Handwriting has personality. Get to know someone well enough and their handwriting will remind you of them, because we all form letters just a bit differently.
Our devices, for the most part, lack that kind of personality. Sure, you can choose a font from a drop-down list in your word processor of choicebut its not the same.
So what if you could inject some of that unique-to-you personality into your digital discussions? Its possiblewith the right free tool at your fingertips.
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Your handwriting, your font
FontCrafter is a free web app that can turn your handwriting into a font.
Just download a PDF, fill it in by hand, and the site will create a completely custom font exclusively for you based on your writing.
It takes around 15 minutes from start to finishand then the custom font is yours forever to use on any device you want, without any additional setup.
For perspective, thats nothing compared to the typical laborious process of creating an actual custom typeface. FontCrafter takes something thatd ordinarily be out of reach for most of us and makes it downright easy.
As for the specifics, when you visit the website, you can download a PDF template to start. The idea is that youll print out the PDF and then fill it in by hand to show every letter and character in your natural writing.
The template gives you three lines. I filled out the first with uppercase letters and the next two with lowercase ones, but you can do all with uppercase letters if you prefer. Providing multiple versions of letters is meant to introduce a bit of variation, allowing the typed text from your font to look more natural.
FontCrafter starts by having you fill in each letter multiple times.
When youre done filling out the form, youll need to scan it and upload it back to the website, making sure the crosshair symbols in the corners are included. This is going to work best with an actual physical scanner, because a certain amount of precision is neededbut you could always try using the built-in scanning function in Google Drive or another such app, if you want.
If you dont have a printer or a scanner handy, there are workarounds. I used my ReMarkable writing tablet, which made the process easy. You could do the same thing with an iPad or Android tablet or even just with a stylus or your finger on your phone, depending on what you have handy. Just note that having a stylus is going to result in more realistic-looking text than using your finger, for obvious reasons.
However you go about it, once youve got your template filled out, head back to the website and submit it. The web application will process it, right in your browser, then ask you if you want ligatures (a custom character shape created when two letters merge into a single joined form) or not. Just choose whatever option looks best to you.
You’ve got a couple options for how your custom handwriting font appears.
Last but not least, youll have your font ready to download in whatever format you prefer. Both TrueType and OpenType are available, and both will work with most devices and software that supports custom fonts in the first place.
All thats left is to install the font in your operating systemsomething thats possible with Android as well as Windows and MacOSand use it in whatever applications you like.
Once your font is finished, you can install it anywhere that accepts custom font uploads.
Is this practical? Possibly not. But is it cool to turn your handwriting into a font? Definitely. Im enjoying it, even though my handwriting is awful. Just imagine how well it will work for you, a much cooler person with much better penmanship than me.
FontCrafter runs right in your regular web browserno downloads or installations needed.
Its completely free to use, without any limitatins (or even ads). You can opt to make a contribution to its creator if you want.
The service is a client-side web app, meaning its 100% private and everything happens locally on your own device. Your handwriting is never uploaded to a server, no accounts or sign-ins are required, and no one has any access to any of your data.
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