Did you know you can create custom fonts with Windows' Private Character Editor?

Yes, it's true. Though you cannot use them in webpages and email, if you print out documents frequently, and you would benefit from the ability to create a custom character (such as a company logo, or specialized bullet in lists), this tutorial is for you.

What's best is it's easy!

To launch the Private Character Editor, go to Start->Run->and type in "eudcedit" and hit ok.

You have 6,400 available blocks so don't worry...you won't run out.

Just click on a code and you get a 64 x 64 drawing grid.

Now comes the fun part. Click on "Reference" and then "Window" and you can start with a base character from any font installed on your system! You could, for example, start with a specialized character, and then add some pixels to it....or copy two characters into one to create a nice, two-letter logo.
You will have the character you loaded on the right, and your drawing board on the left.

But wait, it gets even better! You don't have to limit yourself to fonts. You can use any black and white 64 pixel bmp on your system. An easy method to turn a bmp into this requirment, is to load it in paint, and then choose File->Save as->Black and white bmp. You can reduce the size in paint as well to 64 pixels. Afterwards just copy it into the Edit window of the Private Character Editor and work from there.

When you are working in Word or a similar program you wish to use the character in...after you save your new character, by default it saves to Eudc.tte and is linked to all the fonts on your system. To insert it into your document, open the Character Map from Start->Programs->Accessories->System Tools->Character Map and then scroll down the fonts list to All Fonts (Private Character). Double-click the character, then choose copy...followed by paste in your new document.

That's it...who knew Microsoft would hide such a "useful" tool.