Scanahand

Everybody has a unique handwriting style, which can either be calligraphic and easy to read, or as good as ancient, ambiguous text. With computer text editors letting you use characters, styles have rapidly evolved and are called fonts, enabling you to personalize each bit of text you write. In this regard, Scanahand gives you the possibility to literally create your own fonts in an easy and fun way.

How the application works is probably a neat advantage. You are given a template with corresponding empty boxes for each character to fill in with custom representations. This is done in two ways, either directly from your computer or using a scanner and printer.

This last method lets you express your drawing skills and take your time to draw each character in your specific way. When you're done filling in all characters on the sheet of paper, you need to scan it for the application to be able to process the image and convert your hand drawings into a font set. Don't be confused, because a scanner and printer are not required for the well-functioning of the application, but rather to provide more ways to create fonts.

On the other hand, virtual artists also get a change to create custom characters the same way, but filling up empty spaces with any drawing utility better suits this situation. For instance, we tested out this method in the most basic editors of them all, namely Microsoft's Paint.

The application's overall design is yet another advantage, getting you up and running right from the start. Most of the space is taken up by preview sections and adjustable settings, while a side panel lets you quickly jump through all of the three steps you need to take.

The application gives you the possibility to create font sets as complex as you can, with customizable template sheets. Several are available and include all characters a basic keyboard is equipped with, including special ones. Accessing the options menu lets you create new templates and manually import all characters you want to enhance.

You can either print the forms and manually fill them in, or save locally under some popular formats like JPG, PNG or BMP. You don't have to fill in all pages if you don't want to, but for a full experience it's best you do. However, when importing images, more formats are available, such as EMF, TIF, GIF and more, further increasing practicality.

The set is quickly generated, with a preview displayed using your new creation. Last but not least, you can install it locally, or save it as a font format or web font. The first run might leave you a little disappointed, but not to worry, this only happens if you didn't stick within the box boundaries. Luckily, they can be adjusted and even fitted with colored lines to better view limits.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Scanahand is an incredibly fun and practical application that literally lets you create custom fonts with your own hand. The application works like a charm, with most time spend drawing just the right design for each letter so in the end you can get a unique font to use in your projects or share with your friends.