Ownhand OpenSoftLabs

Handwriting to font · iPhone and iPad

Your handwriting, as a real font.

Write each letter once, one per box, with a finger or an Apple Pencil. Ownhand turns them into a TrueType file you can install and then use in Notes, Pages, GoodNotes, Canva and Word. About five minutes, no printer, no scanner, nothing uploaded.

In development. Not in the App Store yet.

A font built from handwriting, showing the pangram 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog', the sentence 'Hello, my name is Mira. Happy birthday!', uppercase letters with digits, and repeated letters e, a, o and t each drawn slightly differently.
A font built from the bundled sample handwriting. The last line is the point: every e, a, o and t is a different shape.

How it works

One letter per box, and about five minutes.

Nothing to trace, nothing to print. You write each letter the way you write it, in its own box on ruled guides, and the engine does the rest on the device.

  1. Write one letter per box

    Lowercase, capitals, numbers, punctuation and accent marks, then lowercase once more. Finger or Apple Pencil, on ruled guides.

  2. The engine builds a font

    It takes each box as a letter, traces the strokes into TrueType outlines, spaces them optically, measures kerning and composes the accents.

  3. Preview the real file

    Not a mock-up. Every slider change rebuilds the actual font in about a fifth of a second and renders it with CoreText.

  4. Install it

    Through an iOS configuration profile, or share the TTF to a Mac, a PC, Canva or Cricut and use it there.

Written, not stamped

The same letter, never twice the same.

A font made of one drawing per letter reads as a stamp: every e on the page is identical, and the eye notices. Ownhand keeps every version you wrote.

  • You write lowercase twice, and the two versions alternate as you type.
  • Spacing is measured from your own strokes rather than assumed.
  • Kerning pairs are measured, so awkward gaps close up.
  • Accents are composed, so café and naïve come out right.
  • A Neat–Natural dial keeps the wobble or tidies it up.
The preview screen rendering the rebuilt font live.

Where your handwriting goes

Nowhere.

Capture and build never touch the network. Your handwriting is on your phone, the font is built on your phone, and it leaves only if you export it yourself.

  • No account, no upload, no server round trip to make a font.
  • No analytics in this version, no ads, no tracking.
  • Installing goes from the app to Settings inside your device. The privacy page has the detail.

Pricing

Free.

Everything runs on your device, so there is nothing to charge you for. Make as many fonts as you like, install them and share them. No ads, no account, no subscription.

Questions

Before you write anything.

How long does it actually take? About five minutes. One letter per box: lowercase, capitals, numbers, punctuation, accent marks, then lowercase once more. Twelve short pages on iPhone, eight on iPad.
Do I need an Apple Pencil? No. A finger works. The Pencil gives you finer strokes if you have one, but the guides and the engine are the same either way.
Does my handwriting get uploaded anywhere? No. Capture and build never touch the network, so the strokes and the font stay on your device unless you export the file yourself.
Where can I use the font once it is made? Anywhere a font works. Install it on iPhone or iPad through a configuration profile and it appears in Notes, Pages, GoodNotes and Word, or share the TTF to a Mac, a PC, Canva or Cricut.
Why does it not look like a computer wrote it? Because you write lowercase twice and both versions are kept, alternating as you type, and the spacing is measured from your own strokes rather than assumed.
What does it cost? Nothing. Ownhand is free: make as many fonts as you like, install them and share them. No ads, no account, no subscription.
Is it out yet? Not yet. Ownhand is still being built and is not in the App Store. There is no waiting list to join and nothing to sign up for.