Lund Studio · aifonts.ink · The Parchment Collection
Thirteen hands and presses of the founding era: letters, deeds, ledgers, logs, copybooks, almanacks and broadsides.
Every one made with AI by Lund Studio, by the same steps a type designer takes.
Each font is shown on the kind of paper it was made for. Names, places and dates are made up. Type into any of them to see your own words.
Philadelphia, the 3d of May 1776
My dear Friend,
Your kind letter of the 20th came safe to hand by Thursday's post. All is well here, though the town is full and the bread dear. The committee sat till midnight again, and I am told the matter will be settled before the summer is out.
Pray give my love to your Mother and the children, and tell little Ann her doll is mended.
I remain, Sir, yours most affectionately,
Jno. Merriwether
This Indenture
made the tenth day of March in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy four, Between Samuel Ashby of the Township of Bethel, yeoman, of the one part, and Thomas Wren of the same place, cordwainer, of the other part, Witnesseth that the said Samuel Ashby, for and in consideration of the sum of forty pounds lawful money, hath granted and sold all that tract of land lying on the north side of Mill Creek, containing fifty acres more or less.
Signed, sealed & delivered in the presence of us
Day Book · Ashby & Wren, Merchants
| 1784 | £ | s | d | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2 | Capt. Holloway, Dr. to 3 casks molasses | 12 | 6 | 4 |
| June 3 | Widow Penrose, Cr. by 20 yds linen | 4 | 10 | 0 |
| June 5 | Sundries for the shop, to cash | 2 | 17 | 9 |
| June 7 | Rec'd of Mr. Dunmore in part | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| Carried forward | 27 | 14 | 1 |
Remarks on board the Brig Hopewell, Wednesday the 14th
| H | K | Course | Winds | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 6 | ENE | SW | Fresh breezes & clear |
| 6 | 5 | ENE | SSW | Set the topgallant sails |
| 10 | 4 | E by N | S | A sail in sight to windward |
| 12 | 4 | E by N | S | Lat. obs. 38° 12′ N · all hands well |
Honesty is the best policy.
Honesty is the best policy.
Honesty is the best policy.
Honesty is the best policy.
Mary Ellis, her Book, Aged 9 years · 1791
Saturday Evening
Writ by the last of the candle. A hard frost this morning, and the river closed above the ferry. Mr. Hale came by with the news from town, which I set down here so as not to forget it: the new road is to be laid out in the spring, and the meeting-house mended before the Sabbath.
Ink very thick with the cold.
Express · With all haste
Sir — I write in great hurry as the rider waits. The roads are very bad past the river and he will not reach you before Tuesday. Send word by the same man if the wagons are to come on, or wait for better weather.
In haste, yours &c. · R. Talbot
Be it known
that Master William Penrose hath completed with diligence the course of Writing & Arithmetick at this School, and is hereby commended to all whom it may concern.
Given under my hand this first day of June, 1769
Josiah Crane, Writing Master
At a Meeting of the Freeholders
of the Town legally warned and held at the Meeting House on Monday the 3d day of March 1772, Voted, that Mr. Nathan Cole be Moderator of this meeting. Voted, that the selectmen take care of the bridge over the brook by Widow Grant's. Voted, that hogs shall not go at large this year.
A true record · Attest, Eben. Wright, Town Clerk
Lot No. 7 · for Mr. Asa Whitlock
Beginning at a white oak marked on four sides, thence N 42° E 18 chains to a stake and stones; thence S 81° E 33 chains to a black walnut; thence S 6° W 21 chains to a heap of stones; thence to the first station. Containing 64 acres.
My dearest Eliza,
I have read your little note so many times the folds are near worn through. The days are long without you, and the evenings longer. Come Sunday, I shall walk by the orchard gate at four o'clock, and if you are there I shall be the happiest man in the county.
Ever thine, H.
The Farmer's Almanack
for the Year of our Lord 1765 · being the first after Leap Year
| D | Remarkable days & weather | Sun r. |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clear and cold, | 7 22 |
| 2 | St. Basil · then snow | 7 22 |
| 3 | or rain about this time. | 7 21 |
| 4 | Moon in perigee | 7 21 |
Early to bed, and early to rise.
A Proclamation
To all the Inhabitants of the County, Be it known that a
Great Fair
will be held on the Green on Tuesday the 9th of September, where Cattle, Horses, Grain & Goods of all kinds will be sold.
God save the People
People ask whether a font made with AI is a real font. Here is the honest answer, step by step. On the left, how a type designer works. On the right, what we did for these thirteen, with real pictures from the drawing of QUILL LETTER.
A type designer starts in the archive: letters, deeds and copybooks, looking at slope, size, joins and the angle of the pen.
We start the same way, with the hands of the 1700s: the round hand, the secretary hand, the clerk's fair copy. Each is written down as rules: how far it leans, how tall the small letters stand, how the nib is held.
A quill is cut to a chisel edge and held at a steady angle, so strokes come out thick one way and thin the other.
Our pen is the same idea in numbers: a nib of a set width and thickness held at a set angle. Here is the nib that wrote QUILL LETTER.
The designer pencils the path each stroke travels: where it starts, where it turns, where it leaves for the next letter.
Every letter here is drawn as that path first. The blue line is the real skeleton of QUILL LETTER's a, with the finished letter behind it.
The pen follows the path and the ink does the rest: swelling on the downstrokes, a hairline on the way up.
The nib is swept along the skeleton, and the thick and thin fall out of the pen angle, exactly as they do on paper.
The written letters are scanned and traced into outlines: the points a font file actually stores.
Our letters are traced into outlines too. These red dots are the points of the a in the file you download.
Every letter gets its own width, and joined hands are fitted so each letter leaves at the height the next one enters.
The dashed boxes are each letter's width in the word "the". The joins meet with no gaps, so any word you type connects.
Real hands never make the same letter twice. Good script fonts carry several forms of each letter and switch between them.
Every letter and figure in the written hands has four forms, and the font turns between them by itself, so "ee" and "ll" never match. These are the four e's.
The designer prints proofs, fixes what looks wrong, and tests the font in real programs.
We proof every font on screen and on paper, install it on Mac and PC, test it in browsers, and check every drawing against more than 200 well-known fonts so nothing is copied.
These fonts were made with AI by Lund Studio. They are not a copy of anyone's handwriting, and no real person's signature is in them. Judge them the way you would judge any font: set your words in them and look.
Yes. Every licence includes commercial use. Individual covers one person; Business covers a team of up to 25, one website and logos; Corporate covers a whole company.
A TTF file for each font, for Mac, PC and websites, with Western European accents. The written hands switch between four forms of every letter on their own in Word, Pages, Canva, Adobe apps and browsers.
These are original drawings, checked against more than 200 well-known fonts before they go on sale, and sold under our own licence. You get the same rights you would get from any font shop.
Yes. Commission a font: your own hand, a family hand or a hand from history, drawn for you.
The Historic Hands, from Athens to the 1880s, are in the store too.
All thirteen
The Parchment Collection bundle: every font on this page for $99, or $399 for a team of up to 25.
Get the collection