Albert Einstein’s Handwriting Turned into a Font

(Photo: Peat Bakke)

This is the earliest known appearance of Einstein’s most famous equation. It was written in Einstein’s own handwriting, which typographer Harald Geisler describes as a mixture of the Latin alphabet and Kurrent, which is a classical German form of cursive.

Two years ago, Geisler turned samples of Sigmund Freud’s handwriting into a usable digital font. You can type like Dr. Freud wrote by using the font called Siggy. Now Geisler is doing the same with Einstein’s handwriting. Fast Co Design describes the process:

Like his Sigmund font, Geisler started his digitization efforts by combing through samples of Einstein's handwriting, and identified four versions of each character, both uppercase and lowercase, which could be considered typical samples. Simultaneously, Geisler tried to get a sense for the rhythm of Einstein's hand: how the discoverer of general relativity linked an 'a' to a 'b', or a 'b' to a 'c', making notes of the kinds of slopes and distances Einstein used. From there, Geisler meticulously copied every sample letter into a grid, and started tweaking it to make sure that it worked as a typeface.

Albert Einstein’s Handwriting Turned into a Font