---
title: "About | Crest Lantern"
description: "Crest Lantern makes free heraldry tools: a coat of arms designer with blazon, a monogram maker, a motto banner maker and an illustrated glossary."
url: https://crestlantern.top/about/
---

# About Crest Lantern

A small workshop for heraldry fans, writers, teachers and anyone who wants a shield of their own to play with.

## What it is

Crest Lantern has four tools. The [coat of arms designer](https://crestlantern.top/) builds arms from a shield, a field, an ordinary and charges, and writes the blazon as you go. The [monogram maker](https://crestlantern.top/monogram-maker/) lays out initials, the [motto banner maker](https://crestlantern.top/motto-banner-maker/) sets a motto on a ribbon, and the [glossary](https://crestlantern.top/heraldry-glossary/) explains the words.

## How it works

Everything runs in your browser. Your designs are drawn on your device and kept in your browser's local storage; nothing you type is uploaded. The charges and frames are drawn for this site, and the lettering comes from the open-licensed Almendra and Noto Serif fonts, turned into outlines so downloads look the same everywhere. Once a page has loaded it keeps working without a connection. There are no accounts, cookies or ads.

## What it is not

Crest Lantern is not a heraldic authority. A design made here is not a grant of arms or a registered coat of arms, and there is no coat of arms belonging to a surname to look up. Official arms come from bodies such as the College of Arms and the Court of the Lord Lyon. Before using a design as a real emblem, for a club or business say, check that it does not copy someone else's arms or trade mark.

## Check our working

The blazon rules, tincture names and glossary follow A. C. Fox-Davies, *A Complete Guide to Heraldry* (1909), and James Parker, *A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry* (1894), both free to read online and linked from the tool pages.