![]() ![]() ![]() As I designed the P22 Marcel Script, which is a connected cursive font based on handwritten WWII love letters, I chose to make small revisions to improve legibility. You may find you want to make thoughtful revisions to strike a balance between historical accuracy and optimized legibility. ( From left to right: LD Abe Lincoln by Lettering Delights/Illustration Ink, a Lincoln by Steve Woolf, and 1863 Gettysburg designed by GLC.) ( Large preview) Although 1863 Gettysburg (the font shown on the far right) was inspired by documents written by President Lincoln, the designer’s stated goal was not to replicate Lincoln’s exact writing, but to create a font that represented the era. Compare the similarities in these three fonts based on (or inspired by) the handwriting of Abraham Lincoln. “Old scripts, in particular, include letterforms that are less legible - even virtually illegible, like the old-style long s - than in modern handwriting,” notes Brian Willson, who has designed more than two dozen fonts based on the handwriting of notable figures such as Abigail Adams, Frederick Douglass, and Sam Houston. If you choose to replicate your specimen with utmost precision, be aware that rigorously honoring accuracy may mean compromising legibility. It is like watching a movie “based on a true story” versus one “inspired by real events.” In the first scenario, you can expect the movie (or font) maintains a higher degree of factual integrity than the second option, where the director (or designer) may take wide-ranging creative liberties. One of the biggest decisions you will need to make is whether you want to capture every nuance of your handwriting specimen, or if you want to design something inspired by that handwriting. Recommended reading: Hands On The Sigmund Freud Typeface: Making A Font For Your Shrink ![]() Possessing a keen familiarity of your specimen will allow you to make informed decisions about aesthetics as you design your font. Then conduct a close examination of the specimen: look at the idiosyncrasies in the handwriting, the variation in shape and position of individual letters, the method for connecting letters, and the texture. 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. 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. ![]()
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