Hand Rendered Type

Ever since designers traded typescales for computers, there have been numerous attempts to re-create hand-drawn type with fonts. Sure, there are hand-drawn-looking fonts, but most of them are badly drawn, the notable exception being the excellent Berranger Hand, which has fooled many people when I needed editable handwriting in a hurry. There are also services such as Fontifier that can create a font from your own handwriting sample – but without the variation that you get from natural handwriting these will never be perfect.
A Swiss design studio has come up with a new approach – dispensing with vectors altogether – their solution is more of a “bitmap font engine” than a typeface. Fontself allows unlimited variation in single characters and words, full colour, soft edges – everything you would expect from hand-drawn type. It’s early days but you’ll see from their online demo and videos, it has potential. Link

David Rainbird
Posted on Wednesday, 20th of June 2007 Permalink Comment (3)