Martin Luther King Font Update #21

September / October 2021

This image shows the view from the Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument on August 28, 1963. 

Dear reader reader,

You downloaded the Martin Luther King handwriting font, and I wanted to let you know that an updated version is ready for you to download from your account:

https://haraldgeisler.com/my-account/
An image of...
The new version will show up in your font menu as “Martin Luther King 2021 September”. I recommend uninstalling older versions to keep your font menu organized. The next update is scheduled for late September, 2021
Ambassador-Andrew-Young

Before we talk about fonts!

On this day in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington.

I like to recommend you to listen to Beloved Community Talks – Don’t Stop: March On For Justice broadcasted by The King Center yesterday. Featuring Andrew Young interviewed by Dr. Vonetta L. West about his recollection of the events that lead to the March on Washington.
world house podcast
Secondly, I strongly recommend the World House podcast to you. The host Dr. Clayborne Carson is the director of the King Papers Project and Editor of Dr. King’s Autobiography. In Episode 13 he talks about his memories of the March and Dr. King’s speech.
Dr-King-I-have-a-dream-speech-handwriting
Included with the font, you will find a PDF of the speech set in Dr. King’s handwriting. In the document, you will also find a link to an unabridged audio recording from NPR so that you can listen and read along.

Choosing a handwriting font instead of regular fonts usually makes the reading longer. Just like it takes longer to listen to a person speak than to read a transcript. I asked myself how the reading experience would change if I read Dr. King’s “I have dream” speech set in his handwriting.

I am curious to hear from you if this typographic experiment changed your reading experience. And as I set out in the beginning “opens the door to the content of an author.”

Personally, I enjoy the speech as part of the work on the project. With every update, I print out a page from the script and hang it in my studio. It is part looking and evaluating the font, part continuously encountering the content of an author.

Let's talk fonts.

This update adds two new letterforms lowercase final form d and r.

The alphabet has uppercase and lowercase letters, but when looking at handwriting, one can notice that lowercase letters are drawn differently at the beginning or end of a word. These forms are called initial or final forms.
Martin-Luther-King-Font-Newsletter-Illustrations-september
When looking at Dr. King's handwriting, these initial and final forms are significant. To me, it even seems that there is a kind of joy in the swashes and intricate forms we find at the beginning and end of his handwritten words. That is why it is so important to me to bring these forms into the font. Then, as you type, the font automatically chooses the right letterform for you.

These changes may seem small, but it enriches the reader with a variety of forms. And I find this kind of complexity is very pleasing for the eye.

If this is not working on your computer, look at the tutorial from →Update #16 on activating Initial and Final Forms, it might help.

Below you see the new letters in the context of the original manuscripts "An Autobiography of Religious Development", Page 11.
Martin-Luther-King-font-work-images-september21

A big "Thank you."

to everybody who supported the creation of the font this month. This update is possible because of the financial support of 22 people from around the world. I want to take some space to thank them:

J. Harris, Montgomery, Al 🇺🇸
J. Horton, North Turramurra, NSW 🇦🇺
N. Renner, New Britain, CT 🇺🇸
B. Desclee, Brussels 🇧🇪
K. Engelbrecht, Bern 🇨🇭
R. Wampler, Colorado Springs, CO 🇺🇸
D. Chamberlain, Benicia, CA 🇺🇸
H. de Wolf, Zaandijk 🇳🇱
K. Tilley, Linthicum Heights, MD 🇺🇸
C. Smith, Nedlands, WA 🇦🇺
J. Ford, New York, NY 🇺🇸
P. Herman, Bonsall, CA 🇺🇸
F. Chaplais, Ile de France 🇫🇷
J. Holze, Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt 🇩🇪
N. Wilson, Broken Arrow, OK 🇺🇸
T. Zwitserlood, Amsterdam, NH 🇳🇱
J. Wilson, Nashville, TN 🇺🇸
G. Sjölin, Örebro 🇸🇪
R. Lindsey, Grand Terrace, CA 🇺🇸
H. Colsman-Freyberger, Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg 🇩🇪
F. Engerer, Nürnberg, Bavaria 🇩🇪
H. Billetter, Kerpen, North Rhine-Westphalia 🇩🇪

How can you support the Martin Luther King font?

