Due to the presence of Urdu fonts in different styles as well as its rich history, they are getting popular day by day. No doubt, there are thousands of Urdu fonts designed by many designers or companies that you can download for free to use in your graphic designing or artistic projects. However, if you are unable to find a font that aligns perfectly with your project requirements, don’t worry. Today we are going present not one but many viable font design tools.
Currently, various tools are available that allows you to design Custom Urdu fonts as per your choice and preference. Personally created fonts will not just add a personalized touch but will also allow you to test your expertise and skills in designing. In this blog, we will have a detailed discussion on the best tools for designing custom Urdu fonts. No matter whether you are a designer, writer, or simply an enthusiast, keep reading below to get an insight into this. Also, learn more about: Best Urdu Fonts Resource.
Top-Most Convenient Custom Urdu Fonts Designing Tools
Mostly, designers download a specific Urdu font from different websites online according to their needs for a particular project. However, some cannot find a perfect one that they have in their mind. In such cases, it is highly recommended for writers or designers to use a convenient and easy-to-use tool to customize a font as you want. Some of the most well-known and highly preferred tools for Urdu font designing are as follows: Here’s the table with the website links included for each font creator:
| No. | Font Creator | Supported Formats | Website URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FontForge | TrueType, PostScript, OpenType, Bitmap, Spline | fontforge.org |
| 2 | FontLab Studio | TrueType, PostScript, OpenType, Variable OTF | fontlab.com |
| 3 | RoboFont | TrueType, OpenType, Custom Extensions | robofont.com |
| 4 | Glyphs | TrueType, OpenType, High-Precision Vectors | glyphsapp.com |
| 5 | Type light | PostScript, TrueType | cr8software.net |
| 6 | Fontself | OTF (via Photoshop and Illustrator Extensions) | fontself.com |
| 7 | Adobe Illustrator | Custom Fonts, Vector Formats, Image Trace | adobe.com |
| 8 | Fontographer | TrueType, PostScript, OpenType | fontlab.com |
FontForge – One of the Top Font Design Tools
A FOSS font editor, FontForge, can support different Urdu font formats. This font design tool was created in 2012 by George Williams and is free software. The native Spline Font Database format of the tool is text-based and allows collaboration among designers, as various files can be simply made. Furthermore, FontForge permits users to create and customize TrueType, postscript, and OpenType Urdu fonts. They can even save them in numerous outline formats and make bitmaps. The tool likewise allows users to change the font format from one to another. Whether you’re a professional typographer or simply looking to explore the world of fonts, this tool offers a solid and versatile solution.
FontLab
With FontLab Studio, you can create, open, customize and change the format of fonts. In 2022, it launched FontLab 8, the largest upgrade to the best font editor. It took many years to make and is a unified font editor for Windows and macOS that assists designers in customizing fonts from beginning to end, from an easy design to a difficult project, and adds a magical touch to type design. With this tool, you can also draw, kern, space, hint, color, web, and variable OTF fonts. To get the latest news about this, you can check their website. You can create different types of Urdu fonts with it, from traditional calligraphic like Kufic and Diwani fonts to Perso-Arabic scrips like Naskh and Nastaleeq fonts.
RoboFont
RoboFont is a another font design tool that completely feature font creator with all the tools needed for designing Urdu typefaces. It offers complete access to the interface and objects. The platform is best for developing your own extensions, tools, and much more. It likewise shares best practices as well as knowledge in the world of font development. The tool is similar to an empty canvas, which designers can increase by adding open-source extensions to meet their requirements. Furthermore, it is more direct and clearer when it comes to getting all the technical aspects and parameters of the font. In case you did something wrong, you will have control to fix it.
Glyphs – A Convenient Custom Font Design Tool
A Mac font editor, Glyphs, has been particularly created for creating and designing Urdu fonts. It has modern features for making high-precision vectors as well as allows users to save the typefaces they create as files that they can install and then utilize on their computers. Glyphs is available in 2 versions, Glyphs 3 and Glyphs Mini, and every one of them has its own set of functionalities and features. While designers can use various vector drawing software, like Illustrator, to create custom fonts, Glyphs offers features that make it a well-developed program for designing Urdu fonts and solving particular type-related problems. After, creating a font you may also want to read our guide on how you can directly Type Urdu in Adobe Photoshop.
Type light
A freeware font editor, Type light can edit as well as convert between PostScript and TrueType fonts. Similar to different typeface editors, this editor has a layout with a required area for editing typefaces and specific tools for updating them. Moreover, the tools provided by Type Light provide the opportunity to draw shapes and even modify them. A few of its basic tools are lines, ellipses, rectangles, and selection. It also offers tools to edit the point properties, convert typefaces between PostScript & TrueType, undo and redo, etc. The app provides additional tools for editing glyphs, adjusting curves, and fine-tuning the shapes of letters, making it perfect for those who want to create custom fonts or modify existing ones. Additionally, it supports multiple languages and Unicode blocks, making it versatile for designing fonts in various scripts such as Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Urdu, and more.
Fontself
Fontself is an extension for Photoshop CC and Illustrator to rapidly turn any lettering into OTF typefaces. The software permits designers to change any vector design into Urdu font, including gradients, color, and all other types of fun. Fontself is very easy and intuitive to use. Designers can change the baseline, margins, and characters for every glyph they have created and can even change the spacing between text lines and characters. The software is the best for beginners as well as expert or skilled designers as it permits them to draw vectors and create working typefaces in seconds.
Adobe Illustrator – Versatile Font Design Tool
Adobe Illustrator is another name on the list that can help designers to create custom Urdu fonts according to layout & design. With this app, they can design any typeface ranging from sans serif sans serif fonts to handwritten fonts. Furthermore, designers can use Image Trace to change their imported typeface sketch into a simply edited vector design. They can even modify it to enhance readability and shape every letter to create the unique typographic appearance they want. Get your desired Urdu font by drawing a sketch in Illustrator or simply by importing digital art or hand lettering from Adobe Photoshop. Also, read our guide about how to directly Type Urdu in Adobe Illustrator.
Fontographer
Fontographer is also a custom font editor for macOS and Windows. At first, it was made by Altsys but currently, FontLab Ltd. owns it. FontLab Ltd. claimed in May 2005 that they had certified distribution rights. With this software, it is easy and simple to design new fonts and to modify existing typefaces. The outcome will be high-quality Urdu fonts that you can use reliably across several operating systems. Designers can even create the best fonts without being an expert. Moreover, they developed the latest version of Fontographer in December 2005 for Mac OS, operating on OS X with several bug fixes.
Bottom Line
Designing custom Urdu fonts does not just mean to make your projects visually beautiful and attractive but also to convey your emotions to feelings to the readers. That’s why it is very important to use the right Urdu font. Those who are unable to find a perfect font can design it on different tools available today in the market. Above, we have discussed some of the best tools that you can use for customizing or designing Urdu fonts. Moreover, your created font will capture the attention of readers as well as add a personalized touch in your ventures. I hope that the above-mentioned info will be helpful for you.
