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It’s just not a common enough feature of handwriting, I assume.

Is it not? The style of block letters I learned (in 90s Germany) has the capital I as a straight line, the digit 1 as a straight line with an angular downward hook at the top, and the lowercase l as a line with a smooth 45-90° right hook at the bottom. I always perceived that style as quite common in handwriting, just uncommon in print (just like close to nobody does the fancy a in handwriting but it's common in print)

And of course in cursive I and l look nothing alike, no matter which cursive you write

Yes, but even with my worst handwriting, in situations where I and l matters, I can always choose to do an especially I I or particularly l l even if most are indistinguishable which a font can not do

I can see how you'd do an especially I I. You just need to include the serifs, which I always do in handwriting anyway.

But how do you emphasize a lowercase 'l'? The only method I know is to make it cursive, which looks terrible.

(I don't really need to distinguish l from I, because I put serifs on I. But I do sometimes need to distinguish it from 1; in natural writing, 1 and l are identical.)

You can generally just add a little rightward hook at the base. (Which is what the Ubuntu font above does)

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