Computer Question
Mugwump
If a person were trying to come up with a label for a food product,
is there anywhere on the internet where they could find a large
selection of various types of lettering? Would they need a certain kind
of software before they could use letters like that and print up various
ideas for labels?
Thanx
Bill Oliver
Mugwump <jand...@swbell.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> If a person were trying to come up with a label for a food product,
>is there anywhere on the internet where they could find a large
>selection of various types of lettering?
Zillions. Get on Google and search for the words "free" and "font."
> Would they need a certain kind
> of software before they could use letters like that and print up various
> ideas for labels?
>
There are as many ways to do this as there are people with favorite
tools -- you could do it inside word processing software, inside
imaging software like GIMP, inside drawing software, or inside
page-setting software. It all depends on what you are good at.
I recently did a logo using Alias/Wavefront's Maya software, which
is a 3D modeling tool, just because I am very good with it and didn't
want to bother to read the manual for Microsoft Publisher.
If you are doing this on the cheap, note that there are good freeware
tools for all of this. GIMP is either as good or outperforms Photoshop
for most tasks, and is free. OpenOffice or StarOffice will meet most
wordprocessing/page layout needs and is free.
billo
Gerald Clough
Loads of them. Search Yahoo for "fonts truetype free". Your Wordpad
program in Windows - Accessories will handle most of them designed for
PC's, if you just need straight lines of text. Plenty of Mac sites also.
Some selling, some free. If you want something more elaborate, like
shaping the text or integrating it with graphics, you'll need some
design software and appropriate fonts for it.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------
Clo...@Texas.Net
"Nothing has any value unless you know you can give it up."
-----------------------------------------------------------
Mugwump
Bill Oliver wrote:
Okay, thanks.
>
>
> billo
Phideaux
wrote:
If you're in Windows, open up your font folder and see what's in
there. Now imagine at least a thousand times as much, available free
or at low cost (a disk of 2000 really strange fonts not available
elsewhere cost me $4.95). There are many, many sites (search for:
"+font +free" or "+font +download").
You can probably do some basic labels in most wp programs, but a
simple graphics program will let you easily resize, skew, color, etc.
Hit ZDNet, Tucows, CNet downloads, or any other shareware/freeware
sites and pick the most basic (preferably free) graphics program you
think you'll be comfortable with.
It shouldn't take more than an hour or two to assemble all the stuff
you need, a couple more hours to learn the software, and only a few
weeks of tearing your hair out trying to get it right.
SPAM ALERT!
Another possibility: I do that sort of thing (computer graphics
freelancer), and my rates are reasonable ($85 an hour, four hour
minimum).
Phideaux
____________
With my luck, I'll probably live.
Svein Olav Nyberg
Just do a search for "Font" on any search engine. Some fonts are free,
others aren't. If you want a Charles Rennie Macintosh font, there is not
way around paying. If you want yet-another-sans-serif, they are out
there by the hundreds - free.
Are you looking for Windows or Mac fonts?
--
Svein Olav Nyberg
http://www.nonserviam.com/solan
They're, their, there - the Holy Trinity of American spelling.
Keltic
wrote:
> If a person were trying to come up with a label for a food product,
Check out news://alt.binaries.fonts
Cheers, keltic
Check out my movie reviews at:
http://comments.imdb.com/CommentsAuthor?104469
Bill Funke
wrote:
>
>
>
OK, let's back up a little.
When you say "label," do you mean you just want some interesting
verbiage on a bunch of sticky labels you're going to print out on your
$100 inkjet, or some serious artwork, including the UPC code, to be
sent off to a printer?
TrueType fonts are all over the place, and even nasty old WordPad can
use them effectively, although it often doesn't give you many options
for type size.
If you're interested in including artwork, borders, and other good
stuff like that, and doing a fairly professional job of it, you need
at least a minimal graphics program. If it's going to a printer, it
should be something that saves in a reasonably common format-- eps is
pretty common, and even the cheap programs can save in eps.
There's a whole bunch of graphics stuff on the download sites, but I
mostly use Micrografx Picture Publisher. I think I paid a around 50
bucks for it in CompUsa. Micrografx has a bunch of other things I may
get around to getting, too.
I don't know if Fractal Design is still around, but I still have some
of their Win3x stuff, and it still works great.
