So as you may or may not know, I drew a web comic called Holiday Doodles. (You can see the archives at the Holiday Doodles site.) And the fonts used on that comic are ones I’ve made, of my own handwriting.

The original font I used when I started putting the doodles online back in 2013 was one I’d created the year before, back when the great YourFonts.com site would let you create fonts for free on National Handwriting Day (January 23, and it’s telling about how long I’ve been dealing with weird holidays that I didn’t even need to look that date up.)

So, the original is … kind of jacked up. Because it was auto-created by a website for free. But it also has a real charming roughness to it.

 

 

 

I recently decided to clean that old font up, since I now have actual font editing software. And when I opened it up, it was horrifying. Overlapping points! Ten points along a straight line! A real mess. I took a pass at it, refreshed the kerning, and gave it a shot in the comics.

I liked it! It’s less wide, which means I can get those longer holidays in there on one line. (Some of them are crazily long, like Grass Is Always Browner on the Other Side of the Fence Day or Move Hollywood and Broadway to Lebanon, Pennsylvania Day.) But it still retains that handwritten feeling, and is clearly (to my eye) my own writing.

Of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone, and decided after using it for a few weeks to refine it even further. I eliminated a ton of points on all of the curves, and made things a lot more smooth. But when I tried it with the comics, I was disappointed. it fills my heart with sadness to say:

It was too smooth. Too sleek. Too tidy. And it looked a little Comic Sans-ish.

So for now, I’m sticking with the middle format in my comics. But I figured I’d put the whole family out here for people to use, and you can decide for yourself which of the three you like the best. All three have some extended characters, and all three have had a minimum level of kerning done to them. (Enough for the comics, at any rate.)

This link is for a ZIP bundle with all three evolutions of the HoliDoodle font. As always, free for personal and commercial use. Enjoy!

If you're getting good use out of my free fonts, why not buy me a cup of tea!