There’s now a font based on Albert Einstein’s handwriting

[TexasTowelie]

By the end of the year, you will be able to write like Albert Einstein (or at least fake his handwriting). A Kickstarter campaign to turn the famous physicist's handwritten script into a font has been successfully funded with more than a month of fundraising time left. Here's the campaign video:

Harald Geisler, the designer who came up with the idea along with Elizabeth Waterhouse (a dancer with a degree in physics), has dabbled in genius handwriting before: He once turned neurologist Sigmund Freud's handwriting into a font. The Kickstarter campaign will allow him to bring the Einstein font, which already exists in a primitive stage, up to a level as lifelike as his Freud font.

That $15,000 is going toward at least six months of work. To create a font from handwritten script, Geisler traces each letter on a tablet to record a realistic pen stroke, a process that he feels is more effective than simply scanning the written text and letting a computer copy it. Then he manipulates each letter to replicate the fickle nature of real ink, making it catch and drag in a realistic way.

Then he has to do that all over again three more times.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/05/07/you-can-now-use-a-font-based-on-albert-einsteins-handwriting/?tid=sm_tw

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. cool!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. It IS cool, but will you be able to read it?

[mindwalker_i]

3. No, it will always be scrolling at a constant speed

no matter how fast you read it.

[herding cats]

11. .

[NJCher]

4. quite readable

It's easy to read. I like his handwriting--it's aesthetically pleasing.


Cher

[awoke_in_2003]

14. Which is surprising...

as really smart people tend to have really bad handwriting.



At least that is what I keep telling people

[Skittles]

5. that already looks like my writing

yup

[KT2000]

6. Nice handwriting!

I would use it.

[TexasTowelie]

7. I think the only problem I would have is with his lower case "a"s.

They look too much like "e"s to me. I would get tired of trying to decide which vowel he actually meant if I saw it too frequently.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

8. Might help these guys....

[Quackers]

9. Did anyone else spend like 5 minutes just staring as the words changed?

Or is it past my bed time?

[LostOne4Ever]

10. That is so cool! (nt)

[freshwest]

12. That's very much the way my father wrote. I think it was taught to that generation.

I experimented with it and other font styles in the fourth grade. The teacher was asking me what was wrong. I told her it was the way my father wrote, so she let it pass and didn't count it off as I could do it the way she taught us, which was plainer.

We also wrote with the slant to the left, a more vertical style, and worked with writing backwards when a teacher explained that was what happened when she was forced to use her right hand instead of the left until she adapted. I loved the sensation of using the old ink pens on blue lined paper for class work.

I came to understand over time that other people did not enjoy reading or writing. Some other family members wrote similar to my father's script, except they wrote each letter separately, but the overall effect was the same. I also developed a style of writing with printed letters as fast as I did longhand and wrote very fast that way for years.

The art of handwriting seems to be dying out now with people only using keyboarding. I've read that some school districts have proposed not teaching long hand any more. We were taught that there was a connection that helped with learning, that the hand, eye and brain worked well with writing.

I like this style of writing, it has pleasant memories. I am going to see if I can find out more. TY.

[TexasTowelie]

13. Cursive writing is definitely a dying art form.

I used to receive compliments on my penmanship when I wrote checks a couple of decades ago. When I was in high school I learned some calligraphy. My senior year when I went to district in number sense the test graders tried to mark some of my responses as being incorrect saying that I slanted my eights so much to the right that they looked like infinity signs. They were desperate to find something to mark wrong since I didn't miss any of the 51 problems that I answered (I scored a 255 and the runner-up had a 182).

However, the diabetic neuropathy has gotten worse has gotten worse after I broke my arm in 2010 and it is actually difficult for me to write more than a three or four phone numbers before getting cramps. I have the same issues when I type so my overall speed and accuracy haven fallen during that time. It seems like I'm lucky to get through the day without my whole right arm not going numb for awhile.

[True Blue Door]

15. This new font is a provocative insult to the One True Font - Comic Sans.

Adherents of Comic Sans are deeply offended by this and consider any new font to be Hate Speech.

[TexasTowelie]

16. Do you believe that there will be people that refuse to read anything written in one

of these other fonts?

Even more amusing, what font will they use for their picket signs that say "Hell no, Einstein's font has to go"?

[True Blue Door]

17. They can take my Comic Sans from my cold, dead keyboard.

Comic Sans now, Comic Sans fowuh-evuh.

[TexasTowelie]

18. Let me guess.

You sent your resume in Comic Sans when you applied for a job as a clown?

(FWIW, Comic Sans and Times New Roman were the two fonts they said to avoid using on resumes while looking for a job).

[True Blue Door]

19. If I ever have a reason to desecrate a grave

I'll do it by replacing the headstone with one written in comic sans.

[TexasTowelie]

20. There is a DU member who goes by the handle

Cartoonist. You might want to get in contact with him (?) to see what inscription would be appropriate. I believe that Cartoonist is an atheist so hopefully both of you can discuss an inscription worthy of Comic Sans.