Inky ClipsHershey Sans font
Hershey Sans is the simplest of the Hershey fonts: plain sans serif capitals and lowercase built from straight lines and arcs, with each letter drawn in as few strokes as possible. If you have seen labels engraved on equipment panels or text drawn by an old pen plotter, you have probably seen this font.
- Type
- Single-line (stroke) font
- Style
- Clean
- Characters
- 102 in the file
- Licence
- Hershey fonts licence
- Download
- HersheySans.svg
About Hershey Sans
What it looks like
This version has smoothed curves and adds German umlauts and ß. Its simplicity makes it fast to draw and very legible.
On video
Use it for technical labels, measurements, map annotations and anything that should feel like an engineer's drawing. It is quick to write on, so it keeps up with fast edits.
For plotters, engraving and cutting machines
The default single-line font for engraving serial numbers, panel labels and keychains, and for fast pen plotting. Few strokes per letter means the shortest machine time of any font here.
Every character in Hershey Sans
Each letter below is drawn from the single pen line stored in HersheySans.svg, exactly as a plotter would draw it.
Capitals (26)
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Z
Lowercase (26)
- a
- b
- c
- d
- e
- f
- g
- h
- i
- j
- k
- l
- m
- n
- o
- p
- q
- r
- s
- t
- u
- v
- w
- x
- y
- z
Numbers (10)
- 0
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
Punctuation and symbols (33)
- !
- "
- #
- $
- %
- &
- '
- (
- )
- *
- +
- ,
- -
- .
- /
- :
- ;
- <
- =
- >
- ?
- @
- [
- \
- ]
- ^
- _
- `
- {
- |
- }
- ~
-
Accented letters in the font (7)
- Ä
- Ö
- Ü
- ß
- ä
- ö
- ü
Letters Inky Clips adds (67)
Not in the font file. Inky Clips draws these on video from the font’s own letters: adding the accent or bar, dropping the dot for ı, or writing ß as “ss”.
- Æ
- Ç
- Ó
- Ø
- æ
- ç
- ó
- ø
- Ā
- ā
- Ą
- ą
- Ć
- ć
- Č
- č
- Đ
- đ
- Ē
- ē
- Ė
- ė
- Ę
- ę
- Ğ
- ğ
- Ģ
- ģ
- Ħ
- ħ
- Ī
- ī
- Į
- į
- İ
- ı
- Ķ
- ķ
- Ļ
- ļ
- Ł
- ł
- Ń
- ń
- Ņ
- ņ
- Œ
- œ
- Ś
- ś
- Ş
- ş
- Š
- š
- Ū
- ū
- Ų
- ų
- Ź
- ź
- Ż
- ż
- Ž
- ž
- Ə
- ə
- ẞ
Write with Hershey Sans
Type your own words and watch them write themselves over a clip. Switch fonts and ink colours to compare.
The clip shows “Max. 12 V / 3 A” written in Sans.
Ink: White
Letters for other languages
- Latvian: the font file doesn't include ā č ē ģ ī ķ ļ ņ š ū ž Ā Č Ē Ģ Ī Ķ Ļ Ņ Š Ū Ž, but Inky Clips draws all of them on video from the font’s own letters.
- Lithuanian: the font file doesn't include ą č ę ė į š ų ū ž Ą Č Ę Ė Į Š Ų Ū Ž, but Inky Clips draws all of them on video from the font’s own letters.
- Polish: the font file doesn't include ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ź ż Ą Ć Ę Ł Ń Ó Ś Ź Ż, but Inky Clips draws all of them on video from the font’s own letters.
- Turkish: the font file doesn't include ç ğ ı İ ş Ç Ğ Ş, but Inky Clips draws all of them on video from the font’s own letters.
- German: all its letters are in the font file.
If you plot or engrave with the downloaded file, only the letters in the file are available.
Where it comes from
Dr. Allen V. Hershey drew the Hershey fonts at the U.S. Naval Weapons Laboratory in Dahlgren, Virginia, and published them in 1967, among the first typefaces made for computers. Every letter is stored as pen strokes rather than an outline, because they were drawn for the vector plotters and screens of the day. They have travelled through plotter software, CAD and engraving tools ever since, and Inkscape's Hershey Text extension still uses them.
Licence and download
Hershey Sans is free under the Hershey fonts licence. Free to use for anything, including commercial work, as long as the attribution below is kept with the font.
The SVG version comes from Inkscape's Hershey Text extension (Windell H. Oskay, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories) and the inkscapestrokefont project.
The Hershey Fonts were originally created by Dr. A. V. Hershey while working at the U. S. National Bureau of Standards. The format of the font data in this distribution was originally created by James Hurt, Cognition, Inc.
An SVG font. Load it in Inkscape's Hershey Text extension (Extensions › Text › Hershey Text) to set text as single pen lines for a plotter, laser or engraver.
Fonts like Hershey Sans
Want a clip of your own words being written? Try the handwriting animation generator, or browse all fonts.