How it works
This comic font generator sets a sound effect in one of 4 fonts, as 3D block letters on an impact burst. Type yours in Your text to replace a very loud AHEM, then press Download picture (PNG).
Read the full guide
Pick the font
Luckiest Guy is the heaviest and sets a word 1.4 times as wide as Bangers, which slants. Neither has small letters, though lowercase in Luckiest Guy rounds off e, m and n. Boogaloo and Comic Neue have true lowercase; Comic Neue suits captions.
Burst, block and file
Impact burst has 18 spikes and picks its own fill: yellow behind red, purple or black letters, black behind the rest. Under More options, Strength of the look sets the depth of 3D block and the dot size of Halftone dots, and Bend sets how far Bulge swells the middle letters. On a Transparent background the burst still saves, on a board of 2400 by 1200 pixels.
Tips
- There is no speech balloon. Comic Neue in Black on the burst reads as a shout, the nearest thing.
- Speed lines start at the words, so a short word hides most of them. One long line shows them best.
- All four fonts have é, ñ, ü, ö and ç. Only Boogaloo has ł, š, ž and ğ.
Questions and answers
Does this work as a superhero font generator?
Yes, on Bangers: its description says it follows mid-20th-century superhero comic cover lettering. Set Look to 3D block and, under More options, Shape to Arch for a title. No character or publisher lettering is copied.
Are these the fonts comic books use?
Loosely. Only Bangers follows comics; Luckiest Guy follows 1950s commercial hand lettering and Boogaloo 1960s LP covers. Comic books were lettered in pen and ink from 1930 through the 1990s. Now nearly all lettering is digital, though sound effects are still often drawn by hand.
What are the dots in Halftone dots?
Every dot is the same size, so they are closer to Ben Day dots than to a true halftone, whose dots vary in size. The process dates from 1879; mid-20th-century colour comics used it for cheap shading: widely spaced magenta dots read as pink.