If
you're looking
for fonts which mimic lettering used to teach printed letters
and
handwriting skills,
you have come to the right place.
The
so-called
"DN
Kid
Letters"
is
a
complete
set
of
fonts
for
teachers
and
parents
which
make
it
fun
and
easy
to
teach
writing
skills
to
kids.
These
fonts have been developed
to assits teachers and parents teaching handwriting.
The "DN Kid Letters" fonts give you
resources to help
students develop:
- Pattern movements and other basic
motor skills.
- Proficiency in letter formation and
shaping.
- Appropriate letter size and spacing.
The complete set includes dotted fonts,
fonts with
arrows,
with guidelines etc.
With these fonts, you can create your
own
exercises and
study books with the phrases and curriculum that you
consider most
appropriate for learning handwriting. These fonts
have been created
with the help of teachers to ensure best results and
ease of use.
Nevertheless, note that my aim is not to substitute
the school
workbooks. The fonts are intended to be a supplement
to them.
They
work
within
any
Windows,
Linux
or
Macintosh
standard
application
and
can
be
used
with
such
programs
as
Microsoft
Word,
Claris
Works,
Apple
Works,
TexEdit,
AbiWord,
OpenOffice,
WordPad
and
so
on.
For
more
information,
please
see
below.
HANDWRITING
STYLES
Handwriting or penmanship is the art of writing
with the
hand and a writing instrument. Different styles of writing
have been
popular at different times and in different countries. Styles
of
handwriting are also called hands
or
scripts. There are a
variety
of handwriting styles. The most important methods for teaching
children
to write (at least in USA) are the Zaner-Bloser method and the
D'Nealian system. Starting at the beginning of the 20th
century
Zaner-Bloser became the dominant method in North America.
Starting in
the early sixties, the D'Nealian system from the beginning has
gained
popularity in many school districts in the United States.
The D'Nealian system was designed as a method to
alleviate
the problems with teaching children the standard Zaner-Bloser
script
method and the subsequent difficulty in transition to cursive
writing.
D'Nealian script was unique in that the manuscript form has
many
similarities to the cursive version. With D'Nealian
manuscript, there's
hardly any transition. That's the feature that has made this
handwriting method the favorite of teachers in USA. All you do
is add a
few simple joining strokes and -presto-
you're
writing
in
D'Nealian
cursive.
A school district usually decides to teach one
style. If
you have a child who is not yet attending school and is ready
to write,
call the school office or contact the kindergarten teacher to
learn the
handwriting style used. Naturally you always have the option
of
teaching your child another method style, but it can be a
needless
frustration for the child.
Homeschool parents have more options. Take time
to
familiarize yourself with the various styles. Most start with
a
manuscript form for the first several years, then move into a
cursive
form.
Whatever handwriting style your children use, please make
handwriting
practice fun!
CHARACTERISTICS
OF
"DN
KID
LETTERS"
FONTS
As mentioned above there are many
styles of handwriting, including: cursive, manuscript, Italic
etc, each
with its own letter formation and variation.
The "DN Kid Letters" set of fonts belongs to the
D'Nealian manuscript
style of handwriting.
The "DN
Kid
Letters"
family
includes
8
different
fonts with the ability to trace
dots, lines, arrows and a combination of these.
Please see samples
below.
These manuscript fonts contain all the
common
signs, as
well as
accented characters - acute accent, grave accent,
circumflex, tilde,
diaeresis or umlaut mark, ring, cedilla, ae and oe
ligatures, o slash
and German double s -
for Western European languages (Spanish, French,
Portuguese, Italian, German, Dutch, Danish,
Norwegian, Swedish and
Icelandic,
among
others) and current symbols.
The
"DN
Kid
Letters"
typefaces
offer
a
family
of
8 font styles suited to all
exercise sheets and workbooks: plain, bold (heavy),
dotted, with
tracing arrows, with or without guidelines.
This typographic pack contains fonts
covering all
the
method's
curriculum.
Here
are
samples
of
"DN
Kid
Letters"
and
a
brief
description
of
each of the handwriting fonts.
1.- DN
Kid
Letters. Manuscript
font
without
guidelines.
This
font
is
the
basic.

