# The Invaders TV show font



## spawndude (Nov 28, 2007)

I'm looking for "The Invaders" font to make a nameplate for my Invaders diorama.

I've searched in Google but haven't found anything.

What I have found are fonts for the video game or fonts named Invaders but look nothing like the fonts used on the TV show.

I'm comparing fonts by the shape of the "E, I, and D".


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## RSN (Jul 29, 2008)

spawndude said:


> I'm looking for "The Invaders" font to make a nameplate for my Invaders diorama.
> 
> I've searched in Google but haven't found anything.
> 
> ...


Very often the logo for TV shows were custom made and there is no real font. I would think "The Invaders" is a rather obscure subject for someone to design and create an entire font library from it.


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## spawndude (Nov 28, 2007)

RSN said:


> Very often the logo for TV shows were custom made and there is no real font. I would think "The Invaders" is a rather obscure subject for someone to design and create an entire font library from it.


That's what I was thinking but thought I'd ask.

I got to thinking I could just take a screen shot of the shows intro title, print it and cut out the letters to be used as a template/pattern on some Sculpy.


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## scotpens (Sep 6, 2003)

You could probably design your own custom font based on the show's episode title cards, if you were so inclined.


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## Steve H (Feb 8, 2009)

It tickles my memory that when the Mac first came out and the desktop printing explosion occurred, there were a LOT of people of a SF mindset who dived in to generate all manner of genre based fonts. 

The tricky part would be trying to suss out just what it was named. Somewhere there's a repository of SF and Fantasy based fonts. 

But to go back to the original problem, things like title cards used to be a much more hand-made, artistic based endeavor. It might start as a standard Letraset dry transfer but it would be cut and scraped and inked over like crazy. And as said, usually there wouldn't be an entire font created, just what was needed for the few title cards it would appear, and as ad flats and tear sheets. 

Kinda miss those days, naturally. There was much more energy and imagination.


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

Did you try here?

http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=303

I would say that the original title cards were all done by hand: look at the inconsistent characters. However, that doesn't mean that somebody didn't come up with a digital font for this newfangled computer age.


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## fernieo (Mar 22, 2000)

I go here :
http://www.whatfontis.com/ 
or here:
http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
When I need to find a specific font


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

Even if a font were available, I would still do it by hand because of the tight spacing, customized between specific characters … which would not be available in a digital font unless it had a ton of ligatures in it, and I doubt it would.

My 2 cents ...


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## Paulbo (Sep 16, 2004)

Using a graphics program rather than a word processor gives one complete control over spacing, vertical alignment, etc.


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

True, Paul. On closer examination of the title cards, I see that the characters are not as customized as I thought, even though there are multiple versions of the E and A, for example. Scaling and kerning should make them snuggle up.


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## Richard Baker (Aug 8, 2006)

All you need to do is export the text as shapes then move them around as you please in a vector based program like Corel or GSP Omega. Get them where you want then merge- the good thing is that vectors are infinitely scaleable so you can do almost anything with them. I do this sort of thing several times a week where I work...


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## SteveR (Aug 7, 2005)

Well, if we're going to get into it, then … we could take the title cards (link above) and Live Trace (and Expand) them in Illustrator. Each character could be saved as a layer in a master file, and then altered to suit the usage.


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## MGagen (Dec 18, 2001)

Being a printer from way back in the day, I believe the title cards were set on a "PhotoTypositor," a sort of headline making machine that exposed each letter onto litho photopaper a character at a time. Fonts were a flexible film strip with letters about an inch or so high that were clear.

They were used for decorative advertising headlines and there were hundreds and hundreds of obscure display fonts; many of which I have never seen digitized. Likely, your Invaders font is among them.

Here's a link to a page that gives a pretty good idea of the machine and its uses:

http://proportionwheel.squarespace.com/blog/2009/3/4/the-phototypositor.html

M.
(The crusty old printer...)


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## spawndude (Nov 28, 2007)

I appreciate all the info guys! I learned way more than I expected.