For the UPS code, you're on your own. I had once had some DOS stuff
that created it, but it disappeared some time after I stopped needing
it. I imagine there's something on a download site, but I'd be
careful about free downloads for that sort of thing.
You're also on your own learning the basics of design, so your labels
don't look like cheap, amateurish crap. (Easy for even the pros to do
when they're not careful)
Bill
-------------------
"Da Joisey Page" (A Work in Progress)
http://wfnk.home.mindspring.com
Bill Oliver
Bill Funke <wf...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>On Thu, 14 Jun 2001 13:49:17 -0500, Mugwump <jand...@swbell.net>
>wrote:
>
>>
>>
>
>mostly use Micrografx Picture Publisher. I think I paid a around 50
>bucks for it in CompUsa. Micrografx has a bunch of other things I may
>get around to getting, too.
>
I also use Micrografx Picture Publisher a lot, though I'm not
sure what is going on with the product. The last time I upgraded,
the only way to get Picture Publisher 9 was to buy the iGrafx
product which bundled Picture Publisher and Designer. I just visited
the web site and see that they are now selling Picture Publisher 9
unbundled.
Picture Publisher is much more friendly to me than is Photoshop, which
we also use. However, once again, we are moving to GIMP rather
than Photoshop for almost all of our graphics which don't require
a specific plugin. Take a look at www.gimp.org.
billo
Mugwump
Svein Olav Nyberg wrote:
> Mugwump <jand...@swbell.net> wrote:
>
> > If a person were trying to come up with a label for a food product,
> > is there anywhere on the internet where they could find a large
> > selection of various types of lettering? Would they need a certain kind
> > of software before they could use letters like that and print up various
> > ideas for labels?
>
> Just do a search for "Font" on any search engine. Some fonts are free,
> others aren't. If you want a Charles Rennie Macintosh font, there is not
> way around paying. If you want yet-another-sans-serif, they are out
> there by the hundreds - free.
>
> Are you looking for Windows or Mac fonts?
Windows.
Mugwump
Bill Funke wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Jun 2001 13:49:17 -0500, Mugwump <jand...@swbell.net>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> > If a person were trying to come up with a label for a food product,
> >is there anywhere on the internet where they could find a large
> >selection of various types of lettering? Would they need a certain kind
> >of software before they could use letters like that and print up various
> >ideas for labels?
>
> OK, let's back up a little.
>
> When you say "label," do you mean you just want some interesting
> verbiage on a bunch of sticky labels you're going to print out on your
> $100 inkjet, or some serious artwork, including the UPC code, to be
> sent off to a printer?
I just want to make a prototype of the label, to see which type of
lettering would look beats. So I want an interesting choice of letter styles
to choose from. I am not looking for type fonts for writing letters. I am
looking for letters that would be big enough to make an interesting label for
a product or a company logo.
>
>
> TrueType fonts are all over the place, and even nasty old WordPad can
> use them effectively, although it often doesn't give you many options
> for type size.
>
> If you're interested in including artwork, borders, and other good
> stuff like that, and doing a fairly professional job of it, you need
> at least a minimal graphics program.
Yes, that would be ideal, but I was hoping I could find a variety of
letters that I could chosse from. Then I would worry about the artwork later.
> If it's going to a printer, it
> should be something that saves in a reasonably common format-- eps is
> pretty common, and even the cheap programs can save in eps.
>
> There's a whole bunch of graphics stuff on the download sites, but I
> mostly use Micrografx Picture Publisher. I think I paid a around 50
> bucks for it in CompUsa. Micrografx has a bunch of other things I may
> get around to getting, too.
>
> I don't know if Fractal Design is still around, but I still have some
> of their Win3x stuff, and it still works great.
>
> For the UPS code, you're on your own. I had once had some DOS stuff
> that created it, but it disappeared some time after I stopped needing
> it. I imagine there's something on a download site, but I'd be
> careful about free downloads for that sort of thing.
>
> You're also on your own learning the basics of design, so your labels
> don't look like cheap, amateurish crap. (Easy for even the pros to do
> when they're not careful)
Thanks. I just wanted to get the lettering style of the product name to
start with. After that I might get more ambitious.
Alan Hope
programme, like this one from Gerald Clough, calling from
misc.writing:
>Mugwump wrote:
>> If a person were trying to come up with a label for a food product,
>> is there anywhere on the internet where they could find a large
>> selection of various types of lettering? Would they need a certain kind
>> of software before they could use letters like that and print up various
>> ideas for labels?
