When is the last time you picked up a pen and wrote a letter? I hardly ever send anything but thank you notes, but I do adore getting mail! The old-fashioned kind that comes via the post office from parts unknown and is deposited outside our front door by the mailman, Tom. There are shoeboxes in my office filled with old letters, some have been with me for over 25 years.  Emails may make life easier and certainly arrive a whole lot faster, but sadly something special has been lost in the art of personal communication.

Pilot has tapped right into that sentiment with its new handwritting app. In a world of obsessed with readability, it allows a bit of personalization back into your communications. This program cleverly translates your very own unique handwriting into a font. Presto, you can now send ‘handwritten’ emails. I posted a link to Pilot Handwriting app and the very next day I got an email back from a dear friend living in Madison Wisconsin. I haven’t seen CJ in 7 months. She was a natural candidate with very lovely penmanship, but I was most touched that she took the time get her handwriting digitized before she wrote back to me. It was that same special feeling you get when a personal letter arrives in the mail.

Wondering how it works? All is revealed in the video below.

I love listening to the jaunty Mozart piano rondo and watching the laptop keys click away! This web app was commissioned by Comercial Arge, the exclusive distributor of Pilot products in Spain, and I can hardly imagine many US apps being promoted with classical music, but it all feels so graceful. I was propelled through a world of nostalgia and charm into believing I really need my handwriting turned into a font… and to get started, I’ll have to find a pen.