2.-
DN
Kid
Letters Bold. Manuscript
font
without
guidelines.
This
font
can
be
used
by
the
teacher
to
stress
indications.

3.- DN
Kid
Letters Guided. Manuscript
font
with
four
guidelines
(ruled
lines).

4.-
DN
Kid
Letters with Arrows. Manuscript
font
with
tracing
arrows
for
beginners.
Arrows
give
hints
about
how
to
start
letters.

5.- DN
Kid
Letters with Dots and Arrows. Manuscript
dotted
font
with
arrows and stroke
numbers
which offer guidance in direction and sequence.
6.-DN
Kid
Letters Dotted. Manuscript
dotted
font
for
tracing.

7.-
DN
Kid
Letters Dotted and Guided. Manuscript
dotted
font
with
four
guidelines
(ruled
lines).

8.- DN
Kid
Letters with Arrows and Lined. Manuscript
font
with
four
guidelines
(ruled
lines)
and arrows.
These guided fonts have been designed
so that the
guidelines print out at the same time as the
letters.
To create continuous lines without
letters (only
guidelines) use the space bar, the logical sign (key
¬) or the
vertical line (key
|).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Teach children how to write numbers and
the
alphabet by
tracing the characters of these dotted fonts.
Make writing a connect-the-dot game
using a dotted
font.
Creating your own worksheets is fun and will often
produce an
enthusiastic response from your children!
These fonts for children offer a unique
material
to let
children experiment and discover the first
letterforms. Teach your
child to write the fun way.
Start with the kid's name, then
progress to the
names of
everyone in the family, favourite teddies and
friends, and then on to
easy words and so son. Type your words in large
letters.
There is no theoretical limit to the
size of
letters,
besides the practical limit of the application used
to manage layout.
They can be printed very big to post on the
blackboard, for instance.

Like any standard font, the "DN Kid
Letters" family
of fonts
can be used in colors for personalized layouts and
color-coded
exercises.
Use color to make the worksheets
appealing, and
add small
images using clipart from within Word or from
graphic sites on the net.

For further
information about
these fonts including more visual examples and worksheets,
please read
the User's
Manual (21 pages, PDF format) included in the package
you can
download below.
SOFTWARE
REQUIREMENTS,
INSTALLATION
AND
USE
The "DN Kid
Letters" fonts are compatible with Windows (any version), Mac
OS9 and
OSX, and Linux.
In fact,
this
product is not really a program. It
is
a set of 8 fonts to be used with other applications.
These
are standard fonts (8
bits, TTF format), so they can be used running any Windows
version
and any word processor.
You can
also use them
running Linux. I have successfully tried them under Debian
with OpenOffice.
These fonts
should be
usable on Macintosh running OSX9 and OSX. This is not a
problem, since Mac recognizes PC TrueType fonts without
complaint.
In any case, if you are very interested and you
wish to
get a Mac version of these fonts (bin and dfont formats), I
can produce
them in a Mac native format for you.
Installation is very easy, simply copy and paste
the font
files into your Fonts folder located somewhere in your hard
disk
(Library/Fonts in a Mac or Windows/Fonts in a PC).
After installation they can be used in any
program
such as
word processing or graphic programs, like any other
standard
font. Simply access the font list and you will see the new
fonts appear
with the existing fonts from before.
Select the font you wish from the font list, (a
dotted
font, for instance), choose the correct size*, enter the
sequences for
your child to trace
and print. Your child can then begin to connect the
dots and learn the shape of the letters and numbers.
*You may use large sizes for better display
(suggested
size-30 points or up).
EXERCISE
SHEETS
The "DN Kid Letters"
fonts allow teachers and parents to create custom
hand-lettered
exercise sheets and
classroom
signage.
Doubtless these fonts will make your job so
much
easier
since you will be able to build custom assignments for
your kids and
individualized practice sheets for each student in your classroom
in minutes. They save a lot of preparation time.
The
worksheets
below
were
developed
with
Kindergarten
children
in
mind.
They
provide
letter
recognition,
phonics,
reading
and
writing
practice.
Please
pass the cursor over the following images to see
worksheets created with these fonts:


