productivity

Handwriting Font Maker

Draw characters in the browser and turn the captured pen coordinates into a downloadable TrueType font (TTF).

Local processing

About your filesFiles and content selected in this tool are processed in your browser and are not uploaded to a Browser Kitty backend.

Operation demo See the basic workflow in a short video.

About this tool

Handwriting Font Maker lets you draw characters one by one with a mouse, touch screen, or pen and create a TrueType font (TTF) from those strokes. Choose from hiragana, katakana, uppercase/lowercase Latin letters, digits, and symbols, or extract only the characters needed from text you provide.

Instead of rasterizing the handwriting and tracing an image, the app keeps captured pen coordinates as vector data and converts them into TrueType outlines. The generated TTF is loaded back into the browser so you can inspect real glyph rendering at 12 / 16 / 24 / 48 px.

Good for

Create a small TTF based on your own handwriting entirely in the browser
Build a limited character-set font by writing only the characters needed for a specific piece of text
Turn pen or touch strokes directly into vector font outlines without going through paper or raster images
Inspect the generated font at multiple sizes and revise characters that merge or lose shape

What it can do

Key capabilities available in this tool.

Handwrite hiragana, katakana, Latin letters, digits, symbols, or a custom character set
Keep pen coordinates as vectors and generate TrueType outlines directly
Reload the generated TTF and inspect it at 12 / 16 / 24 / 48 px
Save and restore project data as .handfont.json and export the finished TTF

How to use

Enter a font name and choose a character set such as hiragana, katakana, Latin letters, digits, or symbols, or provide text to extract only the characters you need.
Choose Start Writing and draw the current character using the faint reference glyph if useful; the guide can be turned off.
Move through characters with previous/next controls, the character list, or Next Missing. Stroke-level Undo / Redo is available while drawing.
Review the real generated font at 12 / 16 / 24 / 48 px in the preview and redraw characters marked as reference/check-needed when appropriate.
When finished, proceed to Review & Save, confirm the filename, and save the TTF. Work is autosaved locally and can also be explicitly exported as .handfont.json.

Supported

Character sets: hiragana, katakana, uppercase Latin, lowercase Latin, digits, symbols, or characters extracted from provided text. Maximum 180 characters per project.
Input: mouse, touch, or pen, with stroke-level Undo / Redo, pen-width adjustment, and an optional reference glyph.
Font generation: strokes are kept in a 1000×1000 logical coordinate system and converted to TrueType glyf outlines without rasterization, binarization, or image contour tracing.
Review: the generated TTF is loaded with FontFace and rendered at 12 / 16 / 24 / 48 px. The 16 / 24 px checks focus on shapes that merge or disappear compared with 48 px; 12 px is treated as a reference view.
Saving: export TTF plus .handfont.json project save/load. Work is also autosaved locally in the browser.

Limitations and notes

TTF is the only output format; WOFF2 is not supported.
Advanced per-glyph width tuning, kerning, ligatures, and randomized alternate glyphs are not supported.
There is no import from paper templates or images, and Unicode characters above U+10000 are not supported.
A project can contain at most 180 characters.
The app does not perform Boolean Union between strokes or advanced Bezier optimization. Complex single strokes may fall back to safer segmented outlines.

Frequently asked questions

Are my handwriting or generated fonts uploaded to a server?

No. Capturing stroke coordinates, generating the font, previewing the real TTF, and saving it all run in the browser. The runtime CSP uses connect-src 'none', with no CDN, external API, analytics, or telemetry.

Can I create a font from handwriting on paper or an image?

No. This tool works with strokes drawn directly in the browser using a mouse, touch, or pen. Importing paper templates or images is not supported.

Can I make a font containing all Japanese characters?

No. A project is limited to 180 characters, so it is not intended for a complete Japanese character set. It is better suited to kana or to extracting only the characters needed for specific text.

Can I save my work and continue later?

Yes. Work is autosaved in the browser, and you can also explicitly save and load a .handfont.json project file. For important work, using the explicit project save is recommended.

Offline version and source code

Both regular and self-extracting distributions are single HTML files with no runtime third-party dependency or external connection. The regular dist/index.html can be opened directly with file:// for handwriting input, font generation, preview, and saving.

View source on GitHub