While I do have access to the full Adobe Suite and other high end graphics programs through my employer I've never done much more than tinker with them. I fear this would be another endeavor I'd get addicted to!!!!

I think I will just print out the title screen to the correct size, cut out the letters and use them as stencils.

Thanks for links! Didn't find what I'm looking for but bookmarked for future reference.

SteveR, until looking at scotpens title card link (again, thanks!) I hadn't noticed the difference in the same letters. Its more than just the E and A!


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## spawndude (Nov 28, 2007)

Oh, just an FYI for those wanting to build the Invaders saucer. Michaels sells Liquitex spray paint and the color called "Cobalt Blue Hue 6" is real close (or appears to be) to the color of the saucer.

This of course depends on if you believe the saucer was blue or if its just a lighting effect.


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## sbaxter (Jan 8, 2002)

fernieo said:


> I go here :
> http://www.whatfontis.com/
> or here:
> http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
> When I need to find a specific font


You saved me the trouble; I was going to suggest this as well. 

When Walt Disney World updated Epcot's "Test Track" ride a couple of years ago, I used the service above on the type used for the new logo. See http://wdwnewstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/5TT123234LARGE-800x533.jpg When "What the font" was flummoxed, I decided it was a custom job, and I proceeded to draw the entire font myself in Adobe Illustrator, extrapolating from the seven existing characters. Now I just need to find someone who has the appropriate software and can take those vector files and save them as an actual font for me (actually, it would be two fonts — I made one that was less wide than the original).

Qapla'

SSB


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## Scotty K (Mar 21, 2011)

It's amazing to me how interesting this thread is...



> Now I just need to find someone who has the appropriate software and can take those vector files and save them as an actual font for me (actually, it would be two fonts — I made one that was less wide than the original).


In doing some research on this, I came across a free font creation software program that might fit your bill here:

http://fontforge.org/

Word of warning, however; the learning curve on this looks fairly steep. Might be fun to play around with, though.

Just thought I might bring this to your attention...


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## Highlighter (Aug 8, 2011)

*Invaders font*

I know someone who had one of the title cards and he said you could see the faint penciled square lines on it and the letters were shaped and then hand painted. I've been working on a font on and off and vectorised most of the letters, but it's a bit tricky -- like someone mentioned there are different variations of the same letters.

Interesting too, there is one missing letter not featured in any of the titles or other cards and it's the letter "J". Not a hard one to reproduce I guess but there's no title with that letter in! Foreign versions of the titles do have the letter "J" but are a completely different font.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

Cool thread and excellent links. :thumbsup:


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

That's the problem with trying to recreate pre-computer logo types - they were all hand drawn!


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## Richard Baker (Aug 8, 2006)

I have to recreate weird hand drawn logos and logotypes al the time- the very worst are the ones which have that rough, charcoal-scrubbed look. What can be done in a few moments in a piece of paper takes hours messing with curve control handles to reproduce. Bitmap to vector conversion utilities sometimes even make a bigger editing problem than they save time with.
Last week a client brought in a logo done in crayon- he grinned and said "Do you believe my 8 year old designed this?" I just looked at him and said "You're kidding!"


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## M A Payne (Sep 27, 2020)

spawndude said:


> I'm looking for "The Invaders" font to make a nameplate for my Invaders diorama.
> 
> I've searched in Google but haven't found anything.
> 
> ...


DA FONTS - fancy>distorted fonts>north point... That's the closest I've seen that'll come to THE INVADERS font.


spawndude said:


> I'm looking for "The Invaders" font to make a nameplate for my Invaders diorama.
> 
> I've searched in Google but haven't found anything.
> 
> ...


dafont.com


spawndude said:


> I'm looking for "The Invaders" font to make a nameplate for my Invaders diorama.
> 
> I've searched in Google but haven't found anything.
> 
> ...


North Point Font | dafont.com. That's the closest I've seen that looks like 'THE INVADERS' title.


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