Fontinizer: Handwritten Single‑Stroke Font Pipeline

This document outlines a software solution that converts scanned handwriting samples into a single‑stroke (.tiff) font with multiple glyph variations per character, aimed at engineering students needing math/physics symbols.

Core Requirements

1. Input: scanned images of handwritten glyphs (letters, numbers, symbols, and user‑selected characters).
2. Template: printable forms guiding users to write each glyph and its variation count.
3. Vectorization: extract a single‑stroke path per glyph (skeletonization + stroke ordering).
4. Font packaging: export to a .tiff single‑stroke font format.
5. Variation: at least 4 glyph variations per character (user‑defined) and automatic alternation at render time.

Proposed System Overview

1. Template Generator

• Character set selection: UI to select Latin letters, digits, punctuation, and extended sets (e.g., math/physics). Includes LaTeX symbol presets (e.g., \alpha, \beta, \int, \sum).
• Variation slots: user chooses number of variations per glyph (minimum 4).
• Output: printable PDF/PNG templates with alignment boxes and labels.

2. Scan Import + Pre‑processing

• Deskewing and alignment: auto‑detect template markers (QR/ArUco tags) to align scans.
• Segmentation: crop each glyph cell into an individual bitmap.
• Noise cleanup: binarization and morphology to remove dust and background shadows.

3. Single‑Stroke Extraction

• Skeletonization: convert thick strokes to 1‑pixel skeletons.
• Stroke ordering: infer drawing order using path continuity + heuristics (start at endpoints, minimize sharp turns).
• Smoothing: optional vector smoothing to reduce jitter.

4. Glyph Variation Engine

• Storage: each glyph stores N variants (e.g., t.alt1, t.alt2, ...).
• Runtime selection: use alternates (e.g., OpenType salt/calt in standard fonts, or app‑level selection for .tiff if required by the target engine).
• Avoid repetition: ensure adjacent characters don’t reuse the same variation.

5. Font Export

• Single‑stroke .tiff export: package skeleton paths into the target format.
• Metrics: auto‑calculate baseline, x‑height, cap height, and spacing.

Suggested UI Features

• Character picker with search (by name and LaTeX code).
• Template preview before printing.
• Batch scan import with live preview of segmentation.
• Glyph editor for manual corrections (merge/split strokes, adjust order).

Recommended Tech Stack

• Frontend: Electron or web UI (React) for cross‑platform usability.
• Image processing: OpenCV + scikit‑image.
• Vectorization: custom graph‑based stroke tracing.
• Font build: custom exporter for .tiff single‑stroke format.

Notes on LaTeX Symbols

A curated list of LaTeX symbols can be provided as presets and mapped to Unicode where possible. This enables engineering students to include physics/math characters alongside standard Latin glyphs.

Deliverables

1. Template generator with LaTeX symbol support.
2. Scan processing to isolate each glyph.
3. Single‑stroke extraction into consistent vector paths.
4. Font packaging with multi‑variant glyphs.
5. Preview & QA tools to inspect output.

Windows App Prototype (Current)

This repository now includes an Electron-based Windows desktop prototype that begins the UI workflow for selecting glyph sets, choosing variation counts, and previewing a printable template grid. The processing pipeline is still in progress, but the shell is ready for expanding scan import, segmentation, and export steps.

Run Locally (Windows)

1. Install Node.js 20+.
2. Install dependencies: npm install.
3. Start the app: npm start.

Current Features

• Glyph set selection (Latin, digits, punctuation, math/physics presets).
• Custom glyph entry (Unicode/LaTeX input).
• Variation count selector (minimum 4).
• Template preview grid.