>> Thanx
>Loads of them. Search Yahoo for "fonts truetype free". Your Wordpad
>program in Windows - Accessories will handle most of them designed for
>PC's, if you just need straight lines of text. Plenty of Mac sites also.
>Some selling, some free. If you want something more elaborate, like
>shaping the text or integrating it with graphics, you'll need some
>design software and appropriate fonts for it.
Unless you're happy with WordArt in Word. Insert>Picture>WordArt --
thirty formats to muck about with, in whatever fonts happen to be in
your Fonts file.
I've used it ... and so should you! Call now for details!
--
AH
Phideaux
wrote:
>
>
>Bill Funke wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 14 Jun 2001 13:49:17 -0500, Mugwump <jand...@swbell.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > If a person were trying to come up with a label for a food product,
>> >is there anywhere on the internet where they could find a large
>> >selection of various types of lettering? Would they need a certain kind
>> >of software before they could use letters like that and print up various
>> >ideas for labels?
>>
>> OK, let's back up a little.
>>
>> When you say "label," do you mean you just want some interesting
>> verbiage on a bunch of sticky labels you're going to print out on your
>> $100 inkjet, or some serious artwork, including the UPC code, to be
>> sent off to a printer?
>
>
>
> I just want to make a prototype of the label, to see which type of
>lettering would look beats. So I want an interesting choice of letter styles
>to choose from. I am not looking for type fonts for writing letters. I am
>looking for letters that would be big enough to make an interesting label for
>a product or a company logo.
>
>
Most of the fonts you'll find are not for writing letters -- they're
for webpages, picture captions, labels, etc.
Some of the fonts I have can be shown at any size from 4 almost a dot)
to 8192 (each letter takes up several pages). They range from
electronic (like the numbers at the bottom of a check) to barbed wire
to clouds (if you scale that one above 256, you find that the dots on
the 'i's have a smiley face on the cloud). There are also the nude
letters (best viewed at 32 and above) in both male and female versions
(the male 'k' is almost obscene, but the female 'm' is cute).
The next time you go web-surfing, keep in mind what you need. If you
see anything sort of close, save the page as html and then open it
using a wp so you can see the codes -- the fonts are named.
Phideaux
_________________
If you could read a man's mind like a book,
it would be mostly pictures.
Dick Harper
> If you're in Windows, open up your font folder and see what's in
> there. Now imagine at least a thousand times as much, available free
> or at low cost (a disk of 2000 really strange fonts not available
> elsewhere cost me $4.95). There are many, many sites (search for:
> "+font +free" or "+font +download").
Unfortunately, the "standard" typefaces are recognizable and
many of the free TT fonts are, um, not as well executed as a
professional might like.
Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream created a typeface called Ben and
Jerry's chunky just for their logo and literature. I did the same
nearly 30 years ago when I needed one for a racing logo.
Fortunately, I didn't call mine "Ben and Jerry's Chunky." You can
see Ben and Jerry's in most supermarket freezers; you can see the
harper typeface at
http://www.dickharper.com/images/h_harco.gif
> You can probably do some basic labels in most wp programs, but a
> simple graphics program will let you easily resize, skew, color, etc.
> Hit ZDNet, Tucows, CNet downloads, or any other shareware/freeware
> sites and pick the most basic (preferably free) graphics program you
> think you'll be comfortable with.
>
> It shouldn't take more than an hour or two to assemble all the stuff
> you need, a couple more hours to learn the software, and only a few
> weeks of tearing your hair out trying to get it right.
Both WordPerfect and MS Word have more than adequate "word
art" kinds of utility programs bundled with them. An amateur can
do an acceptable job with them and a pro can make them sing.
--Dick
Frank S
"Alan Hope" <ah...@skynet.be> wrote in message
news:35kkit8qbniq7dslk...@4ax.com...
For a font'n good time:
> --
> AH
Bill Funke
wrote:
>In article <3b29a15e...@news.mindspring.com>,
>Bill Funke <wf...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>>On Thu, 14 Jun 2001 13:49:17 -0500, Mugwump <jand...@swbell.net>
>>wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>There's a whole bunch of graphics stuff on the download sites, but I
>>mostly use Micrografx Picture Publisher. I think I paid a around 50
>>bucks for it in CompUsa. Micrografx has a bunch of other things I may
>>get around to getting, too.
