Rosemary Sassoon (born 1931 and currently residing in

Busselton Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to t ...

) is an expert in

handwriting Handwriting is the writing done with a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil, in the hand. Handwriting includes both printing and cursive styles and is separate from formal calligraphy or typeface. Because each person's handwriting is u ...

, particularly that of children. She designed the Sassoon series of

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...

s, produced in collaboration with Adrian Williams, which are intended to be particularly legible for children and learners.

Early life and education

Sassoon was born in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

Career

In 1988 she earned a Ph.D. from the Department of

Typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

and

Graphic Communication Graphic communication as the name suggests is communication using graphic elements. These elements include symbols such as glyphs and icons, images such as drawings and photographs, and can include the passive contributions of substrate, colour ...

at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Sassoon's personal papers are held in the archives of

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

Institute of Education IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (IOE) is the education school of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior to ...

.Personal papers of Rosemary Sassoon

Published works

''The Acquisition of a Second Writing System'' (Intellect) originally published in 1995, reprinted in 2004.''The Art and Science of Handwriting'' (Intellect) originally published in 1993, reprinted in 2004.''Computers and Typography 2''
(

Intellect In the study of the human mind, intellect refers to, describes, and identifies the ability of the human mind to reach correct conclusions about what is true and what is false in reality; and how to solve problems. Derived from the Ancient Gre ...

) Bristol 2003
''Creating letterforms : calligraphy and lettering: an introductory guide''
(Thames & Hudson) with Patricia Lovett. 1992 *
Handwriting of the Twentieth Century
' (

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

)1999 *
Handwriting: The Way to Teach it
' (Paul Chapman) 2003"Is handwriting a dying art?"
''Tai Pei Times'', 19 February 2006. *
The Practical Guide to Calligraphy
' ( Thames & Hudson) London 1982, reprinted in 2005 *
Practical Guide to Children's Handwriting
' ( Hodder & Stoughton) London 1983 *
The Practical Guide to Lettering
' (Thames & Hudson) London 1986 *
Signs Symbols and Icons
' (with Albertine Gaur) (Intellect) Bristol 1995 *
Teach Yourself Better Handwriting
' (Hodder & Stoughton) 2009

List of Sassoon fonts

*Sassoon Primary Infant *Sassoon Primary Infant Medium *Sassoon Primary Infant Bold *Sassoon Primary Type *Sassoon Primary Type Medium *Sassoon Primary Type Bold *Sassoon Sans *Sassoon Sans Medium *Sassoon Sans Bold *Sassoon Type Sans *Sassoon Type Sans Medium *Sassoon Type Sans Bold *Sassoon Italic Regular *Sassoon Italic Medium *Sassoon Primary Type Medium Condensed *Sassoon Penned *Sassoon Penned Medium *Sassoon Penned Bold

References

External links