Fancy Alphas

Lesson Index for those who are just joining in

Things you will need

Black Blank      White Blank

Mercedes Fonts    Specialty Fonts    MsM's Fonts

P_K's Cursive Fonts    MsLaura's Fonts

House of Lime Or your dingbat site of choice.

Ever see one of those fancy alphabets, love the capital letter, but hate the rest of the font? Well there's no law that says you have to use that same font for your whole name.

How bout making your own alphabet!

I highly recommend you use a colored back, rather than a clear gif. Many fonts leave jaggies on clear gifs.

If you're using a black background, the procedure is the same as for making masks.

Choose a font that has a capital letter you like, and annotate it in white.

Output and save.

Next, choose a dingbat that you want to use on your letter, & annotate it in white. NOTE - Try to choose a ding that has the same lines in it as your letter, Curves for curved letters, angles for angled letters. Take a look at the letters at the top of the page to see what I mean

Composite a plasma or gradient back using multiply.

Trim and output as a jpg.

Now, if you don't like the rest of the font that goes with the cap you chose, go find one you do like. All the name examples linked below were each made with 2 different fonts.

Once you have your font picked out, take your letter back to IM.

Add a border in the same color as your background. Make it big enough to accomodate the rest of your name.

Annotate the rest of your name in a size that looks good with the capital.

  Name 1     Name 2     Name 3     Name 4

How to - on white How to - on other colors