Most handwriting gifts start by copying somebody's writing into a font, or by tracing it until it is tidy. Both lose the thing you were after. The point of a gift made from a loved one's handwriting is that it looks like their hand and nobody else's, wobbles and all, and the moment it is tidied it becomes a stranger's.
So we went the other way. A handwritten note takes a photograph of something already written and lifts the handwriting alone onto the cover of an A5 notebook. The paper, the creases, the coffee ring and the shine of the biro are left behind, and the letterforms stay exactly as they were written. Nothing is redrawn, and there is no style to choose, because the writing is already the drawing.
What people photograph for it
Almost anything with a pen on it. The ones that come up most:
- A recipe card in a mother's or grandmother's hand, splashes and all
- The card the office signed when somebody left, every name intact
- A note from a child, in the writing they had at six
- A birthday card, or the card that came with the wedding present
- A letter that has been kept in a drawer for longer than anyone admits
The common thread is that the writing already exists and is currently on paper, which is the most fragile place for it to be. A card gets recycled in the next clear-out. A notebook gets carried about and used.
When the writing is all that is left
Some people come to this design because the person who wrote the note has died. If that is you, the only practical advice we have is to take your time over it. The preview shows you the cover, engraved, before you pay, so you can try a few photographs and a few lines from the same letter and see which one sits right. There is no rush on our side, and nothing is made until you decide.
Getting a photograph that works
The result is only as good as the picture, and the picture is easy to get right. Lay the paper flat on a table and stand directly above it, so the lines are not leaning away from you. Use daylight from a window, because a ceiling light puts your own shadow across the page. Fill the frame with the writing and not the tablecloth.
If the first attempt comes back wrong, you will see that on screen, and you can simply send another.
How much writing to send
Less than you think. The note is engraved large, across most of the width of the cover, and a whole page of close writing has to shrink to fit that space. Very small handwriting loses the gaps between its strokes when it shrinks, and starts to read as texture.
A few lines carry better than a full letter. A signature, a sign-off ("love, Mum x"), the title and first lines of a recipe, or one sentence from a card are the versions that read clearly from across a desk. Crop the photograph to the part you want before you upload it, and let the preview tell you whether it still reads.
The caption, which most people leave off
There is an optional line underneath the note for a caption: a name, a date, or where the writing came from. It is empty by default, and that is deliberate. The handwriting usually says everything it needs to, and a typed line beneath it tends to explain what the person holding the book already knows. If you do add one, keep it short, and spell the month out if it includes a date.
Two related covers
If the writing belongs to a child, Your child's drawing does the same job for a picture instead of words, with their name and age set beneath it. Both live in the photo notebooks, alongside Portrait and caption for a photograph of a face.
And if you would rather the writing were private, Secret message puts one short typed line on the back of the book, small, in the bottom corner. That pairs well with a handwritten cover: their writing on the front, and something from you on the back that most people will never turn over to find.
Which colour
Handwriting is made of fine strokes, so it needs a cover where the engraving stands out from the leather around it. The laser does not print or add ink; it changes the colour of the leather itself, and each colour answers differently. On some the writing comes out darker than the cover, on others lighter. The preview draws each colour's own engraving tone, so try the same note on a few before you choose. Here is what the laser actually does to the leather.
As a gift set
The gift set adds a pen engraved to match and a spare refill, in a fitted box that comes in a matching gift bag. For a keepsake that is meant to be written in, the pen is a sensible thing to hand over with it.
Ordering
£17.99 plus £2.75 postage for the notebook, engraved to order and dispatched within one working day, Monday to Thursday.
Start with A handwritten note, or browse the rest of the photo notebooks.