A free online font editor and font maker
Most font editors are heavy programs: you pay for them, install them, and spend an afternoon learning where everything is. Sometimes you only want to fix one letter, rename a font, or draw a small custom alphabet for a poster. This font editor runs in your browser, needs no account, and lets you open a font, change it and download it again in a few minutes.
You can open a TTF, OTF, WOFF or WOFF2 file, start from a font in our directory, or begin with a completely empty font and draw every letter yourself. When you are done, download the result as TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2, EOT or SVG, one format or all of them in a ZIP.
How to edit a font
- Open a font. Drop a file on the Open a font file box, or pick a font from the directory list.
- Pick a glyph. A glyph is the drawing of one character. Click it in the grid, or type the character in the search box.
- Change the outline. Drag points to move them. Use the Draw tool to paint a shape freehand like a brush, the Pen tool to place points one by one, the Add point tool to add detail to a line, and the Delete key to remove points.
- Check the spacing. Set the width of the glyph, or press Auto width to fit the width to the shape.
- Rename it. In Font info, give the font its own name, version, designer and license text.
- Preview and download. The Preview tab shows your text in the real font file. Download tab builds the formats you choose.
How to make a font from scratch
Choose Start a new font, name it, and tick the characters you want. The editor creates an empty slot for each one. Select a glyph and paint it with the Draw tool (like a brush, with a size slider), place points with the Pen tool, or draw the letter in a vector program and import it with the SVG box. Then set the width of each glyph, and repeat. A small font with only capital letters and digits is a realistic first project, and you can add more characters later with the Add characters box.
Drawing tips
- Start and end shapes on the guide lines: baseline for the bottom of letters, x-height for lowercase, capital height for capitals.
- Use as few points as you can. Put points at the extreme left, right, top and bottom of a curve.
- Letters with a hole, such as O, A and B, need the inner shape to run the opposite way from the outer shape. The editor sets this for you when you draw, paste or import a shape. If a hole still looks filled in, press Auto-fix directions or Reverse contour.
- Keep the same stroke thickness and the same side space on all letters. Even spacing matters more than perfect shapes.
Make a font in any language
The editor is not limited to English. When you start a new font you choose from more than thirty writing systems: Latin with accents, Cyrillic, Greek, Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Arabic, Devanagari (Hindi, Marathi, Nepali), Bengali, Gurmukhi, Gujarati, Odia, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhala, Thai, Lao, Khmer, Myanmar, Tibetan, Ethiopic, Japanese Hiragana and Katakana, Korean letters and common Chinese characters. You can also type any other character, such as an emoji or a rare letter, into the “More characters” box, and the editor creates a slot for it.
Be clear about what a font needs
In scripts such as Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Hebrew, Georgian, Armenian, Japanese kana, Korean letters and Chinese characters, every letter stands on its own. A font with one drawing per character works fully in these.
Other scripts are different. Arabic letters change shape depending on their neighbours. Bengali, Hindi and the other Indian scripts combine letters into conjuncts and move vowel signs around. Thai and Khmer place marks above and below letters. Browsers and apps do this with OpenType rules inside the font, and this editor cannot write those rules yet. So for these scripts the editor lets you draw and map each single character (they carry a “single characters” label in the list), but the joining and the conjuncts will not happen on their own. A font made this way is useful for display text, logos and learning, but for long running text you would add the OpenType rules in a dedicated program afterwards. For Arabic there is a choice of the four joining forms, which some apps can use.
Can I make a 3D font?
A font file (TTF, OTF, WOFF2) can only store flat outlines in one colour. It cannot hold real 3D shapes, lighting or colours, so a “3D font” is always a 3D look: letters drawn as if they had depth. The 3D look tool does that for you. It sweeps each letter along a direction you choose, and keeps the front face apart from the side with a small gap, so the letter looks like a solid block. Try it on one glyph, and when you like it, apply it to all glyphs. Because the result is just outlines, it works in every program and on every website. Colour fonts (COLR or SVG fonts), which can show gradients and shading, are not supported by this editor yet.
Make a font from a printed template
Drawing with a mouse is not for everyone. If you prefer pen and paper, or you want your own handwriting as a font, use the paper template:
- Choose the languages and press Template PDF (or Template images). The tool makes A4 pages with one box for each character, guide lines, and four black squares in the corners.
- Print the pages and write the letters in the boxes with a black pen or marker. Pale blue guide lines and grey labels do not show up later; only dark ink counts.
- Scan or photograph the pages flat and straight, with all four black squares visible. A scanner gives the best result, a phone photo in good light also works.
- Upload the pages. The tool finds the squares, straightens the page, reads every box, turns the ink into smooth outlines and puts each one into the right glyph. Then you can tidy the shapes with the editor tools and download the font.
The template is remembered in your browser, so you can come back later and upload the filled pages from the same browser. In the editor, the Paper template tab can make a template for the glyphs that are still empty, which is useful for adding more characters later. Handwritten outlines are smooth and slightly rounded at sharp corners. Use the Select tool to fix corners, and Auto width to set the spacing. PDF upload works for scanner PDFs that contain JPEG pages. If your PDF is another type, save its pages as JPG or PNG first.
What each file format is for
- TTF works almost everywhere: Windows, macOS, Linux, Office and most design tools. It is the best default.
- OTF is the OpenType format. Here it is written with PostScript-style (CFF) outlines, which some design programs prefer.
