Type foundry

Guide

Print, fill in and scan back a sheet

The sheet is the most precise way to get your handwriting in: every box says which character goes in it, so nothing has to be guessed. This guide covers printing it, filling it in, reading it back and what to do when a page isn’t recognised.

6 min read

  1. On the Add handwriting tab, choose Print a sheet. The dialog opens on its first step, Make the sheet.
  2. Choose the Page size: A4, or US Letter.
  3. Leave the columns and the box height as they are the first time. Bigger boxes give more detail, and more pages.
  4. Choose Download PDF (2 pages) (it says how many pages), open the PDF and print it.
The Make the sheet step: page size, columns and box height on one side, a preview of the first page of boxes on the other.

Print at 100%, never “Fit to page”. The PDF is exactly the paper’s size, and the boxes have to come out the size they were drawn to be read back. Print in the dialog works too, but the PDF is the reliable way. This page as PNG is for writing on a tablet instead of paper.

Coming back for more later, to add alternates or ligatures? Tick Only what is still missing, and the sheet leaves out what you have already drawn.

Fill it in

  • Use a dark pen: a black or dark blue felt-tip or gel pen. Pencil and light ink come back faint and broken.
  • One character per box, written the way you normally write it, filling the height between the rules.
  • Stay inside the box. A stroke that crosses into the next box is read as part of that one.
  • Don’t touch the black squares in the corners, or the row of small squares along the bottom. They are how Fonterie finds the page and knows which page it is.
  • Don’t fold the sheet. If it curls, flatten it under a book first.

Read it back

Choose Read back my filled sheet in the dialog, or, on another day, Upload a filled sheet under the card on the Add handwriting tab: the sheet is remembered. Either one opens the Read it back step, with three ways in. All three are read the same way.

  • Take a photo: opens the camera. Shown on phones and tablets only.
  • Upload a photo: a photo you have already taken.
  • Upload a scan: a PDF or an image from a scanner, including the multi-page PDF a scanner makes.
The Read it back step: a drop area with the buttons Upload a photo and Upload a scan.

You can also drop the files onto the dialog. Pages can go in any order: each one says which page it is.

Taking a good photo

  • All four black corner squares in the frame, none covered by a finger or in shadow.
  • The paper flat, on a plain surface, photographed straight on from above rather than at an angle.
  • Even light: daylight near a window is ideal. Avoid the phone’s own shadow across the page.
  • One sheet per photo, with no other sheets showing underneath.
  • Close enough that the page fills most of the picture.

When a page isn’t recognised

Each page gets a line of its own saying what was found, or what went wrong. What each message means, and what to do:

We couldn’t find the four black squares in the corners of the sheet. Make sure the whole page is in the photo, all four corners included, and that there’s enough light.
Usually the page is cropped, or the photo is too dark. Step back so the whole sheet is in frame, and take it in better light.
We found only 3 of the 4 black corner squares. Make sure all four corners of the page are in the photo and none is covered or in shadow.
One corner is out of frame, under a finger, or in a shadow. Take the photo again with all four in view.
We found black squares, but couldn’t pick out the four corners of one sheet. If other sheets are underneath, lay this one on its own on a plain surface and take the photo again.
Another sheet is showing in the photo. Photograph one sheet at a time, on a plain table.
The corner squares don’t make a rectangle. Photograph the page straight on, with all of it in frame.
The photo was taken at a steep angle, or the page is curled. Flatten it and shoot from directly above.
We found the sheet but couldn’t read which page it is: the row of small squares along the bottom is unclear. Make sure it’s in the photo, uncovered and out of shadow.
The bottom edge is cut off, written on or in shadow. Retake the photo with the bottom of the page in clear view.
The sheet is too small in the photo to read the letters. Move closer, so the page fills most of the picture.
Move the camera closer, or zoom in, until the page fills the frame.
Sheet recognised, but every box looked empty.
The writing is too faint to read. Go over it in a darker pen, or take the photo in better light.
This sheet was printed with a different layout (8 columns, 18 mm boxes) from the one this font remembers, so we can’t be sure which character is in which box.
The sheet was printed before the layout changed. Choose Read it with the layout printed on it, then check each character is under the right name before adding it.

Review and add the characters

Every character found is shown under its name, selected. Click one to leave it out, or back in; Select all and Select none do the whole lot. A character marked replaces already has an outline, and adding it swaps that outline for the new one.

Characters found on a sheet, each a traced outline in a box with its name, above the button Add 12 characters to the font.

Choose Add 12 characters to the font (it counts the ones selected), then See your characters to check them over in the Characters tab.

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