Mirabel is based on the handwriting of Beverly Bouwsma (Philip’s mother), which she developed in the 1930s in, as she puts it, an act of teenage rebellion. In the 1960s, Philip gave her a broad-edged Osmiroid fountain pen which she took to immediately and has used ever since, along with the computer fonts he made from her script.

Since Beverly Bouwsma mixed loops and straight ascenders, two interchangeable fonts have emerged, a formal package that sacrifices some flamboyance for classical balance and legibility, but retains the quality of the writing and celebrates the personality of its creator.

The Mirabel fonts are available in all popular font formats, and the character sets cover a wide range of codepages, including Central and Eastern European languages, Esperanto, Turkish, Baltic, Celtic/Welsh.