How many people here recreate fonts?

[damonCA21]

I know we get lots of posts on here asking for a particular font, which can obviously save a lot of time, but curious about how many of us recreate fonts for logos?
I know we can use AI based scanning and conversion etc.. but these normally aren't very good with fonts.

I would have thought that being able to do this is pretty much a basic of signmaking graphics

A lot of my work tends to be doing this, and if a font can't be found then I always just recreate it from scratch as a vector. It seems this is a bit of a dying art though as not many people can do it?

I know we can use AI based scanning and conversion etc.. but these normally aren't very good with fonts depending on the source image

 

[FlorenceC]

Gigapixel upsizing, then image trace with some cleanup is about as far as I prefer to go. I try not to mess with logos any further than that. If the client can't be bothered to keep a high enough quality of their logo - be it vector or at least a high resolution raster graphic, they really need to reevaluate what they are doing to maintain their brand.

 

[Boudica]

I'm not sure what you mean by "recreating a font".... like building an actual font, you can use to type new text, or tracing it as it is in the logo? I try to isolate the lettering to find out what font it actually is, otherwise I will "recreate" the logo. My efforts in this depend on the customer though.... many times I send it back to them to find a vector logo - or tell them they will be happy with the font I chose that best matches.

 

[damonCA21]

I mean recreating the logo from scratch as a vector ( not reproducing the whole font ). Ideally customers would have a good saved vector of their logo, but we all know this isn't often the case!
Obviously the customer is charged for this artwork setup But do people just turn down jobs if they can't do it themselves?

 

[JBurton]

many times I send it back to them to find a vector logo

"Send me the files that you can't open" is my favorite request these days. Unfortunately, gsuite apps will open stuff like eps, ai, and dxf files for viewing in browser, so it's helping less lately.

 

[victor bogdanov]

There are a number of vectorizing services that do excellent work. I've been sending out all my vectorizing needs out that would take me more than 5 minutes to do.

https://www.vectordoctor.com/ is on the forums

 

[Bobby H]

I'll re-create pixel-based images of lettering in vector form only if there's just a couple or so words involved. And that's only after exhausting all resources to find the fonts that were used in the original. The source image needs to have a reasonably good level of resolution. Also, this kind of work is only done on "big" jobs. If the client is just buying a banner they'll have to settle for a crude auto-trace job or going with a similar yet different typeface.

There are occasions where I'll hand draw or paint unique lettering, scan it and then vectorize the results. I've done this to tailor lettering to fit some odd sign cabinet shapes.

Regarding "AI," a lot of that stuff is still pretty dumb -especially when dealing with type. It's a far cry from Artificial General Intelligence. That's where the machine becomes self aware and develops its own wants, motivations, etc.

 

[gnubler]

Illustrator's Auto Trace does a fairly decent job in some cases, if the raster is higher resolution, and especially on clean transparent PNG files.

 

[JBurton]

Regarding "AI," a lot of that stuff is still pretty dumb -especially when dealing with type. It's a far cry from Artificial General Intelligence. That's where the machine becomes self aware and develops its own wants, motivations, etc.

Do ya reckon a supremely intelligent machine would give a hoot about typefaces as far as matching for font accuracy?
I'd imagine it would do it's best to interpret letters then spit them out in courier for ultimate legibility...

 

[Boudica]

I mean recreating the logo from scratch as a vector ( not reproducing the whole font ). Ideally customers would have a good saved vector of their logo, but we all know this isn't often the case!
Obviously the customer is charged for this artwork setup But do people just turn down jobs if they can't do it themselves?

Never turned down a job because they don't have usable artwork. We make it happen through a variety of methods.
If it's simple and easy enough (like below the 5-10 min threshold) I'll just recreate it. Either using Illy Trace, Vector magic or Graphic tracer pro. (Illy does the best job of this IMHO)
if it's more complex, we'll send out to someone who vectorizes this stuff all day long - say... the vector doctor
if they just seem clueless - throw the price at them and see how fast they come up with that vector logo that existed in the first place.

 

[TumwaterTom]

Not really font related, but if the customer is unable to provide a vector version of their logo, I often resort to searching the internet using the customers name and .pdf to see if I can find the vector logo in some corporate PDF hidden in the bowels of a website.
I can find a decent vector version of their logo about 40% of the time.

 

[The Vector Doctor]

i trace letters on a daily basis if I don't have/own the font or if it is custom

 

[The Vector Doctor]

one of my customers does scale lettering for old freight trains and locomotives so all the lettering was done pre digital. There are little or no matching fonts I work with a few shapes and build them

 

[somcalmetim]

I have toyed with making fonts out of some of my most used weird font recreations
but have never found a font program that wasnt a whole different world.
Used Font Forge a bit and made a couple ttf/otf fonts out of some fonts I have had to recreate several times
but usually just do it manually in vector until I have to go back to the same job several times or know I am going to have to redo a lot of text/numbers...

 

[Boudica]

I have toyed with making fonts out of some of my most used weird font recreations
but have never found a font program that wasnt a whole different world.
Used Font Forge a bit and made a couple ttf/otf fonts out of some fonts I have had to recreate several times
but usually just do it manually in vector until I have to go back to the same job several times or know I am going to have to redo a lot of text/numbers...

Yes, creating fonts for the digital world is a whole new wheelhouse, that's why I scratched my head at the question. How many sign design peeps take that kind of time? .... very few.... if any. you'd have a better chance for a one-off with our old school original hand lettering painters than our new fangled digital crowd.

 

[Ronny Axelsson]

to see if I can find the vector logo in some corporate PDF hidden in the bowels of a website.

A very usable tip.
I have managed to extract vector based logos from downloaded PDFs several times.
And the client (who couldn't provide more than a low res image) has no clue if you spent five minutes or two hours recreating it.

Regarding text/fonts: FindMyFont is where I turn first when I do not recognize a font. Fast, cheap and often remarkably accurate.

 

[caribmike]

I've not tried to redraw a font in my 20 years as a designer and shop owner. Its just too easy to find free fonts. I'm always amazed at how I can find entire font families.

 

[damonCA21]

That is fine when you know what the font is or can find it. I was talking about those jobs you get where you cant identify it

 

[Stacey K]

I send it all out to get vectored if it's more than a few minutes of work for me. Sitting at the computer is my least favorite thing to do.

 

[DL Signs]

I do it for logos all the time. If I can't ID the font used right away, it's usually faster to just recreate it manually than search. Especially with script fonts that don't work with font ID apps.