Regular font for human beings to learn to write

[Ian Malone]

On 24 September 2014 11:31, Orange Paranoid <anorangeparanoid at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, editing a font seems a daunting task. I will see if I have the time.
>
> Is there any typography working for me?
>
> Typography doesn't have to work for everybody. It would be lovely to
> have typography working for me.
>
> My idea is that no font is right for me. How could that happen in the
> 21st century? My descriptions in the video are valid for the kids I
> have taught.
>
> Kids simply copy what they see. There are reasons for my modifications, e.g.
>
> ill -> Ill (It is hard to see when the letter i becomes a capital I.
> The I without the top and bottom strokes is considered wrong in my
> area. In addition, for many years, only one person asked me to write
> the capital I without the top and bottom strokes.)
>
> t without the tail can look like f.
>
> It is not wise to argue with a kid and tell him or her that the letter
> is actually letter ___. Why do I need to spend such time arguing? (I
> look very foolish. Just change the font. Let the computer work for
> me.)
>
> Can you see my point? Some kids are too weak in spelling correctly by
> copying exactly how the font looks. Don't abandon them. Let the
> correct font work for me and for them.
>
> Is it too harsh to require kids below ten years old to tell the
> difference between typography and calligraphy? (Come on. Don't do
> this. You will end in disaster.)
>
> No free font appears to be available for my purposes. If you have a
> link to a free font which suits my purposes, I say, you are my hero.
>
> I just need such a regular font (a regular one, not the stylish one)
> for printing on my worksheet. We have Liberation Sans, Liberation XYZ,
> ... Can we have Liberation Kids?:)
>

You may have to design it yourself, or at least modify a few
characters. We don't actually have one writing system. I was taught to
write as print with the letters much as they display in most sans
serif, really with the stroke on top of lower case 'a', the
differences would be the top and bottom on I (leaving these out in
sans is a bit off a mistake really, due to the problem you point out)
and a flick on the tail of q. We were later taught cursive separately
and changes to letters, not much below the age of ten, there's no one
right shape for most letters (even o goes a bit awry in some people's
writing). The advantage of learning print early on is that the letters
are more strongly distinguished (e.g. 'a' vs 'o').
I think your problem is maybe that this is something that could be
easily done on a blackboard, but not so easily with computers. An
alternative might be to use inkscape or something (and maybe a
graphics tablet, but a mouse can work if you're careful) to literally
write up your examples to follow. After all, you're trying to teach
them with specific examples, so hoping to find a computer fount (which
is designed with different criteria in mind) which exactly matches
what you want might end in disappointment.
However, a few possibilities I got off google:
http://www.fontspace.com/category/blackboard
http://www.fontspace.com/category/education
(Looks like they should be ttf, so despite the 'windows and mac' label
they will also work in Linux.)

-- 
imalone
http://ibmalone.blogspot.co.uk