# Creating a font using alpha method, ClanLib API overview

1. Launch your favourite paint program.

2. Create a new image; make sure the background is set to transparent. You have to make the image very wide; set the image to 2000x50 for example.

3. Select the text tool, select a font and size, and enter the letters you want in your font. You need to make sure there is an empty space between each letter; a good practise is to put a space between each letter. Example: "A a B b C c D d E e ...".

4. Make sure the whole font fits in your image. It doesn't matter if there are empty lines above, below, in front or at the end of the font.

5. Often some characters need some manual fixing, as they contain empty vertical lines. The " is a typical example of this, it often has empty lines between the two '. The solution is to create some barely visible pixels between them, so the cutter understands it is only one letter.

6. Save your work as a 32-bits image; TGA or PNG is well-suited for this. Notice that Photoshop and Paintshop have trouble handling alphavalues when saving. Gimp is excellent for this, though.