Can Affinity make fonts?
Not by itself. Affinity (the free Affinity 3 app, and the older Affinity Designer, Photo and Publisher) can use any installed font and convert text to curves, but it has no way to export a font file (OTF or TTF).
The classic workaround was slow: export every letter as a separate SVG, import them one by one into a font editor, then scale, align and space each glyph by hand. A basic alphabet easily took several days.
Affont closes that gap. It adds two scripts to Affinity’s Script Library (one that creates a font template and one that sends your letters) plus a companion app for Windows and macOS that compiles, installs and exports the font. You keep drawing in Affinity, with all its tools.
What you need
- Affinity 3.3 or later on Windows or macOS. The app is free; version 3.3 is the one that added scripting.
- Affont for Windows 10/11 or macOS 11+ (Apple Silicon and Intel). One-time payment of $19, valid on 3 devices.
- No typography background. The template already includes the baseline, x-height, cap height and spacing guides.
Install Affont and add the scripts to Affinity
- Install Affont, open it and paste your license key.
- On the welcome screen, click the button that saves Affont.afscripts.
- In Affinity, open the Script Library panel, open its menu (▾) and choose Import scripts…. Select Affont.afscripts.
- An Affont category appears with two scripts: the template script and the send script. The first time you run each one, Affinity asks you to Trust and run it.
You only do this once. Updates to the app don’t require importing the scripts again unless the release notes say so.
Create the font template
Run the template script. A dialog lets you choose:
- Font and family name, for example “Brush Script” and “Regular”.
- Character set: Basic (A–Z, a–z, 0–9 and punctuation), Latin for English, Spanish and Portuguese, uppercase only, Japanese kana, or only your own extras.
- Extras: any characters or glyph names you want to add, such as ñ, f_i (a ligature) or a.alt1 (an alternate).
- Metrics: ascender, descender, cap height and x-height. The defaults work for most designs.
Affont builds a grid with one cell per character. Each cell shows the baseline and height guides, a faint reference letter and two pink lines for spacing. The template layer is locked, and a Your letters layer on top is ready for drawing.
Draw your letters
Draw each letter on top of its cell with whatever you like: the Pen tool, shapes and boolean operations, vector brushes, text converted to curves, or pasted artwork. Strokes don’t need to be expanded, because Affont converts them to outlines when you send.
- A shape belongs to the cell its center sits over, so you don’t have to sort anything into layers.
- Start with n, o, H and O. They set the stroke weight and rhythm for everything else.
- Reuse parts: the n gives you h, m and u; the o gives you b, d, p and q.
- Let round letters (o, s, O) go slightly past the baseline and the x-height or cap height. This is called overshoot, and it makes them look the same size as flat letters.
- Text you haven’t converted to curves is skipped, and Affont tells you which letter it was.
Set the spacing
Each cell has two pink lines, ·LSB and ·RSB (left and right side bearings). Drag them to set how much space each letter takes. The distance between them becomes the letter’s width in the font.
A quick method: space n and o until “nnonoonn” looks even, then do the same with H and O for the capitals. Most other letters share sides with those four.
Send. Your font is installed
With the Affont app open, run the send script. The app compiles the font with fontTools, the same open-source engine used by professional font tools, and installs it for your user. In a few seconds it appears in Affinity’s font list and in every other app.
Change a letter and send again whenever you like. Affont replaces the installed version, so you can type with your font while you’re still designing it.
Polish it in the Affont app
- Kerning: drag one letter toward another on a sample text. Kerning groups, automatic kerning as a starting point, and importing metrics and kerning from another font are also available.
- Ligatures and alternates: name a cell f_i or a.alt1 and Affont writes the OpenType features (liga, salt, ss01…) for you.
- Accents: draw the base letter and the mark, and Affont builds á, à, â, ã, ä, ñ, ç and more automatically.
- Glyph editor: fix nodes and handles, join overlapping shapes, flip or transform without going back to Affinity.
- Font info and families: designer, version, license, and extra styles (Bold, Italic…) grouped into one family.
Export OTF, TTF or WOFF2
- OTF keeps the same cubic curves you drew in Affinity. It’s the best choice for design apps.
- TTF gives you the widest compatibility with older software and some devices.
- WOFF2 is for websites.
If you painted letters with several colors or gradients, Affont also exports a color font (OpenType-SVG with a COLR fallback). In apps without color font support, it shows in a single color.
Common problems
- A letter ended up in the wrong cell: move it so its center sits over the right cell.
- A letter is missing: check that it isn’t live text. Use Layer ▸ Convert to Curves.
- “Send” doesn’t respond: the Affont app has to be open. The script tells you if it can’t reach it.
- Letters look too tight or loose: fix the pink lines first, then use kerning only for specific pairs such as AV, To or LT.