There are several handwriting fonts already designed in METAFONT – the native font engine for TeX and family. Most of these are German, one Austrian, one French – that’s just the ones I know of.
So there you have Lateinische Ausgangsschrift, French Cursive, Vereinfachten Ausgangsschrift, Österreichische Scholschrift and TW Cal 14. Makes a change from all the US based handwriting worksheet generators which provide variations on Zaner-Bloser, D’Nealian and Getty Dubay. It’s still a far cry from the Australian Foundation Handwriting that I grew up with (italic, but taller ascenders and descenders than Getty).
That’s part of the fun of DIY homeschooling – so many options.
And how I made the sample sheet:
` \documentclass{article}
\usepackage{la} \usepackage{frcursive} \usepackage[cm]{fullpage} \usepackage{xcolor} \usepackage{va} \usepackage{oesch} \usepackage{twcal14}
\begin{document}
\renewcommand{\seyesDefault}{\color{gray}} \setlength{\parindent}{0mm} %\setlength{\baselineskip}{12pt} \setlength{\parskip}{10pt}
\huge
\lahuge
Lateinische Aushangsschrift:
\seyes{The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog \quad}
\seyes{\phantom{The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog \quad}}
\begin{cursive} \acadshape
French Cursive
\seyes{The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog \quad}
\seyes{\phantom{The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog \quad}}
\end{cursive}
\vacalfont
Vereinfachten Ausgangsschrift
\seyes{The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog \quad}
\seyes{\phantom{The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog \quad}}
\oeschfamily
\“Osterreichische Scholschrift
\seyes{The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog \quad}
\seyes{\phantom{The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog \quad}}
TW Cal 14
\twcal
\seyes{The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog \quad}
\seyes{\phantom{The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog \quad}}
\end{document} `
Theoretically it should work for any fonts – maybe next thing is to try using it with Christopher Jarman Handwriting Fonts (make sure you download the PC truetype fonts – unless you have a RISC/Acorn computer and know what you’re doing).