HandSim version 0.8 December 2006. First public release.

Please feel free to try this program for a few days (up to you but I hope just a few). To pay the shareware fee use Paymate by this link https://www.paymate.com.au/PayMate/GenExpressPayment?mid=nodrog&amt=20&amt_editable=Y&ref=HandSim

You can either click on it or copy & paste it into your web browser.

An online tutorial is available at www.uuilson.com/handsim.

What is this?

1. HandSim is a hand writing simulation program designed to reproduce the characters you draw with your mouse on the screen. Once drawn, the characters drawn are remembered so that short passages of any text can be produced as an image using the characters you drew. You can modify the characters at will and create sets of characters (similar but different to fonts) at any time.

Who is this for?

1. Two main groups:
  1. 1. Children learning to form letters in the alphabet may find this entertaining as well as educational. It may inspire a certain degree of self improvement. It requires a certain degree of 'mousing' skill to achieve a reasonable appearance on the 'pages' you reproduce. This presents a challenge that makes it motivational and educational.
  2. 2. Anyone wanting to produce a unique, short piece of prose, poetry or writing. Like ordinary handwriting, using this program makes writing unique in such a manner that is very difficult to reproduce. The PNG image files it produces can be sent as email attachments and are typically very small (around 8kb). The text inside them cannot be easily extracted giving a modest level of control in it's distribution.

Is this free?

1. Two things:
  1. 1. Three classifications:
    1. a) For private individuals. I am asking for $20.00 (or 20 equivalent units of your country's primary currency, you will need to make the conversion to your currency to NZ dollars yourself and enter the figure into the amount to pay field on the website). It is 'shareware' but there are no 'nags', advertisements or restrictions on the program. I just ask that if you are able and willing, please pay for this. To pay the shareware fee use Paymate by this link https://www.paymate.com.au/PayMate/GenExpressPayment?mid=nodrog&amt=20&amt_editable=Y&ref=HandSim
    2. You can either click on it or copy & paste it into your web browser.
    3. b) For schools, universities, businesses, and institutions or organisations of any kind. At any given site I am asking for $200.00 (or 200 equivalent units of your country's primary currency) for each site. Any individuals who take this home fall under a) above. I just ask that if you are able and willing, please pay for this. To pay the shareware fee use Paymate by this link https://www.paymate.com.au/PayMate/GenExpressPayment?mid=nodrog&amt=200&amt_editable=Y&ref=HandSim
    4. You can either click on it or copy & paste it into your web browser.
    5. c) Redistribution for commercial gain please contact the author at gordon@uuilson.com to obtain terms and conditions by the expressed permission of the author.
  2. 2. Please email the author at gordon@uuilson.com with the word 'HandSim' as the subject. Let me know what you like and dislike about this program along with any suggestions. I just want to know who is using this and how useful it is (or isn't).

Installation

1. Just drag the 'HandSim' file for your computer platform (Mac OSX or Windows) to a place of your choosing and launch.

Getting Started

1. Launch the application, click on the 'next' button at the bottom left of the screen until you get to a page that says 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.' Click on the 'Draw' button. The screen will clear and a small box will appear with an instruction below to draw a character from the sentence. This will repeat until all the characters are drawn.
2. To complete each character, click the mouse while holding down the 'command' key on a Mac or the 'control' or 'ctrl' on Windows. This may take a bit of getting used to but it is OK once you get through the alphabet. If you have a mouse with a ball in it, you may find that the characters are a little too hard to get tidy. This may mean that your mouse rollers need a clean.
3. Don't worry if you make a mistake or don't like the character or characters you have drawn. You will be amazed at how good even a bad set of characters can be made to appear. You also have the option of redoing any character you like at any time. I will explain how later on.
4. An online tutorial is available at www.uuilson.com/handsim.

!!! IMPORTANT !!!

You will need to enter something for a space (you can draw what you like). However, if you want a space character to be just that, simply click the mouse with the ctrl/command key without drawing anything when requested.
In this initial release, no text you enter or draw on the screen is saved in 'HandSim'. However, if you click the 'Export' button, and current page image is saved on your desktop as 'Page 1.png'. Any text you want to save should be copied and pasted into your favourite text editor and stored independently. But don't worry, the characters you drew are always saved, so it is always a simple matter of typing what you want to say (or copy & paste) then 'Draw'.
If the controls mentioned below are not visible or are only partially visible, you can lift them up with a small button at the top right-hand side of the screen touching the right-hand side of the text field. Each press of this button will lift the group of controls up by 10 pixels. By holding the shift key you can lower the controls by the same amount.

