Heh, if I were to make a font based on my handwriting, it would almost work as some level of encryption on my blog; there’s certainly no way anyone would be able to read it.

An interesting part is that the author was going for a literate programming [1] approach using Emacs org-mode [2]. The resulting file is here:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sachac/sachac-hand/master/...

The point (and the difference to just thoroughly commenting your code) is that you have one source file that equally serves as the basis for generating the actual program as well as its documentation. The link above shows the raw file, github renders it nicely if you go to the main page of the repository.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming

[2] https://orgmode.org/

Sounds doable, suspiciously so. When I get rich and have a lot of time, I'll go through it just to figure out why ‘handwritten’ fonts don't ever include a dozen alternate sets of the same characters so the shapes actually vary—like when written by hand. Instead, I type out something like ‘na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Batman’ and observe the same ‘n’ and the same ‘a’ over and over.

Oh man. I remember back in the 1990's, there was a company that you could fill in a grid with all the letters in your handwriting (block letters only), mail it to them, and for something like $50 they'd mail you back a floppy disk with a TrueType font of your handwriting a few weeks later.

These days, it occurs to me that with some kind of deep learning, you could probably take a couple dozen pages of someone's cursive, and turn it into a font with thousands of ligatures and variants that would be virtually entirely convincing.

There was a free website many years ago that I used, where you print out a form with blocks on it and write each letter, then scan it and upload it and it gets turned into a font. I can't seem to find it now (or maybe it went paid).

Microsoft has an app that lets you do this with a Windows tablet:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/microsoft-font-maker/9n920...

If you have an iPad and apple pencil, there's a really great app to do this called iFontMaker: https://2ttf.com/.

I used it to create a font from my handwriting that I've used extensively, and creating the font took maybe 15 minutes.

That's awesome. I think it really adds a nice personal touch to own's blog. If only my handwriting wasn't that bad and I had a blog…

I would love to have a font made out of Dijkstra's handwriting, if for nothing else but for the legacy -- of the man and his EWDs.

He used to have pencil hanging on a string in his office. It was labeled "word processor".

Ironically enough, Dijkstra's algorithm is perhaps least of his accomplishments.

EDIT: thanks FrenchyJiby, mkl. Wasn't aware

Sacha Chua's emacs videos on YouTube are a treat. Highly recommended for the great interviews, of one emacs enthusiast talking to other emacs enthusiasts.

My wedding anniversary is coming up and I want to frame our wedding vows as a surprise. I'd really like to use our handwritten vows, but mine are in a notebook across several pages. I was wondering if there was a way to scan everything, extract the text, and put it all on one page. Here's to hoping this guide will help.

This is tied to the absolute path of files in your home directory making it difficult to rebuild with say differing kerning values. It would be nice if it referred to relative paths. At least one path seems to be /home/sacha.local/lib when I assume it ought to be referring to /home/sacha/.local/lib

It would be neat if it referred to relative paths within the repo even nicer if it if evaluating it installed needed python libraries locally so you could clone it. Open it in emacs. Modify. Eval buffer.

Regarding kerning the only thing I think is really off is r followed by e example Here its not as noticeable with a smallish font but becomes more noticeable in a larger headline or title. I'm using it as the font for org headlines.

I've always wanted to do this, but it only really works if you have a typeset handwriting style. Regular handwriting has too many "ligatures".

For example consider just "vo" vs "io". The end of "v" ends horizontally near the top. "i" end at the bottom. So the line that starts "o" has to begin at different positions.

Most fonts solve this by starting a discontinuous "o" always at the bottom. But this looks ugly.

And that's jut two letter combinations...

This was a cool thing to try when PostScript became more common, the release of the Apple LaserWriter printer [0]. I made a Type 1 font kind of like my handwriting. It's tedious but not super complicated. The real challenge is making something that doesn't look awful - hinting and ligatures and stuff. I might try it again.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserWriter

I stumbled on this site a few months back and made my own font as well: https://kidpofy.com/

It's supposed to be for archiving your kid's handwriting at different ages of their life but who says that has to stop at adulthood! :-)

It gave me an error looking at the site on my phone but worked if I clicked thru the error, not sure how safe that is but to each their own.

I have an old Tablet PC that came with a program that did this. On a roadtrip one day a friend was bored and she stylused in all the letters. Her printing looks a bit like a child's and I've used that font a bunch of times now, on everything from kids menus to thank-you letters from my dog. I probably ought to pay her some royalties!

There have been sites that do this for you for 15-20yrs?

A quick google finds these

http://www.yourfonts.com/

http://www.fontifier.com/

I did this sophomore year because my French teacher wanted things handwritten. I spent a lot of time making it fit on the lined paper and getting the color just right but I'm sure she figured it out anyway.

The post right above this one on hacker news at this time (16:20:16 UTC) is titled "What did you do"?

(i.e. the title of the post above this post is a question answered by the title of this post).

Are there any fonts that have random variations for every letter (is it something possible to do with curent font systems?)

That would be nice to create fonts that look more like real handwriting.

If I look at the resulting font in Safari on my iPhone it shows up as double lines. Until I zoom in, then it suddenly looks fine. Does anyone have an idea what is the cause of this?

There's a 'Domestic Manners' font, apparently based on someone's handwriting, that I've used on and off for a while.

I want to see a math font for LaTeX based on handwriting.

Well done, Sacha!