Sketch News – Issue 42 - Newsletter Text Content
Design and create fonts directly in Sketch | FontRapid
FontRapid is an awesome little plugin that lets you design your own fonts directly in Sketch and export them as OpenType font files. If you’re a budding type designer who’s been put off by how complicated existing font design software seems then FontRapid is for you.
Just create your letterforms in Sketch and name the layer accordingly, then use the plugin to turn the layers into glyphs. FontRapid even lets you customize the line height, and left and right kerning of each individual glyph with a realtime preview. Exporting just takes a few clicks and you’ve got a fully fledged font for use in your print, web and mobile designs. That’s just the type of plugin we love!
Dark Theme Sketch Plugin | Midnight
Everybody loves apps that come with a “dark mode” and now thanks to Danny Lai and Yi-Ming Liu, Sketch has its very own “dark mode” theme. Midnight is a super cool plugin that adds the option to reskin Sketch with a much darker interface. We have to commend Danny and Yi-Ming for their efforts — reskinning all of those elements is no small task and the end result looks great.
The plugin also includes options to change the selection color, customize how dark the Canvas is and even desaturate the toolbar icons. Midnight is compatible with Sketch 48 and later and costs $8 but you can try it free for 7 days now.
Digital Typography Design Tool | Archetype
Martin Ollivere and Jamie Gilman over at Our Own Thing have built Archetype, an incredibly useful tool to help you create consistent typography styles for your digital projects. The browser based app lets you choose two complimentary fonts and set the sizing and spacing until you get it just right.
Archetype lets you preview your designs as your users will see them and you can even export the settings as CSS to for easier development or handover. You can also export your choices as a Sketch file and make it part of your design system.
Martin and Jamie have produced a handy, little video guide to show you how Archetype works.
Introducing Sketch Icons
Sketch’s nested overrides make creating and managing a dynamic icon set super simple but with this new plugin, adding your icons to the Library is now easier than ever. Sketch icons lets you import a whole collection of icons into Sketch, all at once, saving you time and letting you concentrate on the important stuff, like design work.
Valentin Chrétien has put together this great write-up explaining why Sketch Icons is really useful and, most importantly, how to make the most of the plugin. He’s also got some other great tips for improving productivity in your projects. You can download Sketch icons from github.
Workplace Hygiene in Sketch
Don’t let the title confuse you, Christian Behrens latest article for UX Collective isn’t about washing your hands after you’ve used someone else’s Magic Mouse! In fact, this is a really insightful piece about the importance of file management, naming conventions, tidy Artboards and making the most of Symbols, styles and Libraries in Sketch, to ensure your workflow is simple and efficient.
These best practises may sound simple but we’re all guilty of not following them at times. With a little work and a lot of discipline, Christian’s tips could save you a lot of stress on your next project, no matter how big or small.
Sketch Communities Around the World
There are Sketch meetup communities in almost 80 cities around the world and the list keeps on growing! Discover events and communities near you.
Here are the latest events coming up:
- January 17 — Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸 Sketch & Design #2: Devs ♥ Designers
- January 17 — Raleigh, NC 🇺🇸 Lightning Talks: Tools n Techniques
- January 24 — Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸 Sketch Meetup #1
- January 24 — Athens, Greece 🇬🇷 Sketch Meetup #2
- January 25 — Florence, Italy 🇮🇹 Sketch Crash Course
- January 30 — New York, NY 🇺🇸 Why, What, When and How to Prototype User Experiences
- January 31 — Düsseldorf, Germany 🇩🇪 Sketch Meetup #3
- February 21 — Munich, Germany 🇩🇪 Sketch Meetup #4
- February 24 — Kathmandu, Nepal 🇳🇵 Sketch Meetup #1
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