- WOFF2 is the compressed format for websites. It is the smallest, and every modern browser supports it.
- WOFF is the older web format, only needed for very old browsers.
- EOT was made for old versions of Internet Explorer.
- SVG is an SVG font, used by some older tools. Browsers no longer use it.
Read more in our guide to TTF, OTF and WOFF2, and see how to use custom fonts on a website.
Editing someone else's font: what you may do
Changing a font file is a legal question, not only a technical one. A font is protected by its license, and licenses differ. Fonts under the SIL Open Font License generally let you modify and share them, but may require you to give the result a new name if the original uses a Reserved Font Name. Some licenses forbid changes completely. Before you edit a font that is not yours, read its license. Our font licensing guide explains the common terms. The list of fonts in this tool is limited to fonts whose license allows commercial use, but the license is still the final word.
If you drew the font yourself, it is yours. Add your name and a license text in the Font info tab so people know how they may use it.
What is kept and what is not
When you open an existing font, the outlines, the character map, the widths, the names and the metrics are kept. Some things are not, and it is better to know that in advance:
- Hinting (instructions that help small text on old screens) is removed, because it would no longer fit your edited outlines.
- Kerning is kept only when the font stores it in the old kern table. Most modern fonts store kerning as an OpenType feature (GPOS), and that is not kept. Check the spacing of pairs such as AV and To in the Preview tab.
- OpenType features such as ligatures, alternates and mark positioning are not kept.
- Variable fonts open as one static style.
- Composite glyphs (letters built from other letters, like é) become ordinary outlines, so each can be edited on its own.
For fonts with complex scripts such as Arabic or Bengali, where features decide how letters join, edit only if you know that those features are not needed.
Privacy: your font stays with you
The editing happens in your browser. Your font is not uploaded when you open it or edit it, and we do not keep a copy. The only time a file goes to our server is when you press Check on server: the finished font is sent to a PHP checker that reads it, tells you what it found, and removes it immediately. The editor also remembers your last project on your own device, so you can continue after closing the page, and you can discard it at any time.
Frequently asked questions
Is this font editor free?
Yes. It is free, has no sign-up and no limit, and adds no watermark to the fonts you make.
Which font files can I open?
TTF, OTF, WOFF and WOFF2 files. You can also start from an empty font, or from one of the fonts in our directory whose license allows changes.
Can I make a font from scratch?
Yes. Choose Start a new font, pick the writing systems you need, and draw each glyph: paint it freehand with the Draw brush, place points with the Pen tool, or import an SVG path. Then download the font.
Which languages can I make a font for?
More than thirty writing systems are built in, including Latin with accents, Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi (Devanagari), Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Khmer, Myanmar, Ethiopic, Japanese kana, Korean letters and common Chinese characters. You can also type any other character yourself.
Can I make a 3D font?
You can make a font with a 3D look. The 3D look tool sweeps each letter along a direction and keeps the front face apart from the side. A font file itself can only hold flat, single-colour outlines, so real 3D, lighting and colours are not possible in TTF, OTF or WOFF2. Colour fonts are not supported by this editor yet.
Can I draw on paper and turn it into a font?
Yes. Download the printable template (PDF or images), write the letters in the boxes with a black pen, scan or photograph the pages, and upload them. Each box is read and becomes the outline of that character.
Will Arabic, Hindi or Bengali fonts join and combine letters automatically?
Not yet. For scripts that join letters or build conjuncts, this editor lets you draw and type each single character, but it cannot add the OpenType rules that make letters join or combine. Such a font suits display text and logos, but long running text needs the rules added in a dedicated font program.
Which formats can I download?
TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2, EOT and SVG. You can download one format, or several at once in a ZIP.
Is my font uploaded to your server?
The editing happens in your browser, so your font is not stored on our server. The optional "Check on server" button sends the finished file to our PHP checker, which reads it, answers, and deletes it at once.
Do I keep the rights to the font I make?
Yes, if you drew it yourself. If you edit someone else's font, you need the right to change and share it. Many open-source licenses allow this, but the SIL Open Font License can require a new name (a "Reserved Font Name"). Read the license first.
What is lost when I edit an existing font?
Outlines, character map, widths, names and metrics are kept. Hinting instructions, OpenType features such as ligatures and stylistic sets, kerning stored as an OpenType feature (as in most modern fonts), and variable-font axes are not kept, because they cannot stay correct once the outlines change.
Can I edit a variable font?
Not as a variable font. The editor opens the default style as a normal static font.
How do I draw a curve?
Quadratic curves are used, as in TrueType. A curve has two on-curve points (squares) with a control point (circle) between them. Use the Add point tool with Shift to add a control point to a straight segment, then drag it.
Will my work be lost if I close the page?
The editor keeps the last project in your browser (on your own device only) and offers to restore it when you come back. Download your font to keep it safely.
Why is my glyph filled wrongly (holes in the wrong place)?
Letters with a hole, such as O or A, need the outer shape and the inner shape to run in opposite directions. The editor sets this automatically when you draw, paste or import a shape. If it still looks wrong, press Auto-fix directions, or select a point of the inner shape and press Reverse contour.
More tools and fonts
Need only to convert a file? Use the TTF to WOFF2 converter. To find a font from a picture, try the font finder, and to turn text into a picture use the font image generator. Browse all free fonts. Popular choices: Display fonts, Handwriting fonts, Script fonts, Sans serif fonts, Serif fonts.