Handwriting is universal, as is Bic’s world-famous Cristal ballpoint pen. Bic wanted to see what a universal handwriting would look like. They started the worldwide typeface experiment, allowing anyone to submit their handwriting via tablet or smartphone. The samples were combined by an algorithm and turned into various sets of typefaces that revealed differences in handwriting between age groups, nationalities and genders.

People from more than 147 countries contributed more than 1.7 million characters, making the project a huge success.