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I have an exam coming up next Monday. We are allowed to bring a sheet of paper with information of our choosing written on it. To my disappointment, it is required to be handwritten. Over the years, I have developed a distinct distaste for my own handwriting.

So before mustering the necessary resolve to create something ugly with pen and paper, I decided to first check out what options there are to make a LaTeX document look as handwritten as possible. And by the way, I really mean handwritten by an ordinary respectable human being, not some Cthulhu-worshipping gibbering madman, unhinged by the horrors he has witnessed.

Bonus requirement (perhaps this also helps to distinguish this question from others): If possible, I'd like this to work with online LaTeX distributions such as ShareLaTeX.

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Janosh
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    Well, if I were the teacher and found out you have printed notes, I'd consider it cheating even if the notes are in a font that emulates handwriting. ;-) – egreg Feb 05 '16 at 15:25
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    Your instructor might not allow this solution, should he discover what you have done. Consider asking him for an exception to his rule. Perhaps he will be pleased that you know LaTeX. – Ethan Bolker Feb 05 '16 at 15:25
  • @EthanBolker I did. Unfortunately, he said no. Something about it being an unfair advantage if he made exceptions to that rule after the fact. Not sure why it would be unfair. He could lift the rule altogether. It's not like anyone starts writing those sheets anytime sooner than the night before the exam... Also, I don't think knowing LaTeX is that big a deal anymore. – Janosh Feb 05 '16 at 15:30
  • @egreg I'd consider it cheating too. The rule was clearly stated after all. However, I don't think I'll really take what I typed into the exam (depends on the end result, I guess). It's more like a fun project now to keep me from actual studying. – Janosh Feb 05 '16 at 15:34
  • Since you asked (as was right) and he said "no" you'd better do it only for fun. – Ethan Bolker Feb 05 '16 at 15:34
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    @Casimir In that case I endorse the project, that looks very much like procrastination! – egreg Feb 05 '16 at 15:35
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    Hermann Zapf designed the euler math font to emulate the handwriting of a (very neat) mathematics professor at the chalkboard. – musarithmia Feb 05 '16 at 16:19
  • TeXLive also provides several uncial fonts, and among these Carolingan Miniscules really does look like handwriting of a medieval monk. – musarithmia Feb 05 '16 at 16:22
  • https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/29425/7883 – Thérèse Feb 05 '16 at 17:19

1 Answers1

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Use xelatex of course, along with a cursive font (there's plenty free online).

Warning: This might not be sufficient, it still looks too "clean" and the lines too straight for it to be actually handwritten.1

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\setmainfont{Cursive standard}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\end{document}

1: That is unless you draw lines with a pencil, write, and then delete the lines.

Alenanno
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