Please forgive me if I'm not allowed to start this thread since I'm not an admin or a mod, but I assumed what with 2022 winding down, there was almost no point in adding to the previous 2022 thread anymore, and since a 2023 thread was bound was inevitable, I thought what the heck?

Anyway, getting back to the discussion of fonts and such, I honestly believe if ever there was a specific font out there that just screamed 1990s, it's this one

Seriously, this font was everywhere in the 90s, just looking at me makes me feel like I'm under the age of 10 again.

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(*edit by kawaiidaigakusei. Thank you for the initiative, J_Scarbrough!)
Happy 2023!!!

Link to the 2022 thread.

The computers where I took my graphics classes had that font way back in 2003. I had forgotten the name. We always called it the Ren and Stimpy font so never took notice of the real name.

While we're on the subject of fonts, don't forget it's the Comicraft New Year's Day font sale today. Any font from their extensive library can be yours for a mere twenty dollars and twenty three cents, which doesn't get you much these days.

Happy 2023 all!

Happy New Year 2023, all, near and far.

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Verdana (size 10) is my bread and butter for writing long papers.
For leisure, I prefer font styles that look similar to typewriter keys and the Architect family of fonts are my main jam.

Ironscarf wrote:
While we're on the subject of fonts, don't forget it's the Comicraft New Year's Day font sale today. Any font from their extensive library can be yours for a mere twenty dollars and twenty three cents, which doesn't get you much these days.

Ooh! I should definitely take advantage of this! A lot of their better fonts are expensive AF, and at least this way, I can actually own some of the fonts that I use extensively (Meanwhile, for example), as opposed to licensing them through Adobe Creative Cloud.

That, and admittedly, I've also been using some pirated freebie versions of some of their fonts anyway, which I've always felt somewhat guilty.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
Verdana (size 10) is my bread and butter for writing long papers.
For leisure, I prefer font styles that look similar to typewriter keys and the Architect family of fonts are my main jam.

Verdana is a good, all-around, basic font for just about anything like that, but yeah, when I write scripts, I tend to use Courier, since it's the closest you can come to a typewriter font.

but yeah, when I write scripts, I tend to use Courier, since it's the closest you can come to a typewriter font.

Funny because that was a font you could buy on daisy wheel or metal ball for your typewriter. I had it for my Smith Corona daisy wheel typewriter. Last physical typewriter I ever owned.

The wife used to have a little manual one for forms. That was Pica.

Okay, I just purchased and downloaded some of the fonts that I previously either used via a license through Adobe, or, ahem, downloaded bootleg freebies of.

Soooo . . . how exactly does Crossbar I technology work with these fonts? Because . . . from what I've been trying out on my computer, they don't work, regardless of what programs I'm using (i.e. image editing programs, or Word programs). According to Comicraft, the Crossbar I technology is in the OpenType version of these fonts . . . well, the OpenType versions are the ones I installed, but again, the Crossbar I technology doesn't appear to be working with any of them. Is there maybe something I've overlooked in the original Zip folders?

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Soooo . . . how exactly does Crossbar I technology work with these fonts? Because . . . from what I've been trying out on my computer, they don't work, regardless of what programs I'm using

I just downloaded and installed a font, When I try to type words that usually wouldn't have a capital I, the font techology changes the letter to sans serif so it's just a plain upright bar. I can see this happening. I dunno what open source does or does not do, so I installed true type.

Does that mean Crossbar I technology works in the Truetype version then?

But yeah, I have that exact same problem with certain other fonts I've downloaded from various sources out there over the years.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Does that mean Crossbar I technology works in the Truetype version then?

It sure works okay in mine. On the site they don't say “only works with truetype fonts” so… if it's not working for you, maybe time to contact them? There's a Contact Us link at the bottom of the main page.

dpat57 wrote:
On the site they don't say “only works with truetype fonts” so…

No, but again, just about all of their fonts that utilize their patented Crossbar I Technology note such as being a feature in the Opentype versions. But, I still have the original Zip folders with both versions, so even they strongly recommend installing the Opentype versions, I'll uninstall those and try the Truetype versions, as see if that makes a difference.

Nope. Still didn't work. Guess I need to contact 'em.

It's odd the Adobe versions worked and the Comicraft purchased ones don't. What software are you lettering with?

I do the lettering within the same program that I do the rest; in the case of when I actually work on comics and such, I use Fireworks, simply because I had been using that since the days of when it (and Flash) used to be Macromedia products before Adobe bought them. I know Adobe hasn't updated or done anything with Fireworks in years, but even so, like I said, for a while, the Adobe licensed version of some of these fonts that I used, the Crossbar I Technology actually worked, both in Fireworks, and even in other programs like Word . . . even the bootlegged freebie versions I used, the Crossbar I Technology worked as well.

I bought Hush Hush yesterday and just added it to my library in opentype. A quick test run with Inkscape (I always use the poor man's illustrator for lettering!) shows the crossbar I tech to be working fine. I bought Meanwhile way back before the crossbar I tech was introduced and got used to that, so I can't help hitting shift anyway, but it's definitely there!
Looks like Fireworks was discontinued 10 years ago so I'd hazard it's a software issue and not a problem with your fonts.

Perhaps, but that also doesn't necessarily explain why it wouldn't be working in other programs either.

EDIT: Oh wow, I actually wasn't aware that Comicraft was headquartered in my state!

Well that's handy. If the problem persists you can go there in person to demand satisfaction. I suggest crowquills at dawn if they don't come up with the goods.

On a happier note, the latest Inkscape update looks quite different and I found out you can make a squircle!

