I have an idea for a new font, I need help with two things:
- how can I create and publish it so that it could be used by people?
- how do I check if its not similar or same as existing font
The first question is a lot easier than the second one. 1) The opensource program FontForge can be used to make fonts.
The second question doesn't really have an answer - there's a lot of fonts in existence, and there isn't a single directory of every font that has been made through all of history. Services like IdentiFont and WhatTheFont can help identify similar typefaces, but they aren't perfect. But you shouldn't worry so much about it - there's a lot of fonts that look similar to eachother. Mrs. Eaves from Emigre Fonts is very similar to Baskerville; Helvetica and Arial have been confused for eachother for over 30 years!
If your concern over the originality of your design is borne of a legal fear rather than an artistic one, you'll need to see the advice of a lawyer (or at least check-out the Law Stackechange). However, if you're not selling your font and it isn't a wholesale clone of an existing one, you'll probably be fine. Just don't get in a fight with Linotype - they took Microsoft to court in 2004 over Microsoft's Segoe family of typefaces being too similar to Lino's Frutiger family (Linotype won the suit).
Publishing can take many forms. Options include:
- Submitting it to a free font distributor like DaFont or Deviantart
- Hosting it on your own site
- Licensing it to a foundry like Monotype or Adobe.
