Do you love fonts as much as I do? I seriously am a font-a-holic. I love browsing fonts, especially on site like Font Squirrel where all fonts are free for commercial use. I also love to download fonts, organize fonts (with help of free software like Nexus Font) and get inspired by new fonts through my design work.
One fun little trick that you might not know about is the use of glyphs in Illustrator. Most well designed fonts come with a set of alternative characters or glyphs, meaning you can swap out the standard, default characters for different ones. I will show you one example below, using one of my favorite fonts: Carolyna Pro Black by Emily Lime Design.
Here is the font Carolyna Pro Black. The default font on the top. In the middle I’ve highlighted the glyphs that I swapped out, and at the bottom I’ve provided the final version. You can see how easy it is to customize many fonts with the simple use of glyphs.
To use the glyphs options in Illustrator, simply create a new file. Then, use your text tool to create a text box. Begin typing in the font of your choice and then you’ll select Type on the top and select Glyphs partway down that menu (see my image below). That glyphs menu will show you all available characters for that font. To make it even easier, select a single letter you want to swap and then in the glyphs menu select “Alternatives for Current Selection”. If you’ve highlighted the letter ‘C’ then the glyphs menu will show you alternatives for the letter ‘C’ only.
Now it’s your turn! Have you ever used the glyphs option in Illustrator? Do you have a love for fonts? Tell us which ones you love!