Write Fonts

When my daughters had to start doing homework in cursive they came to me almost daily asking me to show them how to write various letters. It's been years since I learned formal cursive handwriting and my characters didn't always match what the school taught. I needed cursive handwriting fonts.

While most of the handwriting styles in this collection are those taught in US schools, including D'Nealian, Zaner-Boser, and Getty-Dubay Italic, I have found a few for styles taught in the UK, parts of Australia, and other areas. I'll continue to add to the collection of free fonts and links to shareware and commercial ones for other styles as I find them.

It's not just teachers that use these fonts. They can make a nice addition to a school newsletter or incorporated in graphics used for school Web sites or for any publication or Web site dealing with education.

Free Handwriting Fonts for Teachers
There are far more commercial offerings that freebies, but I have found a few that may suit your needs. Some are designed specifically for teaching handwriting skills and others are close and perhaps suitable in a pinch. You'll find some print or manuscript, cursive, and trace fonts with and without rules in a limited variety of styles.
[Free School Fonts] updated August 2008

Shareware Handwriting Fonts for Teachers
This category includes downloadable try-before-you-buy shareware school fonts in manuscript, cursive, and trace versions. Some are free for personal use.
[Shareware School Fonts]

Commercial Handwriting Fonts for Teachers
Many companies offer a wide range of school fonts designed for teaching handwriting skills. There are print, cursive, and trace fonts in all the major styles. Some include the ruled lines that are found on ruled handwriting paper.
[Commercial School Fonts]

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Print White Ink

Answer: The short answer is that in most cases, you can't print white ink. Most inks used in offset printing are translucent therefore a translucent white ink would not cover a dark color. There is an opaque white ink that could be used but it often requires multiple applications to cover sufficiently and can bump up the cost of a project far too much for the majority of customers. Additionally in order to insure the cleanest white possible requires considerable time on the part of the printshop spent cleaning the printing press to remove all traces of other ink colors that would muddy the white ink. In some applications opaque white ink is typically used as an undercoating before applying other inks on top. However, there are alternatives to offset printing inks and methods that use no ink at all.

A near-white ink effect that would provide adequate coverage could be achieved by mixing silver with opaque white ink. Using white foil stamping or foil blocking is one attractive way to get the white color you want. Foils come in many colors and textures including metallic, gloss, and matte finishes. An opaque white gloss or matte finish mimics the look of paint or white ink. Or you can achieve special effects with pearlescent, off-white, and silvery foils. Talk to your printing about the foil process and any special requirements in preparing your artwork for foil stamping or embossing.

Screen printing and flexography both have opaque white inks. Explore those printing options for your project when you need to print white ink. Screen printing has applications other than just textile printing.

CDs are typically coated with a white ink before other colors are applied on top.

There used to be a desktop printer that used a dry white ink ribbon (ALPS) but it is no longer manufactured. As of this writing, no desktop printers that print white ink are on the market.

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Where can I find Helvetica?

It may be one of the best known and most used fonts around but where is it when you need it? There are many flavors of Helvetica as well as fonts that look like Helvetica but aren't. Several of the major type foundries carry various versions of Helvetica as described below. Answer: The Helvetica Trademark
Helvetica is a registered trademark of Linotype-Hell AG and/or its subsidiaries. (From the Linotype site: "Helvetica is a Trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, which may be registered in certain jurisdictions, exclusively licensed through Linotype Library GmbH, a fully owned subsidiary of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG.") Helvetica was first designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger. The name is derived from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland. New weights were added by the Stempel foundry. Later, Merganthaler Linotype added new versions. See How many Helvetica versions are there? What do the Neue Helvetica numbers mean? for a look at Helvetica names and versions. Linotype, naturally, sells Helvetica including the complete Neue Helvetica collection. Explore the Linotype Library of Fonts to find the one you need.

Monotype also carries many versions of Helvetica. You can purchase individual fonts or volumes containing several weights or complete family packs. Even if you don't want the entire collection, browse these family packs to find the individual fonts you want: Helvetica Complete Family Pack (Buy Direct) Neue Helvetica Complete Family Pack (Buy Direct) Neue Helvetica Pro Complete Family Pack (Buy Direct) Helvetica Com Complete Family Pack (Buy Direct) Neue Helvetica Com Complete Family Pack (Buy Direct) Helvetica Cyrillic Complete Family Pack (Buy Direct) Neue Helvetica Cyrillic Complete Family Pack (Buy Direct) Helvetica CE Complete Family Pack (Buy Direct) Neue Helvetica CE Complete Family Pack (Buy Direct) Helvetica Greek Complete Family Pack (Buy Direct) Helvetica World Complete Family Pack (Buy Direct)

Adobe, Inc. lists several forms of Helvetica and Helvetica Neue in the Adobe Type Library (Buy Direct). Note that they drop the numbers from the Neue fonts. They are available as families or within various CD collections such as Type Basics. All the Adobe Helvetica fonts are available in OpenType and PostScript Type 1 format.