Just saying, I use Paint.NET to add dialogue, balloons and effects. I've tried other programs, but when you use something and it's simple and you like it, it's hard to make a jump to something else.

dpat57 wrote:
Just saying, I use Paint.NET to add dialogue, balloons and effects. I've tried other programs, but when you use something and it's simple and you like it, it's hard to make a jump to something else.

This. So much this. Using the free Photoshop CS2 Adobe put out when they stopped supporting the product and I know all the keyboard shortcuts. I'm not changing anything unless someone gifts me all new software.
I have a stylus and pad that I bought five years ago and it's still in the box because I'm so used to my mouse for everything. Now with a much smaller laptop I'll have room to actually use the stylus. Tempted to start drawing again.

dpat57 wrote:
Just saying, I use Paint.NET to add dialogue, balloons and effects. I've tried other programs, but when you use something and it's simple and you like it, it's hard to make a jump to something else.

Now you mention it, Paint.Net is the one program I've been using since I started and still use today. It's great for all kinds of editing tasks, lightweight and fast, like zipping through the traffic on a motorbike.

Like I said, I've been using Fireworks since high school: I took a Flash animation course for a couple of years (this was back when Flash was still mostly for webtoons like HOMESTAR RUNNER, and stuff like that), and our teacher had us using the entire Macromedia suite of programs for various different elements of making animations - Fireworks was basically what we used to create things such as backgrounds and scenics, or to make scanned JPGs of our storyboard panels. I tried Photoshop a time or two before, but I've just found Fireworks to be a slightly easier and more user-friendly version of Photoshop, which is why I continue to use it even to this day.

Ah I remember back in the day when Photoshop was the Rolls Royce of image editing programs but all the other stuff was done much better by Adobe's competitors- apart from Acrobat, which was crap but a standard for some reason.

Then Adobe ate the competition :(
Corel, Macromedia etc.

Fireworks was much better than the Adobe version of that program… I can't remember its name unfortunately.

Ozoneocean wrote:

Fireworks was much better than the Adobe version of that program… I can't remember its name unfortunately.

Don't worry about it, neither can anyone else. It was just some stray icon you never clicked on and you just used Flash and Fireworks.

As much as I loved KENAN I'd buy it.

You know that Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing”? Honestly, that applies more to big YouTubers these days than anything. I mean think about it: Mr. Beast has a buttload of money, but what the hell does he even actually do? From what I've seen of his content, he really doesn't do much of anything. Same with SSSniperwolf - all she does is just react to TikToks and junk, and look how rich she is. Hell, none of these Talking Heads do much of anything, yet it's somehow their full-time jobs.

Meanwhile, Content Creators like me actually put time, work, energy, and effort into the content we create, but we just get swept under the rug while YouTube postures the Talking Heads.

Hey guys! Happy New Year! :)

Happy New Year to you too, MegaRdaniels:)

Lets start 2023 friendly.
How is everyone else doing today?

I started to work on #4.

Currently trying to get back to my comic drawing routines after having been recovering from sickness for some time and having been distracted by a bunch of other stuff.

Shaved my head clean last friday, as my hair has been receding for quite some time and I figured it might just be the right time to shave it all clean already.

As for the rest, looking forward to come back this february from my current comic hiatus.

Keep getting put down by a “friend” of mine. He's obviously one of the few people who still want to talk to me and meet sometimes IRL and that's not something I can say about the 95% of other people I've met throughout the decades, but it's so incredibly frustrating. Basically he mocks my ambitions to write this, saying it probably wouldn't be much of a loss if I couldn't finish my comic (never read it himself), he compares me to drug addicts for spending my free time with creative work, says I'm narrow-minded if I'd rather discuss my own original material with people than filmmakers' achievements generally (not that it has to be one or the other, it's just one makes me happy and excited while the other is a very non-personal conversational subject) and grabs every chance to try and make me feel like I'm ruining my life with this, all while he says he does it out of caring.

I'm gonna be honest, he's not entirely wrong when it's about how obsession is unhealthy. I wouldn't say manga authors who work themselves to death, not out of financial reasons, but because they get so much out of creating - are living a healthy lifestyle either. They obviously could use some balance. And obviously, if I've been depressed most of my life, I could just go to therapy instead, force myself to eat healthy, get another job to sleep during the night instead of the day, I could force myself to do sports and lose weight, force myself to be more social and spend my time watching arthouse films and reading heavy books like he would, because according to him, these are all healthy activities. Maybe spend an hour or two now and then creating a panel, but even then, I should be aiming for something more revolutionary than entertaining.

So basically, I should change everything about my life in hopes of fitting his image of healthy and happy and if I don't, there's always gonna be something else to criticize. Meanwhile I'm depressed af, because none of these give me half the emotional fulfillment as working on my material and seeing a person here and there who appreciates it. I know people would cut contact with others for less and I'm not one of them, but I really need to be able to filter these words of care out, because whatever he's trying to do, it's not working and arguing about it only makes it worse. He had the same butthurt reaction when I picked up anime and watched those instead of his preferences because he misses being able to talk to me about all kinds of serious things and aesthetics and such, and I get it, it sucks, but to me, spending time and money on something I don't get demotivated about after a few weeks is not a waste of time and money and obviously he'd rather have me feel just melancholic all the time as long as it fits his idea of me making the right decisions. Maybe I'm just escaping to my imaginary world to feel good, but guess what, not doing that doesn't mean I'm okay or my life is okay and nobody's going to solve my problems for me, other people are just gonna avoid me anyway, ‘cause depressed are the new lepers so why not be able to communicate different aspects of myself through my panels I otherwise can’t communicate?