Gubara . . .

'Gubara' is the Punjabi for 'Balloon' and for a while now, I have wanted to design a font like this.

You will be able to see from the font samples below that there are: three versions of this font where the only difference is the width of the string; and, another version, that has no string.

The balloon size is the same in the three with the string but in the one without ('not string'), it is slightly larger. You can use the three variants with the string to produce the images you want and the reason for the difference in the thickness of the string is that if your goal is to make the string as thin as possible, but still be visible, you will be able to choose a font variant that will show up correctly. If the font is small in your image, select the 'small' variant so that the thicker string still shows up; if the font is large, you can get away with using the 'big' variant and the other is there to provide some middle ground for you so that you can get the result that you want.

The reason for the varaint without the strings is to make life easier for you if you want to have strings that are a different colour to the ballons.

All you need to do in your image processor is to create a layer with one of the stringed variants with the colour of the strings - in the image above-right, that is black - and then, using the same text (just duplicate the layer) select the 'not string' variant of the font and make that the colour of the balloons that you want.

To make the balloons look three-dimensional as they do in the image at the top of the page, all you need to do is make a copy of the 'not string' layer, colour it white, blur it and then edit the curve for the transparency of the layer so that the smaller part is left highlighted, then move that layer up and to the left. Finally, make the alpha of the 'not string' layer into a mask and then invert the mask and trim the new, highlight layer with it so that you don't get any of it influencing the string layer or any background you might have used.

Gubara is a 'fun' font, suitable for parties and other celebrations for banners, tee-shirts and so on. Made from regular and shaped balloons (gubara), tied together with string and where appropriate, held down with weights, they form the letters of the Gurmukhi alphabet.

There are three fonts with string so that you can just select the one with the string that is thick enough for the job. The one with the thinest string is called 'Big' because it is most suitable for large prints where the string is visible enough. The Medium and Small variants have progressively thicker string so that it can still be seen at small sizes. To get the thickness right, just flick through the font variants until one looks right.

The fourth variant - '0 No String' - is just the balloons. With this, you can position the no-strings font over the version with the strings as a different layer in your image editing/ presentation program and change the colour of the balloons so that it is different to the colour of the string. It makes colouring it in by hand easier - if you want to - as it will be on a different layer.

Adhak and bindi use intelligent programming in the font so they are processed automatically but if you are using ASCII instead of Unicode, these are covered manually as usual.

All of the image work is done with the free software 'The GIMP';

An example of artwork with Gubara . . .
click on the image to open it up full-sized in another tab...

Hover the mouse over the images below to show examples of font characters and weights

Download Gubara . . .

Download Gubara Not String TrueType font (you need this one to superimpose the balloons if you are going to have them a different colour to the string - the balloons are a little larger so that it overlaps the balloons in the other fonts.)
gubara_0.ttf	54,588 bytes
Download Gubara 4 Big TrueType font (you need this one if you are making the image very large - it has fine string.)
gubara_4.ttf	63,964 bytes
Download Gubara 5 Medium TrueType font (you need this one if you are making a smaller image - the string is thicker so it still shows up.)
gubara_5.ttf	63,088 bytes
Download Gubara 6 Small TrueType font (you need this one if you are making the letters really small - the string is quite thick so it still shows up.)
gubara_6.ttf	61,956 bytes

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Thank you.

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Copyright ©2007-2021 Paul Alan Grosse.