roman font into the Softy directory (from C:/Windows/Fonts) and open it with Softy Font Editor so that you can see how a real font is built. Then you can start tweaking and replacing the characters until you have your own alphabet. Save it and copy it into the C:/Windows/Fonts directory, and then you can use any word processing program to type and print documents in your own alphabet! I made a font of my alphabet. Here's a graphic. The top row is my alphabet, the middle row is the corresponding IPA symbols, and the bottom row is how I transliterate them into English. 
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:32 pm
For fonts, I use FontLab Studio 5. It's like the Photoshop of font software, and it's rather difficult to use and get used to, but it gets the job done well. I think it's supposed to be very expensive, but I got it for free, if ya know what I mean (I'm trying not to violate the TOS, here...).
The hardest part of making fonts is getting a strange set of characters to match up to the English keyboard, so I often have to get a little creative. Also, I've yet to figure out how to make neatly scalable fonts that can be used even at small font sizes, as most of the ones I make start to blur when below font size 14, so they aren't fit for actually typing documents or other text, just decorative stuff or examples.
As for actual runes, I don't really have any advice but to check out other rune sets like Tolkien's or real runes.
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:05 am
Are you asking on how to do it on a computer, or just in general? In general: What I do is take a letter and simplify it until it makes sense to only me. Like this: See, I take the letter and cut it down to bare minimum. Then I'll take those, and use them for a while. Once I get used to them, I twist them up a little, change them a bit. After a couple rounds, they bear NO resemblance to their original characters. But they still make sense to you!
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 7:28 am
The way I've been doing it is to pick a word (preferably a noun, they're easier to draw) in my language that begins with the letter in question, draw what it represents, then simplify the drawing until I can do it within a second, with only a few strokes... as far as I'm aware, a lot of real alphabets developed that way, although a lot slower.
The main disadvantage is that you need to already have a pretty large vocabulary, since every letter needs to have at least one word that starts with it...
Thanks for the link, Reuben... I'll have a shot at making a font for my alphabet, if I ever finish it...
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:24 pm
DavidGemmell The way I've been doing it is to pick a word (preferably a noun, they're easier to draw) in my language that begins with the letter in question, draw what it represents, then simplify the drawing until I can do it within a second, with only a few strokes... as far as I'm aware, a lot of real alphabets developed that way, although a lot slower. The main disadvantage is that you need to already have a pretty large vocabulary, since every letter needs to have at least one word that starts with it... Thanks for the link, Reuben... I'll have a shot at making a font for my alphabet, if I ever finish it... You could cheat, and draw a picture in ENGLISH. Siince, when you're done, it'll be in-recognizable anyway. :3 Cheating is bad fun!
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 3:29 pm
I made a neography based on binary where the symbol can be translated directly into the numerical value for the corresponding letter.
Unfortunately, I have since changed the alphabet so many times that the symbols don't correspond to the correct letters.
I started out with a bunch of scratches and then screwed with them so that all of the combinations looked like Chinese calligraphy.
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Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 8:23 pm
Magenterange DavidGemmell The way I've been doing it is to pick a word (preferably a noun, they're easier to draw) in my language that begins with the letter in question, draw what it represents, then simplify the drawing until I can do it within a second, with only a few strokes... as far as I'm aware, a lot of real alphabets developed that way, although a lot slower. The main disadvantage is that you need to already have a pretty large vocabulary, since every letter needs to have at least one word that starts with it... Thanks for the link, Reuben... I'll have a shot at making a font for my alphabet, if I ever finish it... You could cheat, and draw a picture in ENGLISH. Siince, when you're done, it'll be in-recognizable anyway. :3 Cheating is bad fun! ...I have no idea how that failed to occur to me. xd Would be tricky for sounds that aren't in English, but I'll try it if I get too stuck.
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 9:06 am
DavidGemmell Magenterange DavidGemmell The way I've been doing it is to pick a word (preferably a noun, they're easier to draw) in my language that begins with the letter in question, draw what it represents, then simplify the drawing until I can do it within a second, with only a few strokes... as far as I'm aware, a lot of real alphabets developed that way, although a lot slower. The main disadvantage is that you need to already have a pretty large vocabulary, since every letter needs to have at least one word that starts with it... Thanks for the link, Reuben... I'll have a shot at making a font for my alphabet, if I ever finish it... You could cheat, and draw a picture in ENGLISH. Siince, when you're done, it'll be in-recognizable anyway. :3 Cheating is bad fun! ...I have no idea how that failed to occur to me. xd Would be tricky for sounds that aren't in English, but I'll try it if I get too stuck. You can always do something like using "excited" for "x" You can use a main sound that doesn't start the word. So like, a "zh" (That cool "hard-sh" sound") could be like, "bei ge." Sorry, that's the only English word I can think of that has a "zh" in it, but you get the idea. Oh, also, I always throw in a few radicals that have no direct corralation, they just look cool. So you could always do THAT for the hard sounds.
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:49 am
Magenterange You can always do something like using "excited" for "x" You can use a main sound that doesn't start the word. At least that one had occured to me. xd Magenterange So like, a "zh" (That cool "hard-sh" sound") could be like, "bei ge." Sorry, that's the only English word I can think of that has a "zh" in it, but you get the idea. "Leisure", "measure", "pleasure", etc.? (I like that sound too.) Magenterange Oh, also, I always throw in a few radicals that have no direct corralation, they just look cool. You mean just coming up with a random symbol? I think I've semi-done that - so far the only words I have beginning with a 'Z' mean "blue", "six" and "to be" (none of which are particularly drawable), so I just drew a symbol with six lines for that letter. sweatdrop
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 11:14 am
My favourite word with the "zh" sound in it is "azure."
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Eccentric Iconoclast Captain
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 11:56 am
Eccentric Iconoclast My favourite word with the "zh" sound in it is "azure." I deem that the standard example word for zh... razz I just say "Hey, it's the french j! whee!" and sometimes people say ll and y that way in Spanish, but it's more common to EITHER use y or english-j sound. j is pronounced like that in Portuguese, I'm pretty sure. Either that, or I *really* suck at portuguese. We have determined that I pronounce French with a terrible Portuguese accent... even though I don't speak either language. Muwahaha.
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