Install fonts on the PC (Windows 7 etc) in the font control panel
On the PC you can install the font by placing the TTF font file into the control panel font section. You can use the fonts on the MAC as well but the install is slightly different
1) go to the start command in the far bottom left on the PC
example above shows the control panel option found on the start menu of windows 7
2) display the start menu
3) select the control panel option (generally on the right side menu of the start)
example above shows the control panel - the option selected being the fonts
You will see the control panel includes options such as the desktop gadgets, autoplay etc (though this varies from Windows XP, Windows Vista etc - the above example shows the control panel with windows 7)
example above shows a selection of the fonts displayed in the control panel of the PC - showing an example of some of the characters A b g
In the control panel you will see all the current fonts included on the PC system.
example above shows some of the graphicxtras fonts and some of the characters (the ones relating to the A b g as with the other fonts)
Above you can see the graphicxtras fonts, some of them anyway. The fonts are decorative designs and generally do not fit in the perfect display box so some of the designs are overlapped.
Right click one of the font icons in the control panel and you will see a number of options such as preview, print, delete etc
4) drag a true type font into the control panel 'font' section - if you are not using a privileged account you will be asked to enter your admin password.
Install fonts on the PC using the font viewer application tutorial
example above shows the install command displayed on right clicking a TTF file
To startup the windows font viewer you can right click the TTF and the font viewer is available as one of the options for the file.
On opening the font viewer you will see an option (below) to print as well as install the font. You will also notice a small shield beside the install and this means you have to enter an admin password to install the font (this is the same as installing an application such as Photoshop).
Fonts are 'system' wide and therefore require certain privileges to add them to the system resources.
example above shows the windows font viewer and the install command option (as well as print)
Accessing the font shape characters tutorial
Access the characters via the keyboard, simply press A B C etc, most of the characters are available via the keyboard either upper or lower case; use the charmap or font book etc utility to access the others or use the various number combos to activate them
1) Start application
2) Select the type / text tool (as you would type A B C etc in the document or application as normal)
3) Go to the font / type dropdown and select the size and the font (GX Arches etc) as you would Verdana or Times New Roman
4) Type A or B etc (the font sets come with a gallery showing the relation between the design and character)
example above shows the the graphicxtras font as they appear in a graphic software application with a small preview beside them (this varies from application)
The font menu dropdown is the basic way to access the font designs in most software but you will also find additional ways to access the character information such as in the case of Photoshop where the character / font information can also be modified via the window > character palette / panel.
Example above shows the character palette in Photoshop - change font, leading etc
The character palette in Photoshop gives you access to the font name, font style, font size, leading, vertical scale, color, baseline shift, horizontal scale and more. You can apply the settings to an individual selected character or multiple selected characters.
example above shows one of the characters / designs selected in Photoshop (change color etc)
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Installing fonts on a MAC / OS X
The fonts are supplied in a zip, you must first exapand the zip file using the unzip archive utility on the mac (this is an automatic process). If you have problems with unzipping zip files then I would suggest checking out the Smith Micro site and download the free stuffit expander application
1) right click the ttf file
The option to open the file will appear (this will the font book application
2) click the install font option at the bottom of the application
The font book will show the some of the designs included in the font. Also, by default (and this can be set in the font book preferences), validates the font before installing it.
The font is installed in your user font folder in your 'library' folder. If you right click and open the font inside the library (installed) then you will see a list of all the installed fonts - you can delete etc as required the fonts. You will find the graphicxtras font in the 'user' section of font book.
You can also preview and re-validate the font in font book. Updated: January 2nd 2012
Corel ® Painter / Text tool
Fonts are a great source of designs in any applications (well, most) - they can be used to great effect in Painter. Access the font designs (from graphicxtras) via the text tool in Painter 12, 11, 10 etc - the examples below are for Painter 9
Select the text tool and then select the font and the size for the font
Painter's choose font dialog
Go to the text palette in Painter. Set the color of the design via the main color option in the Painter toolbox
Example above shows the text tool palette allowing for the size, leading, tracking, curve, blur, composite method etc for the design to be set
example - dinosaur text in Painter. Blur etc as required
Once you have created the design you can always drop the shape and use with various effects such as surface texture or you could use the wonderful paint tools in Painter to add to the design. Added January 5th 2012
example showing dinosaur font design flattened (not literally) and apply surface texture effect used in Painter
Characters and fonts - combining designs in graphics software
The characters can be used either as a single character or multiple characters. So you can use A (which might be a star or circle design) or you can use B (which might be a rounded star design etc) but you can also combine them just by typing A B together. It might, however, be better to use them as separate layers so type 'A' and then click the tick mark or OK and then type B away from the A character. You can always just move the design closer or further apart (or combine them as a group)
example above shows the various character designs on different layers in Photoshop
3D software and the use of fonts
Use the text in 3D software such as Typestry or Carrara or 3D Studio Max or various plugins such as Hot Text or 3D words. The characters can be modified by the 3D menu in Photoshop Extended.
1) select text layer
2) 3D > Repousse > text layer
You can then add materials, depth etc to the text layer design.
example above shows a character with 3D extrude applied in Photoshop Extended
Fonts in Paint Shop Pro tutorial
The fonts are a great source for designs in Paint Shop Pro. They can be converted to PSP preset shapes. You can apply materials to the designs such as gradients and patterns and textures as well as a solid fill color.
If you want to use a shape design as a vector then the fonts are the only way you can add fresh new vector content to PSP.
If you try and open a vector file such as an EPS file then the EPS file is rasterized.
1) Open document or new
2) Go to the tools palette
3) Select text tool
4) The bar at the top of PSP will change, select the font, the size etc as required
5) Select a fill color etc
6) Click document in required location with the text tool
7) Type text as you would A B C
8) Click apply
If you wish to save the design as a Paint Shop Pro preset shape
9) Right click current selected shape
10) Convert text to curves (as single shape)
You may wish to rename the shape to something unique
11) Go to the layer palette
12) Select the vector design you have just created
13) Double click the name (s) displayed and rename to something unique
14) Set stroke etc
15) OK
You can now easily save this preset shape via the file menu to a preset shape for future use
16) File > Export > Shape
On exporting the shape the design is saved as a PSP shape file. The shape will now be accessible as soon as you re-startup Paint Shop Pro.
The shape files can be found in the file > preferences > file locations if you wish to delete the PSP shape files.
Fonts - basic use
The fonts on graphicxtras are the same as any font you have on your machine: Verdana, Times New Roman, etc.
Our fonts are decorative / designs and can be used with many different software such as Word, Apple Pages, Keynote, etc.
Editing the source font files tutorial ?
A specialist tool is required to edit true type fonts, you should be able to find a free application or two on the web but my personal favorite application for TTF files is 'FontLab studio 5' and this can be found on the FontLab website. Fontlab includes many wonderful features to manipulate text in 100s of ways and it can edit TTF fonts, export designs to AI and EPS format and much more.
There are many websites devoted to fonts and all the features of true type / postscript etc fonts. Another good application for font development is 'Fontographer' and that was my main application for many years as it was part of the old Macromedia studio set (along with Freehand, etc).
You can also edit fonts in CorelDRAW (I never found that the easiest of application to edit fonts with though) |
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