The dearJoe series of fonts had it’s origin somewhere around 1999, the year I created dearJoe 1, which was a first (and half-assed) attempt at converting my own handwriting into a working font. Being able to type in my own handwriting had always been a childhood fantasy, and even though I only partly understood the software, a working font was generated and I decided to put it on the internet for people to use. And that’s what they did: at this moment the dearJoe 1 font has been downloaded millions of times and can be found on just about anything, ranging from Vietnamese riksjas, a Tasmanian gym to a fancy chocolate store on 5th Avenue. The font is not something I am particularly proud of, but it started me of in building what later became the JOEBOB graphics font foundry. Inbetween creating other fonts, the dearJoe series has become a theme I revisit every once in a while, trying to create an update on how my handwriting evolved, along with my abilities in creating fonts that mimic actual handwriting. In the last decade or so I started implementing ligatures and alternate characters, which helped a lot in making something that can almost pass for actual handwriting.