>>
>
>
>I also use Micrografx Picture Publisher a lot, though I'm not
>sure what is going on with the product. The last time I upgraded,
>the only way to get Picture Publisher 9 was to buy the iGrafx
>product which bundled Picture Publisher and Designer. I just visited
>the web site and see that they are now selling Picture Publisher 9
>unbundled.
I had 3, then jumped to 8. It's up to 9 now, eh. Been tempted to get
some of their other stuff, since PP8 isn't so hot with straight text
manipulation or drawing. Other than that, I'm perfectly happy with
it. Powerful, easy, and relatively bug-free.
>Picture Publisher is much more friendly to me than is Photoshop, which
>we also use. However, once again, we are moving to GIMP rather
>than Photoshop for almost all of our graphics which don't require
>a specific plugin. Take a look at www.gimp.org.
I know of gimp, just haven't bothered with it yet. Time is at a
premium with other things to do.
Bill Funke
wrote:
>
>
>Bill Funke wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 14 Jun 2001 13:49:17 -0500, Mugwump <jand...@swbell.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > If a person were trying to come up with a label for a food product,
>> >is there anywhere on the internet where they could find a large
>> >selection of various types of lettering? Would they need a certain kind
>> >of software before they could use letters like that and print up various
>> >ideas for labels?
>>
>> OK, let's back up a little.
>>
>> When you say "label," do you mean you just want some interesting
>> verbiage on a bunch of sticky labels you're going to print out on your
>> $100 inkjet, or some serious artwork, including the UPC code, to be
>> sent off to a printer?
>
>
>
> I just want to make a prototype of the label, to see which type of
>lettering would look beats. So I want an interesting choice of letter styles
>to choose from. I am not looking for type fonts for writing letters. I am
>looking for letters that would be big enough to make an interesting label for
>a product or a company logo.
Fonts is fonts. When you've installed the fonts, you can do anything
you want with them. All of the fonts that work with Windoze are
scalable. Some fonts look better than others when you change the
size, however. It's easy to design a font, but not so easy to design
a good one.
Anyway, I got several of those 1000 Fonts CD's for a couple of bucks
each at the bargain racks, and searching through the download sites
like cnet.com will get you gazillions of typefaces and fonts.
If you see anything you like, any Windoze word processor, even
Wordpad, will let you print it out in various sizes and colors.
>> TrueType fonts are all over the place, and even nasty old WordPad can
>> use them effectively, although it often doesn't give you many options
>> for type size.
>>
>> If you're interested in including artwork, borders, and other good
>> stuff like that, and doing a fairly professional job of it, you need
>> at least a minimal graphics program.
>
> Yes, that would be ideal, but I was hoping I could find a variety of
>letters that I could chosse from. Then I would worry about the artwork later.
Do dat FontSearch. "letters" is Fonts
Phideaux
to_news_or_...@NorthPuffin.com (Dick Harper) wrote:
>Phideaux eloquently commented in misc.writing
>
>> If you're in Windows, open up your font folder and see what's in
>> there. Now imagine at least a thousand times as much, available free
>> or at low cost (a disk of 2000 really strange fonts not available
>> elsewhere cost me $4.95). There are many, many sites (search for:
>> "+font +free" or "+font +download").
>
> Unfortunately, the "standard" typefaces are recognizable and
>many of the free TT fonts are, um, not as well executed as a
>professional might like.
Starting with a TT font is exactly the way to go on something like
that -- it's like doing a rought draft. After you've established what
you want, then you go in and paint over it anyway.
>> You can probably do some basic labels in most wp programs, but a
>> simple graphics program will let you easily resize, skew, color, etc.
>> Hit ZDNet, Tucows, CNet downloads, or any other shareware/freeware
>> sites and pick the most basic (preferably free) graphics program you
>> think you'll be comfortable with.
>>
>> It shouldn't take more than an hour or two to assemble all the stuff
>> you need, a couple more hours to learn the software, and only a few
>> weeks of tearing your hair out trying to get it right.
>
> Both WordPerfect and MS Word have more than adequate "word
>art" kinds of utility programs bundled with them. An amateur can
>do an acceptable job with them and a pro can make them sing.
>
A pro once taught a pig to sing, that doesn't mean it's the right
medium for the message.