Adobe Type Collection, OpenType Edition (Buy Direct via Fonts.com)

Here's a free download of Coolvetica by Ray Larabie. It's almost like Helvetica but with a few surprises.

Some of the fonts that look like Helvetica or are very similiar are: Arial (Buy Direct; complete family) ARS Region CG Triumvirate Claro Corvus Europa Grotesk (Buy Direct) FF Bau (Buy Direct) FF Schulbuch (Buy Direct; volume of several versions) Geneva 2 Hamilton (Buy Direct; complete family) Helio/II Helv Helvette Holsatia Maxima (Buy Direct EF Maxima 1 Volume or Buy Direct URW Maxima Volume) Megaron/II Nimbus Sans (Buy Direct) Spectra (Buy Direct; New Spectra) Vega (Buy Direct; complete family includes serif, sans serif, rounded sans serif) Sans URW Sonoran Sans Serif Swiss Swiss 721 BT Switzerland Swiss 911 BT (Helvetica Compressed) Impact and Placard Bold and Swiss 921 BT (Helvetica Inserat/Compressed) Arial Narrow (Helvetica Narrow) There are probably many others.

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White Color Meanings

White is purity, cleanliness, and innocence. Like black, white goes well with almost any color.The use of white in familiar phrases can help a designer see how their color of choice might be perceived by others, both the positive and negative aspects.

Good white White as the driven snow - pure, clean, innocent White elephant - rare, valuable but perhaps unwanted White knight - someone who comes to another person's rescue, someone perceived as being good, noble White list - list of good or acceptable items White sale - sale of sheets, towels, other linens Pearly white - teeth, especially very white teeth Bad white Whitewash - cover up, conceal Whiteout - zero visibility White flag - surrender White lightning - moonshine, illegal whiskey White elephant - rare, valuable but perhaps unwanted White knuckle - something that is fast, exciting, or frightening

White Words: These words are synonymous with white or represent various shades of the color white.

Snow, pearl, antique white, ivory, chalk, milk white, lily, smoke, seashell, old lace, cream, linen, ghost white, beige, cornsilk, alabaster, paper, whitewash.

Red | Green | Gold | Turquoise | Blue | Purple | Pink | Black | Orange | Yellow
View Results for Your Favorite Color Poll

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2 Holiday Card Templates

Get a jump on the holidays with these greeting card templates. Just print, sign, & mail.

Take a little bit of stress out of the holidays and save time by using these two free original greeting card templates. Each card is in PDF format ready to print from your color printer. Adjust as needed and print on 8.5x11 paper and fold twice for vertical, side-fold cards. I printed mine at 720dpi on high quality inkjet paper.

The best holidays are shared with friends features two friendly snow people on the cover and Merry Christmas on the inside.
Download friendscard.pdf

The best presents are family and friends has a decorated tree and wrapped present on the cover. The inside greeting says Happy Holidays.
Download treecard.pdf
Note: When folded a piece of the tree is on the crease. That's intentional.

4.5x6 Envelope
The above card templates are designed to print on letter size paper folded in quarters. After making the cards I realized I needed envelopes. I wanted an envelope I could make from a single letter size sheet of paper. The resulting template has been proportioned to meet US Postal requirements for standard letter mail and can be printed on an 8.5" x 11" page. The finished envelope is 4.5" x 6" — just right for homemade cards made from letter size paper.
Download envelope.pdf | Save/Print GIF version of envelope template | Save/Print GIF of envelope construction instructions
Note: Error on template instructions. Last step should read "Fold C Flap down and secure to back of envelope (Flap B) with tape or glue."

Terms of Usage: These PDF files are Copyright Jacci Howard Bear. All rights reserved. The templates are free for your personal use (i.e. printing cards for your friends and family, not for resale.) Files may not be redistributed without written permission.

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Installing downloaded fonts

A frequent question I receive in email is how to make fonts show up in the software font lists, especially after downloading them from the Web. This FAQ shows you step-by-step how to obtain fonts, open archived fonts, and install fonts for Mac and PC so that you can use them in your word processing, desktop publishing, and other software programs.Answer:

Obtain the Font
Fonts come from many locations. They can come with your software. You may have them on a CD. They can be downloaded from the Web.

