You’ve probably heard of Google Fonts, and it’s very possible you’re using them frequently. I know I do. They offer a couple of very good quality free and easy to use fonts, but, the selection is still very limited and the quality of most fonts leaves much to desire. That’s where Prototypo takes over. Prototypo, the new open-source online typeface editor makes it much easier to design our own, original fonts.
Prototypo will let anyone design an entire font system all at once. For professionals this means a less time-consuming process than working letter-by-letter and for beginners it means a way to create something original without having a lot of expertise or running into legal issues by modifying existing fonts.
The application is currently in beta and version 1.0 is expected be up and running in September. In the beta version, users start with one of four basic fonts they can then modify using parameters such as thickness, aperture (negative space) and roundness. Serifs can be fine-tuned separately. The final version will include more than 25 adjustable options.
Prototypo will be available for both offline and web use, tablet friendly, and designers will be able to further tweak the fonts with other software, such as FontForge.
