Right up there in the things that bring me jolts of joy are colour palettes and fonts. I just love how they bring projects, even personal ones, to life; giving them an energy and identity of their own.

While I have created some fonts (and sell them), I wanted to share how you can do so with your handwriting – it’s ridiculously easy and quick.

1. Download this template

It’ll look like this:

There are two ways you can complete the squares.

-> You can either print the template and fill the squares in by hand with a pen or a marker.

-> Or, you can an iPad and an Apple Pencil which is how I did it. I used a programme called Procreate and inserted the download file into a blank design, add a layer, and then used an Apple Pencil to fill in the squares. You could probably even send the download to a Remarkable device and then fill in the boxes that way.

Here’s what my ‘Shenanigans Font‘ started life looking like.

2. Scan the completed form

Once you’ve completed your form, however you’ve chosen to do it, you need to get a good clear and crisp scan of it. The scan needs to be in greyscale (black and white, not colour) and a good quality scan (you should be able to get a good enough scan with your smartphone or a digital camera).

Alternatively, if you’ve used a device like the iPad, you’ll already have a hi-res-enough document to use.

3. UPLOAD YOUR TEMPLATE FORM TO CALLIGRAPHR.COM

Let the fun begin!

You’ll need to assign a name for your font from the get-go as this will be assigned to the file name.

I always choose for Calligraphr to automatically clean my templates but you don’t have to.

Calligraphr will then process your template. A screen with all of your glyphs (the letters, numbers and punctuation marks) will pop-up and if you’re happy, click on Add Characters To Your Font.

Once it’s processed at that stage, you then click on Build Font and Calligraphr will magically turn it all into a downloadable font for you!

Click on those purple links [FontName-Regular.ttf] and [FontName-Regular.otf] to download your fonts ready to install.

4. Install Your New Snazzy font

On Mac, it’s as simple as locating the downloaded .otf file in file Finder, double-clicking on it and then clicking Install.

On Windows, click on Start -> Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalisation -> Fonts. Click File -> Install New Font.

All done! All that’s left is for you to have fun using your snazzy new font.