The typefaces FF JustLeftHand and FF ErikRightHand were originally conceived as joke fonts. The real story can be found as a comic strip in the book “Made with FontFont”:

In late 1990, Erik van Blokland was living in New York, while his “random twin” Just van Rossum was in Berlin. One evening it occurred to them that they were still due to contribute two script fonts to the recently founded FontFont Library, one light and one bold. Because of the distance and the Stone Age communication technology – a fax machine – Erik drew strong letters on a fax form with his right hand, using a felt-tip pen, and Just took a fineliner in his left hand and did the same in lighter lettering.


From the book “Made with FontFont”: the story of the LettError scripts as a comic strip

A scanner and the software programs Photoshop, Streamline and Fontographer were subsequently put to the task, and the 4-font FF Hands package was finished. The fonts fell straight into a gap in the market for unpretentious script typefaces and became famous around the world.


Faxed from New York to Berlin, then digitised, and now adorning the shop front of an Alexanderplatz bakery: ErikRightHand


In January 2008, the German Federal Post Office released a special issue postage stamp to commemorate the 150th birthday of Heinrich Zille (Design: Antonia Graschberger)