Cyrillic Cursive Fonts

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Emily Saunders wrote:

> I have been using primo fonts that I downloaded at this website:
> <http://nekin.info/e24.htm >
>
> What it took me waaay too long to figure out is that you download a
> Word template that has a macro embedded in it.  You type out what you
> want, then select the portion you wish to turn into cursive, go Tools
> > Macros > Run Macro > To Primo.  And voila! you have your прописи.
> The macro fills in the connecting lines.  Without running the macro
> you have gobblegook (which confused me way longer than it should
> have).
>
> I cannot comment on the security of the site, but all google searches
> for прописи sent me there, and lots of Russian internet forums
> praised it highly, so...  I can't tell that it's harmed my machine
> any worse than it was before I started using it.

That may well be a good solution for your needs, but as an advocate of 
KISS, I prefer something simpler: enter the text in Russian and select a 
script font. Of course, I use the default Cyrillic keyboard built into 
Windows, so Word instantly knows as I type that this is Russian.

One widely available script font that includes Cyrillic characters is 
Mistral. It looks a bit "sloppy" as handwriting goes, but if you take a 
sentence like
	Попробуем писать русским шрифтом.
and mark it as Mistral you'll see that the characters are natural and 
linked as they should be.

A somewhat neater hand is Segoe Script. I'm sure there are other 
TrueType fonts available for downloading on the Web.

Computer systems vary, but on my Win7 Pro SP1 system using Word 2010, 
here's an easy strategy for finding usable fonts:

1) Type a sentence in Russian.

2) Select the sentence.

3) In the "Font" area of the "Home" tab on the ribbon, you'll see a 
pull-down box listing the current font, probably Times New Roman or some 
other plain-vanilla American font. Click the downward-pointing triangle 
at the right end of the font name and you'll get a long list of fonts, 
each name displayed in that font.

4) Scroll through the list, looking for fonts with the text "Ёё Жж Йй Фф 
Щщ" in script to the right of the font name. Fonts that don't display 
this text don't include Cyrillic glyphs, and fonts that display this 
text in nonscript form are not script fonts. [Note: This doesn't work 
unless you've selected some text formatted as Russian. It doesn't matter 
if you use Russian characters, what matters is that Word's language 
format specifies Russian]

5) Select a font you like and you're done.

Note: If the fonts are all displayed in the same default font, you'll 
need to change a setting. I just wasted 20 minutes poking around looking 
for it in vain; fortunately when I upgraded from Word 2003 the installer 
imported my settings.

Instructions for displaying font names in their own fonts in older 
(pre-ribbon) versions of Word (2003/2000):
<http://www.ehow.com/how_2123171_display-font-samples-word.html>

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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