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Show HN: Epistolary – Respond to your emails in handwriting
I don't know why but from the title I was kinda expecting and even hoping for the opposite - that you'd type it up and it'd make a ye olde letter PDF/jpeg and attach it to the response :-)
If you ever wanted to type up a "handwritten" letter, there are some tools out there to create a custom font from your handwriting!
One thing more annoying that reading someone's horrible handwriting is having to install a custom font just to read an email. I honestly do not know whether the security setting on my work machine even allows for custom/bespoke fonts in email. It has never come up before.
Ah, I was envisioning that you'd turn the "letter" into a PDF. Maybe use a weathered parchment background for extra effect :P
I was envisioning an image or PDF (which lets you embed the font, effectively) but "click here to install my font" is somehow even funnier
Interesting! Do you have a link or term to Google?
Sites like [calligraphr](https://www.calligraphr.com/en/) can help you create fonts from your handwriting. Also, here's an old project for creating something that looks handwritten on paper.

https://github.com/sherlockdoyle/Handwriter

https://github.com/bannyvishwas/MyHandWriting
  • j6m8
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Definitely want to try that too!! In general I think people sending an email expect a text format reply, but there's something sad about losing that handwritten letter :) Plus of course, drawings → attachments!
Same here
... Dear nigerian prince, I hope this letter finds you well, and that the troubles of your father are now long gone. Here now the days are shorter, you can see the birds flying south, probably to more sunny places like the ones you tell me about in your letters.

I cannot wait for the day that we finally meet!

Please tell your busniess manager that I will deliver the requested funds myself, as I plan to visit your country soon.

Holding you dear, your friend

John Doe, sq.

  • j6m8
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  • 4 months ago
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creator here! writing eink letters is cool and feels good :)

if you have a similar workflow in mind I'd love to hear about it!

This is fun!

I don't have a Remarkable so it's not clear to me how the file gets to your server. Are you sending it directly from the Remarkable or connecting a Remarkable cloud account?

  • j6m8
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  • 4 months ago
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This is connecting via the reMarkable cloud tool, but everything is abstracted into a `DocumentManager`, so you could also use, for example, the document manager that just drops PDFs into the filesystem [1] so that you can use whatever tool you like, including, say, iPad, writing with a wacom on your laptop, etc.

[1] https://github.com/j6k4m8/epistolary/blob/main/epistolary/do...

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  • 4 months ago
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If I expect others to read and understand my replies I'll need a way to respond to my emails in someone else's handwriting.
I've got a Boox Note Air and it has AI handwriting recognition of handwritten notes made on the device, next to general handwriting recognition when responding to for example e-mail or writing in apps.
  • j6m8
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  • 4 months ago
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Totally, the reMarkable has handwriting recognition as well — this project was partially borne of the workflow of "write text, auto transcribe, send to a computer, copy paste into an email." How do you like the Boox? My friend loves his!
I love it as well, care it with me everywhere, with termux and a bluetooth keyboard use it as little programming machine and second i make notes, and during a dzogchen teaching yesterday use it to branch into different questions and topics while notetaking with claude sonnet. it's mind expanding, of course I could also use an ipad with apple pen for this, but this has a more natural screen and longer lasting battery. Android apps are also a killer feature, my phone ran out of battery, so I just listened to podcasts and e-books on the boox.
Pretty cool... but I hate writing long hand. :o)

A shorthand teaching and capturing tool would be pretty cool though.

My understanding is that business shorthands were phonetic, so they were very useful for taking notes that would later be transcribed by the same person that took them, but much less useful for written communication between various dialects of the anglophony.

(did the period when shorthand was a school subject coincide with the former use of "eye dialect" by writers?)

  • j6m8
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  • 4 months ago
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ha, I learned shorthand in second grade (and yes, it was already an antique by then). I wonder what a multimodal language model would say to shorthand...
it will be cool to make it oldschool, and return computer fonts of handwriting font