• When fonts come with your software they are often installed at the same time the software is installed. Usually no further action is required by the user.

• Fonts on CD or other disk need to be installed to your hard drive (unless you plan to always have that disk in the drive). The disk may come with an installation program for the fonts or you can use the methods described further down this page.

• Fonts downloaded from the Web may be ready for installation; but, usually, fonts from the Web are stored in archives that must first be opened. This is where many new font finders run into problems. Occasionally fonts on disk may also be in archives so you'll need to follow step 2 for them. How to Download Fonts From the Web
Free and shareware fonts are offered for download on this site and many others on the Web. If you've never downloaded a file from the Web before, here are the basic instructions to download fonts. How to Expand Font Archives: Windows | Mac
Most free fonts on the Web are in a compressed archive to make them smaller. BIN, HQX, SIT, and especially ZIP are the most common filetypes. Learn how to open them up so you can install your new fonts.

Install the Font
Simply having the font file on your hard drive is only part of the installation process. To make the font available to your software programs requires a few extra steps, especially for Windows users. The installation process also depends on the type of font you have: TrueType or OpenType or PostScript (Type 1). Most fonts downloaded from the Web are Windows TrueType fonts. They are a single file with the .TTF extension. If you use a font manager it may have a font installation option you can use. Otherwise, follow the appropriate instructions shown here:

Occasionally installation will hit a snag. See the answers to I can't use the fonts I just installed. What's wrong?

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Use One Space Between Sente...

Monospaced fonts take up more space, need more space at sentence ends.

Should you put one space or two spaces after a period? The debate over how much space to put between sentences (whether they end with a period or other punctuation) may seem petty, but often it's the little details that make or break a design.

Speaking of little details, despite what some readers may believe, period is the proper term for that little dot at the end of sentence in American English. In some parts of the world it is, however, known as a full stop: Read A Period By Any Other Name...

It is generally accepted that the practice of putting two spaces at the end of a sentence is a carryover from the days of typewriters with monospaced typefaces. Two spaces, it was believed, made it easier to see where one sentence ended and the next began. Most typeset text, both before and after the typewriter, used a single space.

"The only time more than 1 space was used in a line of type was when we had to justify the line to the full margins."
— Madisonhank, describing typesetting before digital type

Today, with the prevalence of proportionally spaced fonts, some believe that the practice is no longer necessary and even detrimental to the appearance of text.

With monospaced typefaces every character takes up the same amount of space on the page. M uses the same amount of space as i. With proportionally spaced fonts, the characters take up an amount of space relative to their actual width - the i needs less space than the M. (as illustrated by the graphic in the sidebar)

"Right and wrong do not exist in graphic design. There is only effective and non-effective communication."
— Peter Bilak - Illegibility

The use of proportionally spaced type makes two spaces at the end of a sentence unnecessary (if they ever were). The extra spacing is often distracting and unattractive. It creates 'holes' in the middle of a block of text — trapped white space on a smaller scale.

View the supporting illustrations for spacing after punctuation for a comparison of type set in proportionally-spaced and monospaced with one space and two spaces. (A smaller version of these images can be found by viewing the mini-gallery at the top of the sidebar in this article.)

Change can be painful

"The double space after period has been drilled into me so strongly that I don't know if I can ever break the habit."
— Tina

"I can't get used to single spaces after periods. Even in proportional-spaced type it looks crowded to me."
— Ted

Exceptions to every rule

"Items (term papers, E-Mails, reports, book manuscripts, magazine articles, business proposals, etc.,) printed in monospaced characters require two spaces and have a lot of other stylistic rules designed to enhance readability. Proportional spaced characters don't benefit from most of those rules."
— Mars_red

"To my mind, a million books and magazines single spaced also qualify as a resource. I once heard an instructor arguing for two spaces in typeset text, completely oblivious to the single-spaced mountain of material that he reads every day. When this was pointed out to him, he quietly dropped his argument. He'd for years been blind to the type that he actually reads."
— John McWade

The Bottom Line: Professional typesetters, designers, and desktop publishers should use one space only. Save the double spaces for typewriting, email, term papers (if prescribed by the style guide you are using), or personal correspondence. For everyone else, do whatever makes you feel good.

POLL: One Space or Two After Punctuation, What's Your Preference?
1) One space, always
2) Two spaces, looks better to me
3) I'll try to convince my boss / clients / co-workers to go with one space

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