Fontcloud: How To Get A Font’s Extra Characters When Using An iPad

What is Fontcloud?

Fontcloud is one of Creative Fabrica’s FREE online tools that is a font manager and character map. No subscription required, just sign up for an account.

I discovered a couple of years ago that I can access Fontcloud through the Safari browser on my iPad. I had been looking for a way to use my fonts that have glyphs aka special characters – like swirls, swashes, and swooshes – in Design Space. I didn’t really care for the character map apps. For me Fontcloud is easy to use, and this article is going to show you just how easy it is.

Font Used

Marcela Font

In order for this to work, you’ll need to make sure that the font you want to use has been unzipped and where you can find it easily, and that the font has been installed on your iPad/iPhone. If you don’t know how to install fonts onto your device, here’s Kymmie J’s tutorial using the FREE iFont app.

Let The Tutorial Begin!

Step #1 – Tap to the Tools in the top navigation menu, and select Fontcloud from the drop down menu.

Step #2 – Tap on the white button, that’s in the lower left corner of the screen, that says Open Fontcloud.

*NOTE: there are 3 areas in Fontcloud that are scrollable. The entire webpage. Your Fonts section scrolls once you add enough fonts to be able to scroll. Then you have the character map section that can scroll up/down or side to side. It might sound cumbersome, but it’s not.

Step #3 – To upload your font you will need to scroll down the page until you see a blue Browse button to the left of the screen. To scroll the entire webpage place your finger in the gray to the left of “Preview fonts in your own text” and drag your finger up.

Step #4 – Tap on the blue Browse button.

Step #5 – Select Browse from the pop up menu.

Step # 6 – You’ll be browsing for the font you want to use that has already been installed on your device. You’ll need to navigate to where you save your downloaded fonts. Most times they can be found in the Downloads folder in iCloud or the Downloads folder that is on your device.You can use the search bar at the top and type in the font name to find it. 

Step #7 – The uploaded font should now be under Your Fonts to the right of the screen. Select the font you want to work with by tapping on it, its bar will turn gray when selected.

Step #8 – To make it easier to see the character map, increase text size by one tap of the +. This will give a row of 7 characters across. You’ll only see 5, but by dragging your finger to the left you’ll be able to see the last 2 columns of characters.

Step #9 – Type in your text by tapping on “Preview the font with your own text.” It will clear and you can type your text. Below your typed text is a preview display of the text you typed in the font you selected.

Step # 10 – To find the special characters or glyphs or swashes & swooshes, scroll down the character map section to the right. The special characters will have a blue bounding box around them.

Step #11 – When you tap on the special character you want, it will be automatically copied to your device’s clipboard. There’s a tiny, gray message that pops up at the very top right of the screen that says the character was copied to your clipboard, but most time you’ll miss seeing it, but it was copied.

Step #12 – In the text field, where you typed your text, tap at the end of your text to get the Select/Paste pop up menu to pop up. Then select Paste. This will paste the character you copied from the character map.

*NOTE: You can only copy one character at a time.

**NOTE: Most of the special characters will display as a rectangle with an X in it or as an emoji, but will display correctly in the preview below the text field and in Design Space.

Step #13 – In the text field, where you typed your text, double tap to highlight all of the text and for the Copy/Paste pop up menu. Then select Copy.

Step #14 – Open your Design Space app. Tap on the text button. In the pop up menu select System. Scroll or search for the font you are wanting to use. Tap on it to select it. *Note: you have to select the same font you uploaded to Fontcloud.

Step #15 – In the text box that pops up, tap in the box and the Paste pop up should come up. Tap on Paste.

All of the text you highlighted and copied in Fontcloud will now be in the text box. The special characters will still be weird looking in the text and will look like a square with a ? inside. Don’t worry, it will display correctly.

*NOTE: If the actual text on your Design Space canvas has weird characters displayed, it usually means you did not select the correct font.

I hope this tutorial was helpful.