The Zoomer Report: Handwriting Font

Zoomer | December 7th, 2010

Here’s an initiative that may help save a skill that is getting lost in the digital world: cursive handwriting. Zoomers can recall being taught to form the handwritten letters back in grade school — but a lot of younger people can’t. And even those of us who know how, use our handwriting less and less.

That’s why a Barcelona-based team of ad developers decided to try to “rescue” handwriting by co-opting the keyboard.

They came up with a campaign for Pilot pens that allows users to turn their own handwriting into a unique typographical font.

The free process is simple. Go to Pilothandwriting.com. Print out a 5×10 grid on a sheet of paper. Insert your letters one-by-one, in upper- and lower-case. Either scan in the sheet or hold it up in front of your webcam, where it is captured and interpreted. Name your font. Begin typing.

It all takes about five minutes. Users say the results are astonishing.

For now, you can only send “handwritten” emails through Pilot’s platform. But the software developers are mulling a way to make your personal font downloadable.

As for making it legible? That depends on you.

About The Zoomer Report

Libby Znaimer, a prominent Canadian journalist specializing in business, politics, and lifestyle issues, is producer and host of The Zoomer Report, a special feature on topics of interest to baby boomers and the 50+. It covers everything from health and wealth to leisure and volunteerism, from the special vantage point of the generation that has changed society in its wake.

Ms. Znaimer is also Vice-President of News and Information for Classical 96.3FM and AM740. Her first book, “In Cancerland – Living Well Is The Best Revenge” – was published in October 2007 by Key Porter.

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