🗳️ Vote for the next handwriting font for 2026.
Library cardholders can vote for who will have their handwriting digitized next. Choose from the candidates below or suggest a new historical figure. Candidates marked with a red * are suggestions from other members.
You have two votes, and the poll is open until October 31, 2025 November 30, 2025.
You can change your votes or suggestions at any time during this period.
Whose handwriting font should be created next?
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Marie Curie 28%, 21 vote21 vote 28%21 vote – 28% of all votes
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Ada Lovelace 15%, 11 votes11 votes 15%11 votes – 15% of all votes
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Thomas Jefferson* 13%, 10 votes10 votes 13%10 votes – 13% of all votes
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 11%, 8 votes8 votes 11%8 votes – 11% of all votes
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Alan Turing* 8%, 6 votes6 votes 8%6 votes – 8% of all votes
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Emily Brontë* 7%, 5 votes5 votes 7%5 votes – 7% of all votes
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Vincent Van Gogh, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, Georgia O’Keefe, Frida Kahlo,Jane Austen, Edgar Allen Poe, John Steinbeck, Walt Whitman* 5%, 4 votes4 votes 5%4 votes – 5% of all votes
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Friedrich Schiller* 4%, 3 votes3 votes 4%3 votes – 4% of all votes
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Donald J Trump* 4%, 3 votes3 votes 4%3 votes – 4% of all votes
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William Shakespeare* 4%, 3 votes3 votes 4%3 votes – 4% of all votes
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Albrecht Dürer* 1%, 1 vote1 vote 1%1 vote – 1% of all votes
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Madam C. J. Walker 0%, 0 votes0 votes0 votes – 0% of all votes
Total Votes: 75
Voters: 54
March 14, 2025 – November 30, 2025
Voting is closed
After voting closes, the library will acquire the necessary manuscripts and rights to create a font based on the winning candidate’s handwriting. If these cannot be obtained, the library will inform members and move to the next candidate.
Discussion and comments are welcome.
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Bach would be a good musician to do. He comes from the early 18th century, a transition period between the early modern and the modern. One facet of these projects that is especially interesting to me is seeing how handwriting changed over the centuries.
I also nominated William Shakespeare. We have six signatures and three pages of the “Thomas More” manuscript. So it absolutely could be done (with perhaps some fill-ins from the Renaissance “secretary style” that he used).
There is a fascinating piece on Shakespeare’s handwriting here:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Shakespeare's_handwriting
“The last surviving play script handwritten by William Shakespeare…”
The Guardian, 2016
I voted for Thomas Jefferson, author of what has been called “the greatest sentence ever written.”
(See Walter Isaacson’s book of that title, an exposition of “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”)
Maya Angelou would also be a wonderful choice. Thank you for all you do. Proud to have backed you in 2013, has it really been 13 years?!
Thanks so much for your support, Bruce! I’m glad to explore Maya Angelou (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou) more. Did you know that as a member, you can easily suggest new candidates? On your ballot, you’ll see the last option that says: “Suggest a candidate!” — just click on it and type in the name of your choice. Your suggestion will then show up on everyone’s ballot right away.
i am in favor of usa historically significant people …
I wouldn’t be typing anything right now and here if it wasn’t for Ada 😂🤷♀️
Had to think about it for second, yes that is true Jill. 😂
I don’t have anyone specific in mind (although some rather obvious candidates might consist of Beethoven, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Crumb, etc..), but I think a music composer would be an amazing addition to this library. Mozart,
Thank you so much for your comment, Stephen! You’re absolutely right—musicians were missing from the list. Did you know that as a member, you can easily suggest new candidates? Just look for the last option on your ballot that says: “Suggest a candidate!”—simply click on it and type in the name you have in mind. Your suggestion will instantly be visible on everyone’s ballot. Remember, you can update your vote or suggest new candidates anytime until November 30th.
Hi, I wanted to let you know that I am the person who put multiple names into one entry field as suggestions for future handwriting fonts. I didn’t realize that the entry field was meant for one single name only, and I was giving you several suggestions at once. I would really love to see any of those made into fonts. Perhaps you could fix my entry so that each name can be voted on individually.
All good—thank you so much for participating! I find the idea of forming groups of people really interesting. While it can be a bit more complicated, it adds a lot of fun.