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Mike Rohde does some cool stuff with handwritten fonts that I'd like to imitate. Problem is, my handwriting basically comes in a single flavor. Ever tried to change your handwriting? It's hard.
Somewhere in recent days I read online that our brain processes characters the same way it processes pictures, because they are pictures. So each character of the alphabet is a picture we learned how to draw, and if we want to change our handwriting, we have to learn how to draw each character another way.
(As an aside, I think I modeled my handwriting after my dad's. I used to love to see his notes on graph paper, where he used to map out new arrangements for the house or yard with his drafting pencils:)
Consider me deeply ignorant on the matter of typography, a subject that, for all I can tell, you need to be a professional designer to understand, although this site looks like a good start. All I know is, it would be cool to have typewritery handwriting. Don't you think?
Richard Polt has you covered if you want typewriter fonts for your computer, but here's my first try at handwriting a couple typewriter typefaces, which was about as easy as learning to draw some new stuff. (Not easy.)
The lower case letters g and a on the Lettera typeface in particular just seem like foreign characters to me, like something I might find in Kana Can Be Easy:
Does anyone handwrite g and a that way? I'm going to need tons of drawing practice before I get the hang of it.
ITAM U.J.T.U.
1 hour ago
14 comments:
I learned how to do those g's pretty well, but it initially took a lot of practice. Pretty similar to how much work it takes to learn to make an ampersand if you haven't ever done so (in my lifetime, I've instead used + and the kind of forward-3-with a stick through it, but now I seem to be mired in that ampersand).
Keep at it and I guarantee the g will come more easily. top part first, then squiggly lower bit. :D
I like this post. I like to write in typeface so to speak, but the more I concentrate on it, the smaller it gets. If I want to write backwards to design a stamp I just use my left hand.
I make my a's in a similar fashion (not quite as fancy but the same basic shape). I actually started doing it in 6th grade because I liked the way it looked typewritten better than the way they'd always taught us in school, but then, my typeobsession started at a young age (like five).
I had a classmate who wrote her 'a's like that in high school, so I figured out how she did it - without lifting the pen off the page - and it has seemed less obscure ever since.
The "g", on the other hand - I've never understood how it came to look so different from the normal version taught in school. So (needlessly) convoluted!
It's a lovely idea to handwrite the typewriter fonts; I particularly like how the Hermes script came out. Great work!
I really think I need to do a pencast with all my handwriting styles I do... something I used to be pretty interested in. Sometime in 2009 I changed the way I wrote numbers and the letter Z and it's stuck with me since!
My printing is based off my dad's to a degree, but my cursive is different. It gets really muddled in long words and it's just up and down lines. Haha.
I love looking at different ways of handwriting...I have changed mine slowly over the years. I write d, y, e, i, 4, 5, and 9 much differently than I did 5 years ago. Of course sometimes when I write dot it looks like clot, but that's more of a personal problem.
I have a friend whose handwriting looks like a very neat stylized font, even when she's taking notes in class! I should get her to make samples to scan and make into a computer font! I never thought of that before... :D
I've written my a's that way in the past, but I don't do it anymore. I've stylized my own handwriting from time to time through probably the last 15-20 years.
If I see a letter I like, I merge it into my own handwriting. It usually takes a couple weeks to change it subconsciously (when writing regularly). Now it take a few months, because I don't hand write a whole lot.
Have you seen the handwriting typewriter they put up on pilot pen's website? hah it's actually pretty neat. I guess it's about to be no more... as of june 30. http://pilothandwriting.com
I went to see Roger Waters perform The Wall live in Dublin recently. The show relies heavily on cinematography and images projected on "the wall" on stage. Much of the writing projected was in this Roger-Waters-Wall handwriting font. It is similar to the cover of The Wall album. I actually found it difficult to read. Overly stylised characters become odd unless you make letters exactly the same way. Like the letter 'g' you mentioned, that could get in the way of recognising words quickly if you have to stop and scratch your head because of the funny character depiction.
I'm selling this type writer
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=16065416&cat=71
If you know anyone in my area that is interested. My ex from high school left it with me and it occurs to me that in the years I've had it, I've touched it twice. I'm sure there's someone out there that would love it far more than I do.
My mother-in-law has handwriting that is exactly like the script type on a typewriter. It's almost creepy.
I switched my a's to typewriterly font several years ago and it still takes me an extra half-second to write it that way. But I just like it better. No way I could do the 'g'. At least, I don't think so...
Sounds like y'all have tried modifying your handwriting a lot more than I have. It's kind of a new concept for me. I think I might stick with the weird lower case a's, but the g's are just out of the question.
I write my 'a', 'g' and ampersand in that style- the problem is that people aren't used to seeing 'a' handwritten that way, so I get a lot of "what does this say?" The 'g's are fun, though.
I write "a" and "g" in a couple of different ways. One- and two-story a's depend on the letters that come just before and just after -- the choice is made based on speed and keeping the written line fluid. I have four ways to do "g" -- the way we learned in first grade, the slightly fancier calligraphic "g", and the more involved versions. Choice depends on speed, fluidity, and my mood at the time. I also do "d" like a Greek delta (looks a bit like a backward "6") most of the time, mainly because it's faster and it "feels right" to do it that way.
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