Sunday, September 27, 2009

Free font creation: Use your own handwriting


I have such bad handwriting/printing that I almost always use a keyboard. But sometimes I find that a personal note in Arial or Helvetica seems too "sterile" or stuffy for the context. And I've tried using some of the various handwriting fonts out there, but I know that they are not really my style.

Lo and behold, along comes a great little website that solves the problem. "FontCapture" allows the user to write out the letters of the alphabet once on a sheet that you can download, scan and upload the result and then get a font library that s/he can download and use to create truly "personal" messages. Printing/saving your manuscripts to PDF format gets around the problem of the recipient not having your unique font installed.

Some users have reported problems with the scanning, so you may need to fiddle with your settings before it works perfectly. Although, once you get your own unique font ("gordon" bold), it's all worth it!

For a student with written output problems, this might be a fun application that makes them feel like "one of the gang."