Mike Charness's Huntsville, AL-based foundry used to offer a huge number of handwriting fonts, and thousands of other fonts at rock bottom prices, in all font formats. It stopped selling fonts to end users or licensing fonts for redistribution in 2003, but continues OEM work. Robert Long discussed the fonts, and mentioned in some cases the original fonts they were modeled after (read: copied, tweaked and renamed). A partial list found in internet archives and corrected by Character is here. A list annotated by Robert Long and kindly sent to me by Richard George, is here. They had barcode fonts, MICR fonts (such as CheckNums-MICR), some foreign language fonts, and many dingbats. Fill collection can be downloaded here. The handwriting font collection (known as WSI Hand) can be downloaded here, here. Check also here. Apparently, these were obtained by first selling a handwriting font service, and then selling a CD with the created fonts. Michael Yanega published a list of the WSI Hand names and their equivalences on the ClickArt Handwritten Fonts CD. WSI is no longer selling fonts and has this ironic line: "WSI's fonts are not freeware, but are commercial software protected by copyright".

Now, how did WSI start up its business? From this archived page: "We don't sell directly to end users, but rather provide fonts to software publishers who sell our fonts under their own labels. Current and past licensees include PowerUp, Spinnaker, SoftKey, Wayzata, Canon, Fuji, Epson, Serif, Borland, Novell, Maxis, Cosmi, Xoom, Dynamix/Sierra Online, Synergistic Software, Expert Software, IMSI, Parsons Technology, MySoftware, Abstract Software, Dunlop Corp., Case Inc., GraphicCorp, CAI, Creative Wonders, The Learning Company, Current Inc., Pierian Springs Software, Lookout World, Palladium Interactive, Philips Publishing, AIG, Asymetrix, Media Graphics, Knowledge Adventure, WIZ Technology, Paper Direct, Sanctuary Woods Multimedia, GST/GSP, Baudville, Zedcor, and many others." Ulrich Stiehl provides a further list and explanations: Anastasia is Anna, Avian is Avant Garde, Basset is Baskerville, Bastian is Buster, Boston is Bodoni, Bulletin is Flyer, Aladdin is Legende, Palisade is Palatino, and so forth.

Dafont link.

EXTERNAL LINKS
WSI: Weatherly Systems Inc
Dafont page
Google search page

INTERNAL LINKS
Handwriting fonts ⦿ Extinct 20th century foundries ⦿ Type scene in Alabama ⦿ Avant Garde typefaces ⦿ Modern style [Bodoni, Didot, Walbaum, Thorowgood, Computer Modern, etc.] ⦿ Barcode fonts ⦿ MICR fonts ⦿

Luc Devroye ⦿ School of Computer Science ⦿ McGill University Montreal, Canada H3A 2K6 ⦿ lucdevroye@gmail.com ⦿ http://luc.devroye.org ⦿ http://luc.devroye.org/fonts.html