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User Guide

Everything Handwriter can do, and how to set it up.

Creating a document

  1. On the home screen, tap Create New
  2. Type or paste your text into the editor
  3. The page updates as you type, so you can see how the text will look before you export it

Your work saves automatically as a draft when you leave the editor, so you can come back and keep editing later. Drafts and finished PDFs both appear in the file list on the home screen.

Choosing a font

Tap the font button to open the font list.

  • 114 built-in handwriting fonts: 53 English, 41 Arabic, 11 Urdu, 7 Hindi, and 2 Russian/Kazakh. Arabic and Urdu fonts render right to left
  • Use the language filter at the top of the font list to narrow it down
  • Fonts marked with a star are part of Handwriter Pro

Uploading your own font

Tap Select your own font in the font list, or open a .ttf or .otf file directly from your file manager, browser or email attachment with Handwriter, and it opens the font-upload screen automatically. Handwriter shows a preview of the font, including a right-to-left sample for Arabic and Urdu fonts, before you save it.

  • Supported formats: TTF and OTF
  • Maximum file size: 10 MB
  • Saved fonts appear at the top of your font list, ready to use like any built-in font

A custom font file is not something Handwriter creates for you. If you want the page to look like your own handwriting, you need a font file built from it first, then upload that file here.

Ink, lines and spacing

Open the text options to adjust how the page looks:

  • Ink colour - 10 choices: Black, Blue, Red, Green, Purple, Orange, Pink, Brown, Dark Green and Navy
  • Line colour - 6 choices for the ruled lines (Blue, Black, Red, Green, Purple, Gray), or No lines for a plain sheet
  • Font size, letter spacing, line-to-line spacing and line-to-word spacing
  • Line height, and options to hide the top red margin line or the left red line independently
  • Bold, italic, and left, centre or right alignment for selected text

Every page also has a heading area at the top and a left-margin column for notes or numbering, in addition to the main body text.

Use Apply settings to all pages to carry your current settings across a multi-page document, or Reset to factory settings to start over.

Page background and size

  • Select Background offers a plain white page, a scanner-paper look, and several ruled and patterned backgrounds, some of which are part of Handwriter Pro. You can also add your own photo as a background
  • Choose Page Size offers Postcard, US Letter, US Legal, and A0 through A8

Page Effects

Open Page Effects (or Effects) from the editor:

  • Page Distortion - adds a subtle wave effect to the page. This only appears once you export the PDF, not in the live editor, so don't worry if you don't see a change straight away
  • Page Rotation - adds a subtle random rotation to each page for a more natural, less uniform look

Render Style

The Render Style dropdown offers three options for how the page is rendered:

  • No Effect
  • Shadow Only
  • Scanner Effect

Inserting images

Tap the insert-image button to add a picture to the current page:

  1. Pick an image from your device
  2. Crop it to the area you want
  3. Choose an ink colour to recolour it, black, blue, red or green, so it looks ink-drawn rather than a photo
  4. Use the distortion slider for a hand-drawn, sketched look
  5. Tap Save to place it on the page

Saving and exporting

  1. Tap Export in the toolbar
  2. Enter a file name
  3. Handwriter generates the PDF on your device and adds it to your file list

Multi-page documents show a page counter (Page X of Y) as you work.

Managing your files

The home screen lists both your drafts and your exported PDFs together.

  • Rename or Delete a file from its menu
  • Tap an exported PDF to open it. If you have the Androxus PDF Reader app installed, it opens there; otherwise Handwriter offers to install it, or you can open the saved PDF file with any PDF viewer on your device

Handwriter Pro

On the home screen, tap Pro in the toolbar to see the upgrade options: a monthly subscription, a yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Google Play handles the purchase and shows the current price.

According to the app's own description, Pro gives you an ad-free experience, removes any page limit, unlocks every handwriting font, and lets you upload your own font file.

If you reinstall Handwriter or switch devices, sign in to Google Play with the same account you purchased with, then open the Pro screen again so it can recognise your existing purchase.

About screen

On the home screen, open the menu and tap About for:

  • Rate - leave a rating on Google Play
  • Report Bugs - email support
  • Licenses - the open-source licences used in the app
  • Privacy Policy
  • Check out our other apps - links to other Androxus apps

The menu also has a User Manual link and a Pro button.