Product labels fall into the graphics, rather than the publishing,
category, making it a job for a graphics program. And I guarantee that
a shareware graphics program is a lot easier to learn than the
complicated rigmarole you have to go through with WP.
Personally, I'd never want to be responsible for anyone using WP for
anything but the most basic word processing (which it does poorly),
and I don't think I'm evil enough to suggest anyone use a MicroShaft
product of any kind.
Phideaux
______________
It's okay to laugh during sex,
just don't point.
Dick Harper
> > Both WordPerfect and MS Word have more than adequate "word
> >art" kinds of utility programs bundled with them. An amateur can
> >do an acceptable job with them and a pro can make them sing.
Phideaux:
> A pro once taught a pig to sing, that doesn't mean it's the right
> medium for the message.
>
> Product labels fall into the graphics, rather than the publishing,
> category, making it a job for a graphics program. And I guarantee that
> a shareware graphics program is a lot easier to learn than the
> complicated rigmarole you have to go through with WP.
It's a two-edged sword, this learning curve. FWIW, I agree
that many graphics programs will do a better job on this logo just
as I think AutoCAD does a better job of laying out a floor plan
for an art gallery than a typical graphics program.
That said, I wouldn't recommend learning AutoCAD to lay out a
single floor plan. It takes days to learn AutoCAD and much longer
to learn it well. Likewise it takes a couple of days to learn a
typical graphics program and much longer to learn it well. That's
not a good investment of time for someone with a single graphics
job to do.
Someone already familiar with a program can make it stretch.
CorelDRAW and other similar programs will do the floor plan
job acceptably well. WordPerfect's Word Art can do the logo. The
program ain't great, but the results are acceptable for one time
use.
> Personally, I'd never want to be responsible for anyone using WP for
> anything but the most basic word processing (which it does poorly),
> and I don't think I'm evil enough to suggest anyone use a MicroShaft
> product of any kind.
WP5.1+ for DOS is the single best word processor ever created
with the possible exception of XYWrite. It's blindingly fast,
does acceptable layout, and lets you correct your mistakes.
Windows versions aren't quite as good, not only because they
try to be all things to all users, but also because they were made
to work in somebody else's GUI.
--Dick
Michael Cargal
<3b374469...@news2.sover.net>:
> WP5.1+ for DOS is the single best word processor ever created
That's a fact.
--
Michael Cargal
Laura Higley
> WP5.1+ for DOS is the single best word processor ever created
> with the possible exception of XYWrite.
WP51 is my absolute favorite.
Phideaux
There's a learning curve every time you step outside what you normally
do. WP's TextArt is terribly complicated and unwieldy -- it's fine for
a fancy header, but once you try overlapping or resizing to fit a
particular shape, it becomes a swamp of conflicting commands. I once
spent a couple of hours trying to use it before giving up and just
doing the ten-minute job in a graphics program.
Most of the simpler (shareware/freeware) graphics programs are so
straightforward in their menu structure and help files that they can
be used almost instantly (for very basic things). I once entertained a
10 and a 12 year-old by showing them how to use the Paint Shop to make
pretty pictures -- it took them less than one vodka-seven (on my part,
not theirs) before they didn't need me anymore. Granted, they were
fairly computer-savvy, and their work won't win any awards, but they
were getting the results they wanted.
>
>> Personally, I'd never want to be responsible for anyone using WP for
>> anything but the most basic word processing (which it does poorly),
>> and I don't think I'm evil enough to suggest anyone use a MicroShaft
>> product of any kind.
>
> WP5.1+ for DOS is the single best word processor ever created
>with the possible exception of XYWrite. It's blindingly fast,
>does acceptable layout, and lets you correct your mistakes.
A couple of months ago someone loaned me their old copy of WP (I don't
recall the version) -- it was a DOS program, but I couldn't get it to
run under the MsDos prompt -- apparently Windows wouldn't release
disk-handling ('Drive C: Full' error when there's less than 800Meg on
a 30Gig drive).
> Windows versions aren't quite as good, not only because they
>try to be all things to all users, but also because they were made
>to work in somebody else's GUI.
Isn't that true for almost all programs these days?
In the dumbing-down, they cut out all the good features and then bury
what remains under tinsel and glitter.
I'm so tired of gosh-wow programs that want to check your e-mail,
manage your disk space, create a nifty screensaver, and speed up your
browser when all you really wanted to do was write a letter.
Phideaux
___________
In cyberspace, no one can hear you typing.