SCHOOL WRITING

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How to use

The basics

• Type one word, name, or short sentence per line in the Text pane on the left.
• Each line becomes a writing row in the worksheet: the typed text on top, then blank practice rows for the student.
• An empty line gives you a row of just blank practice lines.

Fonts

Print Clearly	Manuscript (print) handwriting. Regular for examples, Bold for emphasis, Dashed for tracing.
Print Clearly Ruled	Same letters with the writing rules baked into each glyph. Use “None” for Rule lines.
Andika	SIL literacy font with handwriting-style letterforms (single-story a / g).
Learning Curve	Cursive (joined-up) handwriting. Regular, Bold, or Dashed.
Learning Curve Starts	Cursive with stroke-direction marks so students see where each letter begins.

Rule lines

• Three-line - classic primary-school rules: top line, dashed midline (x-height), solid baseline.
• Baseline only - one solid line per row.
• None - no rules drawn (use with Ruled fonts or for free-form pages).

Orientation

• Portrait - the standard 8.5 x 11 sheet.
• Landscape - a wide 11 x 8.5 sheet. Writing rows run about a third longer, so long names and sentences fit without wrapping, but roughly a quarter fewer rows fit down the page.
• Orientation is independent of everything else: your own typed text, any template, the name / date line, and practice rows all work the same in both. Templates do not change it, so a landscape sheet stays landscape when you load one.
• Templates re-fit themselves to whichever sheet they land on, by adjusting how much content they put on the page rather than by shrinking the letters. The alphabet redistributes evenly across fewer, longer rows (7 / 7 / 7 / 5 in portrait becomes 9 / 9 / 8 in landscape), blank paper uses as many rows as the sheet holds, and a template that is still too tall drops a practice row. Flip back and you get the original layout again.
• Once you edit the text yourself it is yours: re-fitting stops touching it.
• Letter size means the same physical height in both orientations, so a 56pt row is the same size on paper either way.

Tips

• Use the Letter size slider to adjust the height of writing rows.
• Use Practice rows to set how many blank rows follow each example line (0-5).
• Tick Name / date to add a Name: / Date: fill-in line across the top of the sheet. The letter size steps down automatically to make room.
• If your content runs past one page, the warning under the preview will tell you whether the other orientation would fit; otherwise lower the letter size or split it across multiple prints.
• When printing, leave the browser scale at 100% and let the orientation come from the page itself rather than overriding it in the print dialog.
• Click Print and choose “Save as PDF” for a printable file.

Credits

Print Clearly and Learning Curve fonts © Jess Latham / bvfonts.com — bundled with permission under freeware terms. Andika © SIL International, distributed under the SIL Open Font License.

This site is hosted independently by Brian Ericson. If it’s useful to your classroom, any donation helps keep it online.