Prosumerism is everywhere. From the oft-told example of Lego’s build-your-own sets to Starbucks’ customer co-creation website, My Starbucks Idea, prosumerism is turning up all over the place: your kids’ toy box, your cup holder, and now, your Word document.
Word processing individuals no longer need be confined by the fonts available within their software or even by fonts available for download online. Don’t like what you see? Build your own font.
FontStruct, which describes itself as “a free font-building tool brought to you by the world’s leading retailer of digital type FontShop,” lets users sign up, download their software, and build fonts by “construct[ing] geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks.”
Don’t have the time or creative inspiration to create your own? Browse other users’ fonts, which are available for download for free (if the creator feels generous with the rights). Or, for $250, FontShop will create a font based on your own handwriting, which you then own the rights to. On top of it all, FontStruct aficionados have built a tight community where they rate each others’ fonts and discuss all things font and beyond.
FontStruct seems to be gaining momentum. It’s been chatted up here, here and here. There are some legitimately cool fonts available to download for free, but I don’t think I will be making my own anytime soon since it looks pretty time-intensive. As the explosion in prosumerism provides lazy consumers like myself endless choices, I think I will leave the labor up to someone else and pick something someone else spent hours creating.
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Curmudgeon moment beginning:
Why FontStruct? Because … there just weren’t enough fonts yet.
I think the idea’s interesting enough, but I’m having nightmare visions of a letter-by-letter version of early desktop publishing or web design efforts that would end up in the dictionary under either “clash” or “gaudy” (not Goudy).
Can’t we just use one or two of the approximately 5 BILLION fonts that already exist?
Curmudgeon moment ended.
Comment by Bob LeDrew - July 3, 2008 7:21 am
Converting your own handwriting into a font has long been a practice among professional comic book artists, for lettering purposes. I thought of doing so myself…
But then there is much to be said for professionally designed fonts. Google ‘helvetica movie’ to see one beautiful example documented.
Comment by Venkat - July 3, 2008 8:39 am