The Controls

1.The various controls are fairly self explanatory but here is a bit of a description"
2.Pen. This button is the shape and size of the pen being used being 'Square, round, Slash, Backslash, Vertical, Horizontal, Dot Default. The Default pen is a dot only larger than the 'Dot' dot.
3.Prev. This button is short for Previous Page. At the last page it will cycle to the first and vice versa.
4.Next. Very similar to the above only vice versa.
5.The little numbers that appear below the 'Prev' & 'Next' buttons were used in the development and don't really mean a whole lot.
6.Draw. This is the main button for redrawing the screen to reform the text in the second lower and larger text field at the top of the page.
7.Draw Heading. This button is for drawing the text in the first upper and smaller text field at the top of the page. Note that the screen is not cleared between 'Draw Headings'.
8.Export. This button produces a file called 'Page n.png' on your desktop. The n is the current page number (not normally visible in HandSim. Incidentally there are a total of 8 pages in HandSim. This may change in future editions.
9.Clear. This completely clears the current page image. Does not clear the text in the fields, only the image.
10.ASCII. This button is what was used to produce the last page of HandSim. It counts through the ASCII characters and produces an index of numbers and characters for your reference. It will replace the current image so use this with care if you want to preserve your current image.
11.Scale. This control enlarges or reduces the text image. It affects the text size, spacing, and line height.
12.Size. This control affects the size of the characters but not the spacing or line height.
13.Spacing. This control affects the spacing of the characters but not the size or line height.

Behind The Scenes

1. When you first launch this program, you are presented with a page of text that gives some explanation of this program. When you draw you first character, a folder called 'stuff' is created on your desktop. If you already had one by some strange coincidence, don't worry, it will not delete your one but it will use it. Inside the 'stuff' folder it will create another folder called 'Drawer'. In 'Drawer' it will create a file called 'Drawxxx' for each character you draw. The 'xxx' part represents a number from the ASCII value of each character you draw.

Warranty

1. There is no warranty expressed or implied. Use this program at your own risk. It has been used on 'Windows XP Professional' and ‘Mac OS X 4.8’. It was developed from the beginning to end on Apple Macintoshes.

TIPS

1. Redrawing a Character

1. Ok, you've entered your alphabet but you don't like what you did. Go to the last 'page' by clicking the 'next' button until you see a page of characters associated with a number such as '! = 33'. Study this page to find the number of the character you want to redraw. Remember the number. Now from your desktop, open the 'stuff' folder followed by the 'Drawer' folder and locate a file named 'Draw33' (replacing the 33 part with the number you just remembered). Put the 'Draw33' (or whatever) into the trash (or anywhere else for that matter) then return to HandSim, and click on the 'Draw' button on a page where the character you want to redraw is located.

2. Signature

1. You can devote any character of your choosing to become your signature. Simple select a page, enter the chosen character in the text and, when asked for that character, draw your signature starting within the box extending to the right as usual.

3. Using The Default Characters

1. Along with the 'Windows' and 'Mac OS X' you may have noticed the 'Drawer' folder. If you place this inside a folder called 'stuff' on your desktop (at any time), you will get the characters used on the initial pages. Boring but they are there if you want them. They are, however fairly speedy.

Final Note

1. This program is has it's beginnings in HyperCard and has been converted using a demo version of 'Revolution'. The idea for it's development came from an April Fool's Prank in the early 1990's where I wanted the computer operator to think that he had been struck with a virus. I had the computer set up so that at a certain time, a hand written scrawl would draw right across the screen in large hand writing 'Virus Attack!'. It worked quite well, I had some explaining to do afterwards.
2. Should enough funds become available from this, I will certainly extend it's capability with color and any notable or brilliant suggestions that may be forth coming. Ultimately I would like to see a feature where one can clearly reproduce one's own handwriting as part of the operating system and optionally become a standard system font. On another path, I would like to see handwriting become the standard form of author identification on the internet where 'character formations' are accessible only in very secure and individual ways. Further, it is easily possible to develop this for Asian or pictorial character forms. As it is, the necessary reassignment of characters from the standard english keyboard is possible only for the standard key combinations (about 128). This additional feature will hopefully be soon forthcoming.
3. An online tutorial is available at www.uuilson.com/handsim.
4. Regards, Gordon Wilson.