I came across a website sponsored by the people who manufacture Pilot brand ball point pens. It’s pilothandwriting.com.
Essentially, with five minutes of your time you can create a font of your own handwriting. This is scary for most Americans who seem to have lost the art of decent penmanship.
Through all those years of answering viewer mail at WTVH TV, I could tell the approximate age of the letter writer by the quality of the handwriting on the envelope. My own personal, informal and highly unscientific study of handwriting concludes any individual born after 1950 is better off typing. Whether students were beaten, degraded, whipped with a belt or held after school for the weekend, the method of teaching handwriting back then worked. The lettering is beautiful and you can even read it.
On pilothandwriting.com you create an account, then download a template which you fill in with numbers and letters, much like the old handwriting exercises in grade school.
Then, you take that piece of paper and scan, photograph or hold up to a webcam for the website to record. I chose the webcam option and it was quick, easy and incredibly cool.
In a couple of seconds your individual lettering is processed into your account and you are ready to type a letter or document that looks just like your own penmanship. Once it’s done, you mail it. I mailed it to myself and the sample is below.
So take all that spare time of yours; you know, the time you should spend obeying the boss, cutting the grass or washing the car, and start playing with pilothandwriting.com. Let me know what you think.
Loading ...
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I was in grade school in the early 1950′s and remember doing pages of writing drill, line after line of semi vertical lines and rows of what looked like interconnected circles.
My hand writing is ok if I take my time but if not, sometimes I don’t even know what it says.
This Pilot site sounds interesting, I’ll give it a try.
Will
Catholic school, left handed. I didn’t conform to the pressure of changing to right hand. I had beautiful handwriting until 10 years ago and now I tend to print. Off subject. Just spent 2 days in Cooperstown with 5 college friends from the late fifties. Our long term memory is good and the Otesaga is wonderful. Granddaughter called me on the way home and wanted to bring friends out for overnight. Definite yes but her Dad had to drive them out. I drive them all over but got caught in traffic jam on thruway and wasn’t ready for a round trip to Onondaga Hill. We’ve played cards on my deck and hope to do bicycles, carriage rides in Onondaga park tomorrow. She’s on her best and I’m loving it. Will definitely look into pilothandwriting. Thanks Maureen.
Being born in 1953 I take offense to your comment about the results of your personal,informal and highly unscientific study. I would have to say anyone born after 1958.
Hahaha Mike. I stand corrected. We’ll call it 1958. Thanks.
Carol you lucky duck. Two days at the Otesaga. I’ve only walked through, but never stayed. I plan to someday. Enjoy Onondaga Park with your granddaughter this weekend. Hopefully you’ll duck the rain. xo
Maureen-
Who’s the one with spare time? I have not yet checked this out but I will and I’ll bet my cascading IRA that there is no system devised by man that can translate my scribble into a legible font! We’ll see…..
Don
I had nice, 1960s schoolgirl handwriting until I broke my wrist/shattered my arm in the winter of 2002. It was my left hand, of course, and my penmanship has never been the same. Sometimes, when I go on stories and take notes, sources look at my chicken scratching. I know they’re wondering how I’m going to make sense of it later, but you develop a shorthand. Will check out the Pilot site, Maureen!