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writing + (9)
fonts + (4)
calligraphy + (4)

Ann Wroe takes some time from her day job as The Economist's obituaries editor to write about handwriting.
posted by WalterMitty on Oct 28, 2011 - 59 comments

'Poets don’t draw,' Jean Cocteau said. 'They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.' An ode to the Pilot Precise V5 Extra Fine.
posted by shakespeherian on Feb 28, 2011 - 68 comments

"The modern hand-written love letter is dead," says Doyle. "That is the consensus. People communicate differently now – though not necessarily without meaning. They still are learning to get to know each other through the written word." Love written digitally may not have the romantic image of quill and ink (though ink-stained fingers may also have dampened some ardour in the old days), but the new medium doesn't necessarily harden the heart. Think only of the popularity of dating websites, which prove that communicating feelings of hope and tenderness in text continues to thrive in certain quarters. ~ The dying art of the billet doux
posted by The Lady is a designer on Nov 2, 2010 - 23 comments

"I started collecting found snapshots a few years ago — at swap meets, antique shops and the like — but the thing that got me started wasn’t the photos themselves so much as the writing I’d sometimes find on the backs."
posted by gman on Oct 13, 2010 - 22 comments

An expert in Elizabethan handwriting is attempting to decipher the inscriptions on a 400-year-old slate tablet discovered by archaeologists working at Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America. Want to take a crack at it yourself? First, you're going to want to take English Handwriting, 1500-1700: An Online Course. Then, keep your skills sharp with a daily dose of Early Modern Paleography. (This week's images will be well known to a certain MeFite.)
posted by Horace Rumpole on Jan 14, 2010 - 49 comments

Charlotte and Branwell Brontë wrote many of their stories of Angria on tiny sheets of paper in nearly microscopic handwriting. This particular example consists of four sheets of notepaper folded into sixteen pages. The individual sheets are approximately 4 ½ inches long and 3 5/8 inches wide, and the entire text contains about nineteen thousand words.
posted by Joe Beese on Sep 18, 2009 - 20 comments

A.N. Palmer's The Palmer Method of Business Writing presents the curvaceous and flowing handwriting system that generations of students learned in U.S. elementary schools, before educational priorities shifted. As neat writing falls by the wayside, some have even pronounced the death of handwriting. Still, bad handwriting can have serious consequences. An op-ed in the N.Y. Times provides hope for the future.
posted by chrchr on Sep 8, 2009 - 62 comments

Make your handwriting into a font! [more inside]
posted by Korou on Sep 8, 2009 - 52 comments

Make your handwriting into a font with Yourfonts. Download the PDF, draw your alphabet, scan and upload, then download the finished result. Examples. Via Drawn!
posted by Rinku on Feb 2, 2009 - 31 comments

The death of cursive script handwriting continues to be predicted. [more inside]
posted by rmd1023 on Jan 23, 2009 - 153 comments

Digital pens like the Zpen and the Mobile Digital Scribe are electronic pen and receiver combinations that can capture hand-written text as you write it. [more inside]
posted by chuckdarwin on Jul 15, 2008 - 18 comments

The handwriting of typographers.
posted by oneirodynia on Jul 10, 2008 - 21 comments

Paleography: Reading Old Handwriting, 1500-1800. And don't forget to use your new skills to save the accused woman from the Ducking Stool.
posted by Miko on Jan 4, 2007 - 23 comments

Type, handwriting, and lettering
posted by persona non grata on Aug 20, 2006 - 17 comments

Fontifier will take a scan of your handwriting and turn it into a TrueType font.
...for $9.
posted by Mwongozi on Apr 8, 2004 - 13 comments

Keyboards Are Not Like Nibs: Fountain pens - or writing instruments in general - rule. Lately though, the main manufacturers have stooped to ballpoints, gels and other madnesses. Just as the stupid calligraphy fad killed proper handwriting, the main fountain pen manufacturers have been their own hangmen. I love Pelikan but my main hearbreak is Rotring, whose rapidograph 0.10 and 0.18 and isograph 0.20 (this latter line now sadly reduced to college sets) are my favourite scratching sticks. Are you holding a torch for any of those legendary manufacturers (Parker, Waterman, Cross, Schaeffer, Aurora, Lamy et caetera) who have gone down the drain? What glides your writing hand? Is the pseudish, unpardonably expensive and increasingly naff Montblanc the last pen manufacturer to uphold its own standards? When you do put pen to paper - if you still do at all - what's your stubborn choice? Damn it, you must use something to log into your Moleskine!
posted by MiguelCardoso on May 1, 2003 - 96 comments

Got bad handwriting? Go back to where the nightmare started and learn to write all over again. Or, if that didn't work the first time, try some more advanced instruction. Perhaps you just want to adopt the handwriting of one of your idols. In that case, I'm way ahead of you. Remember - write with all your muscles, not just with your fingers.
posted by Settle on Mar 19, 2002 - 9 comments

Anoto - wireless handwriting. it might turn out to be not that popular this christmas, but the anonto pen has the potential to become a big hit in 2002. just imagine you would never have to use your palm again. or imagine you lose your palm... and you really don't take. because the magic is in the pen!
posted by HeikoH on Dec 17, 2001 - 23 comments

Based on handwriting the geniuses at the United States government have figured out the letters might be from the same source. I'm sure everyone has seen these letters... Isn't that a bit "duh." If everything is figured out at this lightning fast speed we will never find these people.

This reminds me a bit of those psychologists who report very obvious things... many times I have heard on MSNBC: "According to psychologists, the nation is in a state of shock. For some it may take weeks to escape this feeling, for others months." Is that really something we couldn't figure out by ourselves?
posted by yevge on Oct 26, 2001 - 15 comments

George W. Bush's Handwriting. handwriting analysis reveals: If you want something from George W. Bush, tell him how much you like what he's done so far. Tell him quickly. And don't try to push him around. You hear that Cheney?
posted by brucec on Jul 12, 2001 - 35 comments