Die Lara

A girl’s handwriting written on the iPad

Writing changes – throughout history over centuries, but also from generation to generation. Each new generation of students learns to write the basic forms of the letters a little differently than their predecessors. The role model is also changing. The cursive handwriting taught in school is getting closer and closer to printed type. The children no longer learn the forms of cursive handwriting required for connected writing, but first the “block letters”, only later should they develop their own individual handwriting from this, which many of them no longer do.
And the writing tool is also changing. Of course, script looks different when children no longer learn to write on paper with a fountain pen, but on a tablet computer with the “pencil”. The writing experience is completely different, and the “material properties” are different too. There is practically no writing resistance that would make it difficult to move against the direction of writing.
“Die Lara” was created based on the template by Lara Mörwald from the winter of 2023. The font version “Black” corresponds to the handwritten original, all thinner variants up to the wafer-thin “Hairline” are derived from it. In the variable font, the intermediate forms can be selected steplessly.
In order to preserve the handwritten character of the font, “Die Lara” contains several alternates to most letters and numerals, so that different character forms alternate in the typeface. If the “ligatures” function is activated in the app (which is the default in most programs), these alternates appear automatically as you type.
There is also an alternative “swashed” variant of some letters. So you can set somewhat livelier accents at the beginning or end of a word.
“Die Lara” also contains fractions and tabular figures.