This project is very dear to me; I hope you enjoy the font. Without support, this project would not be possible! The more people support the project, the more time I can spend working on the font.

1. Spread the word.

Do you have a colleague or friend that might be interested in this? Maybe a high school teacher or student working on Dr. King. Please share this email or link to the project site: https://haraldgeisler.com/martin-luther-king-font with friends, family, and colleagues you think would be interested in the font.

2. Donate regularly to the font.

I will add one additional letter for each 100€ ($110, £90) donated monthly, and sometimes I add some more. reader reader if you want to support: please donate monthly. The continuity will help me and the rhythm of the project. You can find a detailed report on the received donations →here.
If you have any questions about this project, reply to this email. I am happy to help.

Enjoy the font and stay tuned for more updates,
Software-Logo

Do you have questions about fonts and how to use them?

I have prepared a → helpful font guide that will guide you through the necessary steps of installing a font on different devices. If your question is not covered in the PDF, reply to this email. I am happy to help.

Lost Password?

Did you forget your password to download the font? To reset a password, try this link: https://haraldgeisler.com/wp-login.php?action=lostpassword, and enter your email - this will automatically send you a new password. (Please check your spam folder - automated emails tend to go there)

Then go to https://haraldgeisler.com/my-account/, enter your new credentials, and download the font.

Update History:

Update #21: 28. August 2021. This update adds two new letterforms lowercase final form d and r.
Update #20: 7. August 2021. This update adds 3 new letterforms, lowercase initial letters e, g, and u.
Update #19: 30. June 2021. This update adds five new letterforms, lowercase l (version 2), and initial letters a, c, o, and s.
Update #18: 1. June 2021. This update adds two new letterforms, lowercase o (version 2) and u (version 2).
Update #17: 12. May 2021. This update adds two new final letterforms, lowercase g and y, and an alternate version of the initial lowercase i. Further, the update fixes (4) the size of the new numbers that shipped with the April Update. And finally, I have added a new PDF to showcase the font.
Update #16: 30. March 2021. Added numbers: 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, 0 (version 2) and semicolon.
Update #15: 28. February 2021: Added Numbers: 1,2,3,4,5
Update #14: 9. January 2021: Added the letters: ă â à ā ą å ã ć č ç ě ê ė è ē ẽ ḡ î ï ì ī į ĩ ĺ ł ń ň ñ ô ò ő ō õ ŕ ř ś š ţ û ù ű ų ů ũ ŵ ẁ ŷ ỳ ỹ ź ž ż as well as the dollar sign and an alternative comma.
Update #13 Added 29. December 2020: capital letter X, parenthesis left and right (), improvised: Aacute, Adieresis, Eacute, Edieresis, Iacute, Idieresis, Jacute, Oacute, Odieresis, Uacute, Udieresis, Wacute, Wdieresis, Yacute, Ydieresis, aacute, adieresis, eacute, edieresis, edotaccent, iacute, idieresis, jdotless, jacute, oacute, odieresis, uacute, udieresis, wacute, wdieresis, yacute, ydieresis.
Update #12 Added 30. November 2020: initial p and f, and a variation for the lowercase t.
Update #11 Added 29. October 2020: special form I, final-form t
Update #10 Added 28. August 2020: J, initial form y, colon
Update #9 Added 28. July 2020: Q, final form e, Alternative Form U
Update #8 Added 28. June 2020: P, final form n, initial form i
Update #7 Added 28. May 2020: Number: repaired ligature features, U, final form y & s
Update #6 Added 28. April 2020: Numbers: 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 (Numbers are complete)
Update #5 Added 31. March 2020: Capital letters: D — Numbers: 4
Update #4 Added 25. February 2020: Capital letters: I — Numbers: 1, 9
Update #3 Added 25. January 2020: Capital letters: A, R
Update #2 Added 27. December 2019: Capital letters: C, E, O, V — Numbers: 2, 0 — Signs: hyphen
Update #1 Added 27. November 2019: Capital letters: L, K, N, W, S, T, F, B, Y, H — lower-case letter: g — initial lower-case letter: t.init — Signs: Bullet, comma, quote-single (or apostrophe - very important for English), quote-double, quote-double left, quote-double right
Atelier Harald Geisler
haraldgeisler.com
Stiftstrasse 16
60313 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
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