Show HN: I Made Bagel Font
bake-ai.comHey HN,
I recently made 3d style Bagel web font (with some more styles) from scratch, and wanted to share the process in case anyone's interested in experimenting or giving feedback. You can play around by typing https://www.bake-ai.com/fonts
[Backstory] I was experimenting with Stable Diffusion + ControlNet to generate icons. To my surprise, generating letters this way was actually better than using traditional 3D tools like Blender for this purpose. That led to the idea: what if I could turn into an actual real working font?
I found a few tools, but most were either paid or lacked support. So I leaned on Cursor (been using it since launch) and spent a few hours hacking together a Python script using FontTools(https://github.com/fonttools/fonttools, Opensource font generation python library). Eventually, I got a working .ttf file with an SBIX table (used by Apple’s color fonts)!
[Technical details] 1) Create base glyphs Drew black letterforms by hand on iPad (or used open-licensed fonts for other experiments). 2) Add texture/style Used ComfyUI + Stable Diffusion + ControlNet to generate stylized images for each letter. Could also be done in Midjourney, Photoshop, etc. Key part is keeping image sizes consistent. 3) Generate font files Used FontTools (Python). Tried FontForge, BitFontMaker, even paid tools like Glyphs and Fontself — none worked well for image-based fonts. FontTools + SBIX table finally did the trick.
[Constraints] SBIX fonts are still relatively heavy, and not all software supports them yet. Photoshop does, but Figma doesn’t (yet). I plan to submit a feature request to Figma once things are more polished.
If anyone’s curious to try the font, happy to share it. Would love feedback, ideas, or just to know if this inspires you. I’ve been doing solo creative projects for a while — it can get tough, but knowing it sparks something for someone else helps a lot.
Thanks for reading — and feel free to AMA if you're trying something similar!
Updates on availability - Available: Chrome, Safari - Unavailable: Firefox
I'm using a Mac with the Chrome (Arc) browser. It might not work properly on some browsers. If it doesn't work for you, reporting it would really help me improve it next time. Thanks!
Updates on ideas from the community - Add cream cheese for bold version - Want Wholemeal version
Your page says that your fonts are licensed under the SIL Open Font License, and then your FAQ says that users need to buy a separate license for commercial use. But the SIL Open Font License permits commercial uses.
https://openfontlicense.org/ofl-faq/
(This is always true for all FOSS licenses.)
Oh wow, thank you for letting me know! I was in the middle of updating the page and didn’t write the info clearly. Thanks to you, I just fixed it properly! Really appreciate it.
I wanted to write something different to try out the font. My first instinct is to delete "I Am Bagel" completely and write something myself. However as soon as I delete it, it comes back. So I have to keep at least one letter on the screen, write what I want to write, then delete that letter afterwards (edit: or select the whole text and start writing). Maybe there could be a short timeout before "I Am Bagel" appears again after it is deleted. That will give the user time to start writing something.
I guess one could try the font out after following the "Full characters" link. However you implemented screen capturing on the initial page, so you obviously want people to write things there.
I realize it's a nitpick but I was unreasonably upset that I couldn't delete everything and start writing from scratch :)
You can do that, just select everything and then type your text. It works :) but I feel you
Yes I thought of that after posting and edited it in :) But not being able to delete everything in a text box is really bothering me. It's like an itch :)
Thanks for the comment! I actually just fixed this—it’s something I was aware of but had been putting off. I really appreciate you pointing it out. It might seem like a small thing, but you're absolutely right that little details like this matter a lot. Thanks again for taking the time to mention it :)
Thank you I am finally at peace :D
Peace :D :O :)
using firefox I'm seeing solid black blocks
Oh no—thanks for letting me know! I didn’t realize SBIX fonts don’t work in Firefox. Maybe try it on Chrome instead?
I’m on a Mac and using Chrome, so I haven’t had the chance to test it across different browsers and OS yet. It’s my first time making a font like this, so I wasn’t fully aware of the compatibility issues. I’ll try to update it soon!
Would you like to get notified when I upload a new version?
I'm also getting black boxes on Firefox on Linux, can confirm it works in Chrome.
Thanks a ton for checking and confirming that—really appreciate it
Include special characters, especially `&`, and rename it Pretzel
I agree, but maybe call it "Lauge" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSAqTdc-Y2g
Will consider (Actually, I already have pretzel)
You can make your own font out of bagels (or anything else) with this free tool: https://labs.google/gentype
Oh I didn't know that. I've tried. Though the result is not good, it can be useful. Google has many hidden funny gems thanks :) :)
If you do a bold version, it could have a cream cheese shmear (uneven) stroke around the letters.
Oh.... what a brilliant idea I never would’ve thought of that I’m seriously going to try it when I do the next update!
Italicized should be cut open bagel, toasted, of course.
Obviously
It works on iOS Safari
Thanks :))))
Is it available in wholemeal?
Will prepare