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Type design app · macOS · Windows

Make your owntypeface.

Draw, space, kern and export fonts. From the first stroke to the installed font, in one light program.

Download the free trialRead the tutorialv0.1.0 · no account · offline
The Fontista Edit view: the letter R being drawn with its nodes, metric lines and the properties panel
To begin

Three ways to start.

A blank page

Start from the empty Latin set: every cell shows a grey ghost you adopt or redraw.

A handwritten font

Set heights, slant and brush, then write your letters with a pen: they become clean curves.

Your scanned handwriting

Import a scanned specimen, or open an existing font: .glyphs, .ufo, .ttf, .otf…

01 — DRAW

True curves, first time.

Pen, pencil, pressure brush, knife, shapes. A freehand gesture becomes a clean curve outline, with nodes at the extremes.

  • Snap to metrics, guides, nodes and the grid
  • Star nodes: continuous curvature between two curves, recalculated for you
  • Ghosts and scans in the background to redraw over
The Font view: every glyph of the font in a grid, with category filters
02 — LAB

Two workshops to build letters differently.

A letter can be born from a grid of cells or from a stroke of melting matter. The result becomes a real outline of the font, editable like any other.

Modules workshop: an A of twenty round cells
ModulesRound, diamond or square cells, diagonal bridges, adjustable fillet. A square module gives a pixel font.
Liquid workshop: the same A drawn with three node strokes melted into one shape
LiquidNode strokes with their own radius that melt together: mass, melt, tension, wobble, mirror.
The Fontista Automatic kerning window, open above the current glyph
03 — SPACE AND KERN

A typeface's rhythm lives in its whites.

Tie sidebearings with keys (=H, =auto), let automatic spacing set the average white, then fix pair by pair.

  • Kerning by pairs and groups, proposed automatically
  • Collisions tab: every pair whose ink touches
  • Preview set by a real shaping engine
The journey

From the first stroke to the installed font.

  1. 01DrawThe letters, with a pen or with curves.
  2. 02SpaceSidebearings, widths and kerning.
  3. 03CheckPreview, collisions, specimen poster.
  4. 04ExportTTF, OTF, WOFF2, variable font.
04 — EXPORT AND OPEN

Your files, your formats.

A variable font in a single file, static instances in TrueType or PostScript, web packaging, UFO sources. Nothing goes through a server.

.ttf.otf.woff2variable.ufoalso opens .glyphs · .designspace
The export window: variable font, static instances, TrueType or PostScript, WOFF and WOFF2
Trial and licence

Try the whole workshop, for free.

The trial contains the whole workshop, without export. A licence, bought on sell.thinkspark.dev, unlocks font and poster export.

TRIAL · FREE
Fontista
  • Drawing, Lab, Preview, Collisions, Poster
  • Open .glyphs, .ufo, .ttf, .otf
  • Save as .fontista
  • No font or poster export
Download for MacDownload for Windows
Mac: Apple Silicon · Windows 10 and 11
LICENCE
Fontista licence
  • Everything in the trial
  • Export TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2, variable, UFO
  • Poster export: PDF, SVG, PNG
  • Command-line tools
Buy on sell.thinkspark.devMac App Store · soon
Enter the key in Help › Licence; it is checked on your computer.

Make your own typeface.

A ten-step tutorial with screenshots, and an FAQ, are at your disposal.

Download the trialTutorial and FAQ