The course is divided into different modules and guidebooks. We’ll start of simple with an explanation of the Glyphs interface, followed by an introduction to the pen tool, and we’ll work our way to creating a font with serifs, accents, ligatures and other OpenType features. Along the way I’ll share with you all kinds of guidebooks so you can read along to perfect your letterforms, how to work with components, accents and program OpenType features.

If you are stuck with a technique, simply scroll back in time and start over. Still having trouble? Please watch the end of the videos where I’ll explain all common mistakes and errors you might encounter in Glyphs.

0.0 — Welcome

0.1 — Introduction

0.2 — Hot Keys and shortcuts Guidebook

Before we get started with drawing our fonts, let’s take a look at our interface and see what all the panels do and how to set up your metrics. I’ll show you a quick and easy way to import a sketch to a website that helps you determine the heights of your upper and lowercase and ascenders and descenders.

1.1 — Interface Glyphs 3

1.2 — Adding characters

1.3 — Alignment zones

1.4 — Add images

1.5 — Setting your metrics

1.6 — Alignment zones Glyphs mini

If you’re familiar with Adobe Illustrator and the pen tool you’re in for a surprise as Glyphs works a bit different and often much more intuitive. It may take a bit of practice but I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it.

2.1 — Toolbar

2.2 — Pen tool and drawing basics

2.3 — Diagonals and curves

2.4 — Cleaning up shapes

2.5 — Drawing Correct Paths Guidebook

2.6 — Helpful Plugins Guidebook

Components can be used in various ways for shapes that are repeating in your font. They are super helpful if you want to add serifs to your letterforms, change the appearance of a line or if you want to change the shape of a repeating shape like the period.

3.1 — Corner Components

3.2 — Rounded Components

3.3 — Ink Traps

3.4 — Other Components

3.5 — Segment Components

3.6 — Cap Components

3.7 — Components Guidebook

Let’s draw all the uppercase characters A-Z. When drawing your uppercase characters you don’t start with ABC but with the control characters H and O. They are called control characters because they control a lot of the shapes of other characters.

4.1 — H O Control Characters

4.2 — H O Components

4.3 — E F I L T

4.4 — C G S J

4.5 — D B P R Q

4.6 — V A U W X

4.7 — Y M N K Z

4.8 — Finetuning Uppercase

4.9 — Uppercase Guidebook

4.10 — About the Fit Curve Panel Guidebook

Let’s draw all our lowercase characters a-z. When drawing your lowercase characters you also don’t start with abc but with the control characters n and o. They are called control characters because they control a lot of the shapes of other characters.

5.1 — n o Control Characters

5.2 — i h m l k r t

5.3 — u e c b d p q

5.4 — a f g j s

5.5 — v w x y z

5.6 — Finetuning Lowercase

A font without accents is useful if you only type in English but as soon as you want to use it in a European language you’ll need accents and diacritics. In this module we’ll go over the process of adding accents and diacritics automatically and build them from components.

6.1 — Adding accents

6.2 — Uppercase

6.3 — Lowercase

6.4 — Accents for 'j' and 'i'

6.5 — Fine tuning

6.6 — Download Accents and Diacritics Guidebook

A font also needs numbers (or digits as they are called), and without punctuation it’s hard to use. In this module we’ll draw our digits, punctuation, currency symbols and symbols like @, #, %, [, {, &, etc.

7.1 — Digits

7.2 — Punctuation

7.3 — Symbols

In case letters like the ‘f’ and ‘i’ overlap, you’ll need to add Ligatures that replace these letter combinations. In this module we’ll look at Standard and Discretionary Ligatures and how you can add multiple variations of a letter in Stylistic Alternatives.

8.1 — Ligatures intro

8.2 — Ligatures

8.3 — Alternatives

8.4 — Discretionary ligatures

Designing a font is one thing, but if the spacing and kerning is off it looks terrible. In this module we’ll set up the basics for our spacing and will guide you through kerning your font.

9.0 — Spacing & Kerning Guidebook

9.1 — H O Spacing

9.2 — Spacing with your keyboard

9.3 — Spacing Uppercase

9.4 — Spacing Lowercase

9.5 — Spacing Punctuation

9.6 — Kerning

9.7 — Correcting Spacing

How your font file behaves out in the wild is programmed in your Font Info. We’ll look at automatic coding of your ligatures and other OpenType features and will export your font file in different ways for web and desktop use.

10.1 — Font info

10.2 — Test install

10.3 — Font OTF and WOFF2

Still having issues with the Pen Tool, coding in you Font Info or adding Accents? I’ll explain all common mistakes and errors you might encounter in Glyphs.

11.1 — Common Mistakes

11.2 — Fixing Alignment

11.3 — Common Errors