Atatürk's handwriting in digital font

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

A software firm called Art and Sign Studio, based in the United States, prepared the font

An entrepreneur in the northwestern province of Bursa has developed a digital font for Microsoft Word documents that mimics Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s handwriting.

It is a deficiency for Turkey not to have a font in the style of Atatürk’s handwriting, when thousands of fonts exist, said Murat Özbalcı, entrepreneur. “I have answered more than 200 phone calls just today, and thousands of people have visited our website to download the font. I am not attempting to copyright the font, and am not demanding royalties. I just want to be remembered as the one who transformed Atatürk’s handwriting for use online,” Özbalcı told the Hürriyet Daily News today.

A software firm called Art and Sign Studio, based in the United States, prepared the font for Özbalcı after “intensely” studying samples of Atatürk’s handwriting for three months.

“As a Turk, I wanted to use this font, so I began to search for a software company in Turkey that could produce it, but could not reach one,” Özbalcı said. The font is available for free download at artikeldeko.com.tr/atafont.asp. Özbalcı said this is his modest gift to Turkey for April 23, National Independence and Children’s Day.