01
The hero
The name in ivory candles with three lit wicks on a warm, smoky background, over a blood-drip subtitle.
Melting candle letters with lit wicks · v1.000
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Waxwick is a Halloween display face made of candles: tall, condensed letters with wax running over every top edge, a pool at every foot and a lit wick on every third letter. Stack its layers and colour the wax, the drips and the flame one by one.
Type tester
Try it with your own words
All seven layers are stacked here in the hero's ivory wax, with glowing flames. Light every wick or none with the stylistic sets, try blood, black, pumpkin, witch or ghost candles, or switch the layers off for Solid.
24 px
Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31
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Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31
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Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31
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Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31Haunted Manor 🕯 Oct 31
This preview covers Basic Latin and the haunted extras. The full font adds every accented letter.
Features
Made for game interfaces
Tall candle letters melting as they burn, with drips, wax pools and wicks that light on every third letter, in seven layers that stack into lit candles.
01
Seven layers and a Solid
Shadow, Wax, Drips, Wick, Flame, Core and Shine share every width and kerning pair, so stacked copies make a lit, melting candle. Solid does it all in one colour.
02
Wicks that light themselves
Contextual alternates put a lit wick on every third letter, so a word flickers without any hand placing. Two stylistic sets light every letter or none.
03
Wax that melts the right way
Drips run over every top edge and end in round beads, a soft rim swells along the tops open to the sky, and a pool of wax spreads at every foot.
04
Flame dots
The i and the j are dotted with a small floating flame, lit even when the rest of the word is not.
05
Haunted extras
A candle, three candles, lantern, jack-o'-lantern, ghost, bat, skull candle, moon, spider, crystal ball, potion, cauldron, flame and two dripping dividers.
06
Any colour of candle
Ivory wax with blood drips, black candles, pumpkin orange, witchy purple and green or ghostly blue flames: each part of the candle is its own layer.
Built-in icons
Fifteen icons you can type
Each icon is a character in the font. Click one to copy it, then paste it into anything set in Waxwick.
Candlelight
Haunted night
Witchcraft
Case study
How Waxwick was designed
Why I made it
Candles are the cosiest thing in a horror scene: a séance table, a haunted hallway, a pumpkin on a step. Most candle fonts stop at letters with a few drips, and the flame, the part that makes it feel alive, gets drawn on by hand afterwards.
I wanted the whole candle in the type, wick and flame included, so a party invitation, a haunted house sign or a horror game menu could be typed and recoloured instead of painted.
A candle in seven layers
Waxwick splits each letter into the parts of a candle: a Shadow for depth, the Wax body, the Drips that run over it, the Wick, the Flame, its bright Core and the Shine along the edges. All seven share their spacing and kerning, so stacked copies land exactly on each other.
That's what makes the colours free. Keep the wax ivory and turn the drips red, burn black candles with orange flames, or go purple and green for a witch's shop. Solid packs the whole candle into one style for anything that needs a single colour.
Lit by OpenType
Every letter also has a lit version with a wick and a flame. A contextual alternate lights every third letter by default, so a word flickers without anyone placing the flames by hand. Stylistic Set 2 lights every letter, and Stylistic Set 1 blows them all out for plain melting wax.
The i and the j keep a small flame as their dot either way. Accents are placed over the melted rim or under the wax pool, clear of the drips.
The haunted extras
The extras are candles and Halloween things drawn in the same wax, in every layer: a single candle, three candles, a lantern, a skull with a candle on it and a lone flame, then a jack-o'-lantern, a ghost, a bat, a moon, a spider, a crystal ball, a potion, a cauldron and two dripping dividers.
Most sit on their usual Unicode code points and three use private codes. Some of the standard ones are emoji, so if an app swaps one for a colour emoji, insert it from the glyphs panel instead.
In use
02
The Photoshop template
The editable hero layout from the download, with the name, a framed Haunted Candles label and live type layers.
03
A party invitation
The Midnight Séance in ivory wax, Haunted Manor in blood drips and a purple and green footer, under pumpkins, bats and a ghost.
04
Anatomy of a candle letter
A large h labelled with its flame and core, wick, melted rim, drips and pool of wax, next to French and Polish words with accents.
05
The layers
Solid and the seven layers on their own, then all eight stacked into a red-dripping Hi with two lit flames.
06
Lit by OpenType
Candlelight three times: a wick on every third letter by default, every letter lit with SS02 and no wicks with SS01.
07
Any candle
The same layers as ivory wax, blood drips, black candles, pumpkin, witch's brew and ghost light, with each recipe's swatches.
08
Haunted extras
Every extra with its code point, from the candle and three candles to the cauldron, flame and two dripping dividers.
09
Character set
Capitals, lowercase, figures, punctuation and accented letters, each row in a different recipe.
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 8 layers work?
Waxwick comes as 8 layer fonts (Solid, Shadow, Wax, Drips, Wick, Flame, Core, Shine) 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. Waxwick Solid also works on its own in one colour.
How do I choose which letters are lit?
By default, contextual alternates light a wick on every third letter. Turn on Stylistic Set 2 to light every letter, or Stylistic Set 1 for no wicks at all. Apply the same setting to every layer so the flames line up.
How do I get the glowing flames from the hero?
Stack the layers and colour Flame orange and Core a pale cream, then add a soft outer glow in the flame colour to those two layers. The glow is an effect in the marketing art; the flame shapes themselves are in the fonts.
Can I use Waxwick 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 Waxwick 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 Waxwick 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 388 characters, covering Western and Central European languages.
Is Waxwick part of a bundle?
Yes. Waxwick is in The Complete Font Collection, every font I've made in one download.
Give your game a voice in Waxwick.
Related reading
The thinking behind this
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