About Counterpunch

A Next-Generation Font Editor

Counterpunch is a next-generation font editor that runs directly in your browser—no installation required, no desktop application to download. Just open your browser and start designing fonts with state-of-the-art font engineering at your fingertips.

The name "Counterpunch" refers to punchcutting—the art of carving letterforms into steel punches to cast metal type. A counterpunch is a small tool used to create the enclosed spaces (counters) within letters. Just as historical punchcutters crafted the tools that would produce countless copies of their work, this modern font editor brings professional-grade font editing capabilities to the web, introducing vital concepts such as full bidirectional complex script shaping, in-place component editing, code-driven dynamic glyph filters, and a digital assistant that streamlines everyday font engineering tasks—carrying forward the tradition of punchcutting into the digital age.

True WYSIWYG

For those who have grown weary of the repetitive edit-compile-test cycle of traditional font editors, Counterpunch offers a welcome solution. The editor provides a genuine what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience, where the editor rendering is 100% consistent with the end product that users would see in browsers, design applications, or text processors. This eliminates the frustration of dealing with vowel marks or complex contextual substitutions and positioning that do not display as expected in the editor.

Key Features

  • Browser-based - Works entirely in your web browser without installation
  • Full bidirectional complex script shaping - First-class support for Arabic, Devanagari, and other complex writing systems
  • In-place component editing - Edit components directly where they're used
  • Code-driven dynamic glyph filters - Examine your fonts with unprecedented depth and flexibility
  • Python scripting out-of-the-box - Full Python environment built in, with self-healing user code that catches and repairs broken scripts
  • Assistant - Generates Python scripts that run locally instead of sending your font data to AI servers — private, transparent, and efficient
  • Privacy-focused - Your font projects stay on your device, with minimal data collection

Open Source

Counterpunch is fully open-source, licensed under the GPLv3 license, which ensures that it will remain free from commercial exploitation. The editor is usable for everyone and without registration.

While the editor itself is free, the Counterpunch project operates a paid monthly subscription to use the assistant. With prices varying by country to make the tool universally accessible, you're getting state-of-the-art font engineering at your fingertips while supporting the growth of the project financially.

You can view the source code, report issues, and contribute to the project on GitHub: View on GitHub ↗︎

Design Approach

Counterpunch takes a variable-first and complex-scripts-first approach to font design:

  • Variable-first - Built from the ground up with variable fonts in mind, making it natural to design fonts that adapt across weight, width, and custom axes
  • Complex-scripts-first - Designed to handle complex writing systems like Arabic, Devanagari, and other scripts with sophisticated shaping requirements from day one

These aren’t afterthoughts or advanced features—they’re fundamental to how Counterpunch works, ensuring that modern font design capabilities are accessible to everyone.

Philosophy

We believe that font design tools should be accessible, transparent, and focused on the designer’s needs. Counterpunch is built on these principles:

  • Accessibility - Font design shouldn’t require expensive software or powerful hardware
  • Privacy - Your creative work is yours alone—we don’t collect or sell your data
  • Transparency - Open source means you can see exactly how the software works
  • Community - Built with and for the type design community

Current Status & Roadmap

Although the editor is currently in its alpha stage, with many features still in development, it is already a valuable tool for debugging and analysis. You can load your existing font sources and utilize the assistant and dynamic glyph filters to examine them with greater confidence and in unprecedented detail.

  • Public Beta - Late Spring 2026: A fully functional public beta for wider testing and feedback from the type design community
  • Version 1.0 - October 2026: Release of the finished product with stable APIs and comprehensive documentation
  • Beyond 1.0 - After live collaboration Counterpunch has a whole lot of product ideas lined up. Follow along for the ride.

Get Started

Ready to start designing fonts? Try the editor now—no account required: Try the Font Editor ↗︎

Contact

For questions, feedback, or support, you can reach out through GitHub issues or discussions or follow on Mastodon for updates.

"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us."
— Marshall McLuhan