Austin-based producer of KillerFonts makes it easy for anyone to have the "handwriting of a serial killer."

By L. Theodore Ollier

In my last article, I discussed the use of differing conservative, straightforward fonts to create a subtle difference between different areas of text. In this article I will jump straight to the opposite end of the spectrum, to where the typestyles are completely unorthodox and, in some cases, just a little irreverent. These are the bread-and-butter fonts for the Pensword Type Foundry, the name under which I do my type design. These are the KillerFonts.

First--a little background. The concept of KillerFonts was created in 1996 by Stewart Shapiro, a movie producer whose credits include "Mondo New York", "Tunnel Vision", and "Comedy's Dirtiest Dozen." In true off-kilter style, Mr. Shapiro approached me with the idea of doing fonts based on the handwriting of famous and infamous people, and marketing them on the World Wide Web (http://www.killerfonts.com). Since this was a chance for me to do type work for a much wider audience than my previous original fonts, I jumped at the chance. Armed with a stack of "true-crime" books and a Wacom graphics tablet, I quickly did our first five fonts, and they, along with six of my originals, went on sale in October of 1996.

The first five fonts are a perfect example of how one jumps straight into warp speed when trying to compete for attention on the Web. The fonts were named "RipperScript", "Dillinger Concise", "Sirhan Ditto", "Oswald Conspiracy", and "DahmerBits". In that lineup we had the digitized handwriting of two assassins, two homicidal maniacs, and one notorious gangster. Needless to say, the site made a running leap into Web-notoriety.

However, neither Mr. Shapiro nor I wished to limit ourselves to the literal term "KillerFonts." Both of us wished to use the slang term of "killer", as in "killer fonts, dude!" in order to appeal to a broader audience of fontheads. And we have pretty much succeeded: our library now contains handwriting from such widely-varied people as Thomas Jefferson, Edgar Allan Poe, Leonardo DaVinci, and Helen Keller (yes, THE Helen Keller!).