Begin by assessing the importance of historical accuracy. Think of it as writing a creative brief for your project. I had not taken into account the myriad of thoughtful and intentional decisions required to transform the specimen into an artful and functional font.īefore you begin the process of digitizing your specimen, it would be worthwhile to ask yourself a few questions about your goals and intent. I will confess that was my assumption before I began to work on my first font. You might presume you can trace individual letters, then seamlessly convert those tracings into a font. Let’s say you found a beautiful old handwriting specimen you want to digitize. Then let the fun begin.ĭesigners create handwriting-based connected cursive fonts for a variety of reasons: to immortalize the loops and swirls of a loved one’s handwriting, to digitize the penmanship of a person or document of historic significance, or to transform charming handwriting into a creative asset that can be licensed. Nelson is the editor and publisher ofĭesign Tools Monthly, an executive summary of graphic design news.Are you considering transforming old cursive handwriting into a modern digital font? Before forging ahead with the design, assess your goals for historical accuracy, identify the idiosyncrasies that make the handwriting special, develop a strategy for connecting glyphs, and decide if you want to include texture. Plus, you might find one that shows people a better version of you. Or not… regardless, it can be hugely entertaining to flip through a collection of handwritten fonts and imagine what kind of person was responsible for each one.
Perhaps the abundance of handwriting fonts supports this belief.
I believe that every person has at least one good font design inside them. Using P22’s Zaner Pro, anyone can have the penmanship of America’s greatest penmen. For some typographic inspiration, download their If you keep pressing the tilde key, you’ll cycle through a range of swashes. One unique feature is that you can apply swashes to the end of a word by typing the tilde character (~). Zaner Pro, an OpenType font based upon the work of one of the most influential penman in American history - Charles Paxton Zaner.
For possibly the best examples of professional penmanship, see P22’s
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