The Art and Engineering of Shantell Sans: A Human-Centric Approach to Typography

Typography often oscillates between the sterile precision of geometric sans-serifs and the chaotic charm of handwriting. Rarely does a typeface manage to bridge this gap while remaining professional and accessible. Shantell Sans is a masterclass in this balance, blending the organic spirit of artist Shantell Martin's handwriting with the rigorous engineering of modern variable font technology.

More than just a digital version of a person's handwriting, Shantell Sans was conceived as a tool for empowerment. For Martin, who is dyslexic, the project was born from a desire to create a font that feels welcoming and open—a reminder that words are drawings and can exist on our own terms.

The "New Comic Sans" Philosophy

When artist Shantell Martin first approached type designer Stephen Nixon, she expressed a desire to create a "new Comic Sans." While the latter is often the punchline of design jokes, Nixon notes that its ubiquity stems from its approachability and ease of reading, particularly for those with dyslexia.

Rather than cloning Comic Sans, the team sought to identify the emotional response the font elicits—friendliness, low intimidation, and playfulness—and apply those lessons to a completely new system. The goal was to create a font that appeals to everyday users, not just typography enthusiasts, and remains legible across a wide variety of communication channels.

Engineering the Organic

Translating a living artist's handwriting into a scalable, usable font requires a delicate balance of normalization and preservation. The process involved several key technical stages:

1. Normalization for Legibility

While Martin's natural writing is exploratory and spontaneous, a digital font requires consistency to be readable at small sizes. Nixon subtly modified character proportions to normalize heights and widths, aligning the font's metrics (cap-height, x-height, and line height) closely with widely used fonts like Roboto.

To ensure clarity, specific design choices were made to differentiate similar characters:

• Serifs and Flags: Added to the uppercase 'I' and numeral '1' to prevent confusion.
• Exit Strokes: Carefully placed to distinguish between 'b', 'd', 'p', and 'q'.
• Single-Story Forms: The 'a' and 'g' use the forms typically learned in early education, reinforcing the font's friendly and familiar feel.

2. Variable Axes and Kinetic Typography

Shantell Sans pushes the boundaries of variable font technology by introducing experimental axes that go beyond simple weight and italics.

• Informality: This axis interpolates between a "normalized" version of the font and a more irregular version that captures the quirks of Martin's original scans.
• Bounce: Using Python scripts, the designers created a "bouncy" style where glyphs shift up and down, emulating the energetic rhythm of hand-drawn text.
• Spacing: An axis that allows for adjustable tracking, which is particularly useful in software that lacks native spacing controls.

These axes allow the font to pulse and undulate, making it an ideal choice for animation and high-energy digital experiences. As one community member noted, the formality slider is "one of the coolest uses of a variable font axis" seen in recent memory.

Globalizing a Personal Script

One of the most ambitious aspects of the project was extending a personal, Latin-based handwriting style to the Cyrillic script. Type designer Anya Danilova described this process as "translating poetry." Since Martin only writes in Latin, Danilova had to translate the feeling of the handwriting into Cyrillic shapes.

This involved experimenting with a mix of printed and cursive forms and consulting with native speakers to ensure the letters felt natural. The result is a comprehensive glyph set supporting over 380 languages across Europe, the Americas, and Central Asia, making the font a truly global gift.

Real-World Application and Impact

Shantell Sans has already found its way into diverse professional contexts, from physical products to digital interfaces:

• tldraw: The collaborative drawing app uses Shantell Sans as its primary font to emulate the feeling of handwritten notes on a whiteboard.
• Cash App: The font was used for customized physical Cash Cards.
• Whitney Museum: The typeface appeared on custom key tags for the museum shop.

Conclusion

In an era of increasingly sterile, AI-generated design, Shantell Sans serves as a reminder of the value of human-centric typography. By combining the accessibility of a handwritten style with the technical sophistication of a variable font, the creators have produced a tool that is both professional and usable and deeply personal. Released under the Open Font License (OFL), it is now available to the world via Google Fonts, ensuring that the spirit of open, accessible communication remains available to all.