Looking for a simple font that is similar to how people actually write characters

Question

I'm looking for a free font that most closely represents glyphs as they are commonly drawn. For example, people draw a single story lower case a, while most sans-serif fonts (for good reasons) use a two-story a.

The context is for young children learning to read and practice drawing letters. I am not looking for a novelty font that looks like handwriting.

The specific characteristics I'm looking for are the following:

• single store lower case a
• lower case g has a hook instead of a bowl
• lower case q has a hook instead of looking like a backwards p
• none of the letters or numbers are overly ornate (e.g. Q doesn't have some fancy tail)

The closest I've found so far is Sofia Pro, which meets most of these requirements except it's lower case q does not have a hook.

(In general, I'm finding it hard to find any fonts with a hooked q--why is that?)

Answer 1

I think that hooked q may be the key.... it's rare. So.. merely searching on that....

• http://www.fontspace.com/unicode/char/024B-latin-small-letter-q-with-hook-tail
  (Hover over characters at the link above to get typeface names)

• http://graphemica.com/%C9%8B/glyphs/times-new-roman-regular

• https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/U+024B

So, you may be best searching for a font with that unicode glyph. Not sure how diverse free fonts are when it comes to the more rare unicode items.

There are dozens of fonts which meet the other criteria you listed. I think it's that hooked q that limits choices greatly.

Useful additional information from @PieBie: "Hooked lowercase Q is unicode U+024B, hexa &#x024B, decimal &#587 and UTF-8 C9 8B. It is part of Latin Extended-B."

For the record I don't think "people actually write" with a hooked q. I think children are taught to write with a hooked q, but as they age, that hook disappears quickly. I can't ever recall seeing anyone over the age of 5-7 hook a q when writing. (That doesn't mean it never happens, only that I've never seen it.)

Answer 2

There are couple of fonts that I know of that will work for this:

Folder (http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/typodermic/folder/) was specifically designed for the purpose, as was Sassoon Infant (http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/sassoon-infant/). They are different takes on the same idea and they both cost money (although Folder is pretty cheap), but I think they will tick all of your boxes.

Vag Rounded is a popular choice for children's books and products. It doesn't fit all of your criteria, but it's worth a look.

I used to do a lot of artworks for children's books and we often found that we would have to create bespoke versions of the fonts that the designers selected that were better suited for children. Especially for a and t characters. However, that means using font editing software and possibly gets you into copyright issues depending on the use.

Answer 3

Although q is frequently written with a hooked tail, that's not universal. Many teachers use a straight tail, as these examples show:

• https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2c/76/77/2c7677f0aa7331fa3cef3e1eb341e773.gif
• https://www.pinterest.com/pin/258464466086487508/
• https://i.etsystatic.com/11915786/r/il/194111/915607286/il_794xN.915607286_6jtn.jpg
• http://economyinnlancaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/dotted-font-in-word-prettier-free-abc-print-dotted-line-arrow-fonts-of-dotted-font-in-word.jpg

So I think you'd be fine with either style of q, especially since q is an uncommon letter and might not even occur in your text.

For what it's worth, when I learned to write letters, we were taught to write q with an angled tail . I don't think that style of writing is taught any more.

Answer 4

Try this font...I too am making flashcards for Montessori School: "KG Primary Penmanship 2"

https://www.fonts.com/font/kimberly-geswein-fonts/kg-primary-penmanship/2

Answer 5

KG Neatly Printed Spaced has a hooked q and I think the others you asked for.

I actually learned the angled tail in Australia, and was hoping to find that but no luck so far.

Answer 6

Here's a well known method for french scholar (my children used it^^).

http://en.calameo.com/read/000736902007c579ebb39

Answer 7

Some years ago when I started teaching my son to read and write, I dug through my extensive font collection for just these same reasons.

The best I found at that time was Futura. It's not perfect—in particular, I am not happy with the lowercase "j", and I would have been happier with a hooked "q", but for all other letters it is excellent.

Here is what FuturaDemiBold looks like:

Answer 8

Andika is perfect for this and free. Although its q doesn't have a hook by default, it does have one as an alternate character, explained in the manual on page 6-you can copy this character out of a glyph palette. It also has a LOT of other features you can insert: you can put a curl on the top of b and d and the bottom of the i and l to make it more like handwriting, make the stroke on the Q go through the letter, make the 4 open, put a slash through the 0 and a bar through the 7. It's an incredibly flexible family considering that it's free (they do take donations).

Answer 9

The lowercase q usually has a hook in raleway font, but sometimes it doesn't. Google likes the lowercase q looking like a backwards p. And I dont know why. The atkinson hyperlegible font also has a hooked lowercase q, and these fonts are both sans-serif fonts. These 2 fonts have the hook in the default way (usually raleway does). Like I said, Raleway font and Atkinson hyperlegible font have a lowercase q with a hook, google fonts and the other 3 got rid of the hook on the lowercase q in raleway.

Answer 10

If you are using Google, add the font kanit or karla. Their lowercase q both have a small hook tail that will help with distinguishing p from q.