(Aa) Letter formation -


(Bb) Letter formation -


(Cc) Letter formation


(Dd) Letter formation -


(1 and 2) Number formation
On
the other hand, children have a wonderful
time
using
the "DN Kid Letters" fonts to tell stories. It gets them
excited.
Click on the following link to see a document
in
PDF
format (160 kb, 14 pages) which contains
samples
of
worksheets created in Word with the "DN Kid Letters"
fonts. It
will
give
you an idea of what you can create yourself with these
fonts.
I
recommend
you
to
print
it
to
see
exactly
how
this
will
look
on
paper,
because
all
these
fonts are intended primarily for print
using printer
ink
or HP
toner and may not show as well on the screen. Please
keep in mind
that what
you see is not always what you get. These typefaces are
best rendered
on the printer, so they print legibly, not to display at
small sizes on
the screen.
FREE
DOWNLOAD: EVALUATION
VERSION OF "KID LETTERS" FONTS
A
package which contains three "DN Kid Letters" fonts in
demo version and
an
extensive
user's manual
(21 pages in PDF format) is
available
for free download from this site.
It will let you play with the fonts so you can see
if they
work
for you before buying.
Please note that fonts in the package are identical
to the
complete product
except that the annoying watermark "TRYOUT" appears
accompanying
some letters.
Click on the link below to
download the evaluation font package.
Font
package 389 kb
(Manual in PDF
format
+
3 Demo
fonts
)
This is a large file; therefore,
please be
patient!
IMPORTANT:
Remember that you must unzip (extract) the files into a
temporary
directory and then install the fonts.
PRICE AND LICENSES
The
"DN
Kid
Letters"
font
package
is
very
cheap,
really!
A
single user license
for the
complete set of 8 fonts costs
only
$15, less than $2 per
font. It is a
real bargain!
With the single user license you are allowed
to
use the
fonts at school and at home but not to share them with
other teachers
or friends. Other friends should purchase their own copy
of the fonts.
The font package is sent you as atttachment to an email
message
(electronic delivery). It is important that you have an
account which
can receive attachments.
I also offer the possibility to use the fonts
for
your
whole school. A school site license allows all teachers at
the school
site to use the fonts at school and at home. This license
costs only
$90. For that moderate price, you will be allowed to
install
the fonts on all school's computers, as well as teacher's
laptops and
home computers. In this case, I can ship the fonts on CD
to your postal
address if you desire. The price includes the shipping and
handling
fees.
However, please note that price is for ONE
school,
and not
for whole district. In this last case I offer discount for
several
schools. Please contact me for details.
Click on
the corresponding button below to
purchase the
fonts online.
For other alternative methods of payment,
please
read the
information given in the user's manual or email me for
further details.
Whatever license you choose, please do not
make
illegal
copies of this software. The software you are using was
produced after
months of effort and hard work. Properly purchasing and
licensing the
fonts will support this effort and will help the modest
designer of
these fonts get the just reward for his work. Thanks.
After making the payment you
will receive the fonts as attachment to an email message
sent
to your email acount.
If you have questions or doubts, please do
not
hesitate to
contact me.
ONLINE PAYMENT
If you own a
credit or debit card (Visa®, MasterCard®,
Discover® and
American Express®), you can pay online, which means
purchase
can be
made in a matter of clicks.
This payment is being backed by PayPal®,
a
global
leader in online payment solutions and credit
card
processing. To make payments with
PapyPal is easy, fast, free and secure for buyers.
Naturally, your
transaction will be confidential and the information you
give
will not be used for any reason other than the use
intended. PayPal
protects your security.
Depending on your choice, click on the
corresponding
button below to purchase the "DN Kid Letters" fonts
