01
The hero
The name in seven colours of clay, one per letter, on warm paper scattered with little clay balls.
Letters rolled from soft modelling clay, in stackable layers · v1.000
ClaybunClaybunClaybunClaybun
Claybun is a cozy display font made of modelling clay: every stroke is a rolled snake of clay, pressed into the next one at a soft seam and lit with a satin shine. The parts come as separate layer fonts, so you can colour a title like a tray of fresh clay.
Type tester
Try it with your own words
All four layers are stacked here in Rainbow Mix, a new colour of clay for every letter as in the hero, with a rounded bevel. Try one colour per word with the other recipes, switch Effects off for flat clay, or the layers off for Solid. Type double letters to see the alternates take turns.
24 px
Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★
36 px
Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★
56 px
Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★
88 px
Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★Roll, Squish & Play ★
This preview covers Basic Latin and the playroom extras. The full font adds every accented letter.
Features
Made for game interfaces
A cozy clay display font: hand-rolled letters in five layer fonts that stack into shiny 3D clay, three versions of every letter and 12 typeable playroom extras.
01
Four layers of clay
Shadow, Clay, Shade and Gloss stack into a shiny, rounded clay letter in any colour; Solid is the whole letter in one font when one colour will do.
02
Three of every letter
Each letter and figure has three hand-rolled versions, and contextual alternates rotate them as you type, so 'balloon' never shows two identical o's.
03
Rolled, then pressed
Every stroke is its own snake of clay, slightly uneven and bent, joined to the next stroke at a visible pressed seam.
04
Any colour of clay
Recolour the layers per word or give every letter its own clay, from tomato red and mint green to blueberry and lilac.
05
Playroom extras
A clay ball, heart, star, cloud, sun, rainbow, smiley, worm, rolling pin, lollipop and two clay dividers, typed like letters and drawn in every layer.
06
Capitals and lowercase
387 characters per font, with a true lowercase, figures, currency and arrows, and accents for Western and Central European languages.
Built-in icons
Twelve icons you can type
Each icon is a character in the font. Click one to copy it, then paste it into anything set in Claybun.
Playroom extras
Clay dividers
Case study
How Claybun was designed
Why I made it
Kids' games, puzzle games and claymation all share a look: soft, squishy things you want to poke. Clay titles usually get sculpted or rendered one word at a time, which is fine for a logo and useless for a level name, a button or a score.
I wanted lettering that looks pinched out of a tub of modelling clay but behaves like a font, so the logo, the menu and the level names can all come from the same keyboard.
A letter in four parts
Claybun splits each letter the way light falls on a lump of clay: a dark Shadow that draws the outline and the depth underneath, the Clay itself, a Shade on the side turned away from the light, and the Gloss marks where the shine catches. Each is its own font with identical spacing and kerning, so the copies stack exactly.
Give the Clay a colour and the rest follow it: a darker Shade, a paler Gloss, a deep Shadow. Swap the four and the same word goes from tomato red to mint, blueberry or lilac.
Hand-rolled, three times over
Real clay letters are never the same twice, so every letter and figure comes in three slightly different rolls. Contextual alternates swap between them as you type, which keeps the two l's in 'balloon' or the double p in 'happy' from looking stamped.
Each stroke is a separate snake of clay, a little lumpy and gently curved, and where two strokes meet you can see the seam where one was pressed into the other.
Playroom extras
The extras are made of the same clay: a ball, a heart, a star, a cloud, a sun, a rainbow, a smiley, a worm, a rolling pin and a lollipop, plus a short and a long clay divider for menus and cards.
They sit on their usual Unicode codes, the rolling pin on a Private Use code, and they come in every layer, so a stacked heart gets its own shadow, shade and shine just like the letters.
In use
02
The Photoshop template
The editable hero layout from the download, here in a single tomato red with a mint subtitle.
03
As a title screen
A clay puzzle game's title over green hills, with rainbow letters, clay buttons and a sun, cloud, star and worm from the extras.
04
Anatomy of a clay letter
A large B showing the pressed seams, rolled strokes, shine and shade, next to the alternates switched on and off.
05
The layers
Solid, Shadow, Clay, Shade and Gloss one by one, the stacking order, and a stacked red and blue Bo.
06
Any colour of clay
Tomato Soup, Mint Chip, Blueberry Pie, Lilac Dreams and a letter-by-letter rainbow, each with its four layer colours.
07
Playroom extras
The twelve extras with their codes, from the clay ball and heart to the rolling pin, lollipop and two dividers.
08
Character set
Capitals, lowercase, figures, punctuation, currency, arrows and accented letters, row by row in different clays.
What you get
Everything in the download
- Desktop fontsOTF for design apps, TTF for game engines and Windows, every layer.
- Web fontsWOFF2 for every layer, with unlimited web use.
- Game engine packBMFont bitmap fonts (.fnt, .xml and .png atlas) at 32, 64 and 128 px, for Godot, Unity, GameMaker, LibGDX, Phaser, MonoGame and Love2D.
- Photoshop templateAn editable hero layout with live type layers, layer effects and textures.
- README and licenseSetup tips for design apps, websites and game engines, and the full license.
License
Included with every purchase
- Games and apps, embedded for unlimited copies sold
- Logos, merch, videos, streams and print, with no limit on sales
- Installed on unlimited computers: yours, your team's and your company's
- Websites, with unlimited page views and traffic
Ask me first
- Products where customers type their own text in the font
- Resale in asset packs, templates or font collections
Please don't share or resell the font files. For anything the license doesn't cover, email me. idris.hadjoudj@gmail.com
FAQ
Before you buy
How do the 5 layers work?
Claybun comes as 5 layer fonts (Shadow, Clay, Shade, Gloss, Solid) with the same spacing and kerning. Type the same text in each, stack the copies exactly on top of each other and give each its own colour. Claybun Solid also works on its own in one colour.
How do I get the shiny clay look from the pictures?
Stack Shadow, Clay, Shade and Gloss in that order and pick a mid colour for Clay, a darker one for Shade, a pale one for Gloss and a deep one for Shadow. The roundness and shine come from the layers themselves. The marketing art adds a soft drop shadow and a light bevel and clay texture, which you can add in your design app or leave out.
Why do the same letters look different in a word?
That's the contextual alternates (calt): each letter has three hand-rolled versions that rotate as you type. It's on by default in most apps; switch it off if you want every copy identical.
Can I use Claybun in a game I sell, or for its logo?
Yes. Commercial use is included for games, apps, logos, merch, videos, streams and print, with no limit on sales, and you can embed the fonts and bitmap fonts in games and apps for unlimited copies. Products where your customers type their own text, and resale in asset packs, need an extended license: just ask.
Does Claybun work in Unity, Godot and GameMaker?
Yes. Use the TTF files in any engine that imports fonts, or the included game engine pack: BMFont bitmap fonts at 32, 64 and 128 px for Godot, Unity, GameMaker, LibGDX, Phaser, MonoGame and Love2D.
Can I use Claybun on my website?
Yes. WOFF2 web fonts are included, and web use is unlimited, with no cap on page views or traffic.
Which languages does it support?
Each font has 387 characters, covering Western and Central European languages.
Is Claybun part of a bundle?
Yes. Claybun is in The Complete Font Collection, every font I've made in one download.
Give your game a voice in Claybun.
Related reading
The thinking behind this
Longer write-ups on the craft this font draws on.
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