online. In order to
avoid errors, please read carefully the information given
below before
clicking on the PayPal button to order. Please be careful
with your
choosing since depending on it you will get one item or
other.
1)
– Complete font package. Single user license.
Delivery:
Electronic
only.
The
full
package
of
8
fonts
costs
US $15.
The
8 "DN Kid Letters" fonts will be sent as attachment to
your email
account. With
the
single user license you are allowed to use the
fonts at school and at home, but not to share them with
other teachers
or friends.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2)
– Complete font package. School
site license.
Delivery:
Electronic
or
shipped on CD if requested. US
$90. The complete package
which
contains all eight "DN Kid
Letters" fonts + a cursive font (D'Nealian sytle) +
character maps + a
free PDF generator program +
other
useful font utilities (only Windows version) will be
shipped on a CD to
your postal address if you ask me to do so, if not, you
will receive
the fonts as attachment to an email message.
As to the programs included in the CD, please read
disclaimer below.
The
fonts
have
not restrictions at all. All features are
enabled. Even the embedding feature is allowed: this means
that the
fonts may be
embedded in documents to produce PDF documents running
Adobe Acrobat.
You also are
entitled to use
the font in a printed book or to produce
electronic documents which can be uploaded into
your web page.
For
that moderate
price, you will be allowed to install
the fonts on all school's computers, as well as teacher's
laptops and
home computers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMPORTANT
THINGS
TO
NOTE :
1.- Whatever option you choose, please send me a message
after making
the payment through PayPal in order to confirm that
you are really who ordered the font.
2.- In most cases I will reply to your message in due time
(normally
within a day or so), unless I was on holydays, then it
will take a
little more time, since I only will able to check my
emails from time
to time, (usually every five days, more or less or even
a little more during the summer) so be patient, however,
be sure that
you will receive my response. Sorry for this
inconvenience.
3.- The delivery period of a CDRom mailed to your postal
address will
take several days, evidently depending on your country. In
most cases
the CDRom will arrive at your home in approximately
six days.
4.- Evidently, any modification or public distribution of
these fonts
is not permited under any circumstance.
Disclaimer:
The
aforementioned software bundled with the fonts
on the CDRom is evidently freesoftware or shared programs
which can be
freely distributed and all documentations which the
different authors
provide remain intact. The original programs have not been
altered at
all.
I do not charge users a fee for these programs.
AUTHOR
Just in case you are wondering who is Juan-José
Marcos,
click here
and you will find some
information
about the author of these fonts and this
website.
More fonts designed by the same author here.
SUGGESTIONS AND QUERIES
I have taken
care to see that these fonts work as well as possible,
nevertheless, if
you find any fault, feel free to email me.
Although you do not purchase the fonts,
please,
send me
comments, suggestions for improvements or anything else
regarding my
"DN Kid Letters" fonts. I would like to know your opinion
about my work.
I really would appreciate having users'
feedback.
Such reaction from users will be the deciding
factor in my
decision of carrying on with the development of more fonts
for kids
(Handriting
Without
Tears style, for example). Do
not hesitate to contact me. Thanks.
Do
not hesitate to contact me. Thanks.
If
you are
looking for fonts in the Zaner-Bloser style of
handwriting, please
click
on
the
following
link
to
visit
my
webpage
devoted
to
fonts
based
on
the
Zaner-Bloser
style of
handwriting. There you will find a package of 8 fonts that
follow the
guidelines of
the Zaner-Bloser method.
juanjmarcos
yahoo.es
Juan-José
Marcos
Plasencia. Spain.
This page last updated on March 2012.
Visits since
1-April-2006