The 46 best free handwriting fonts for your designs
The best free handwriting fonts can transform a project and adds an earthy and personal feel to your work. Handwriting fonts aren’t dissimilar to cursive fonts, but they’re normally a little less polished (in a good way, of course). The brilliant thing about handwriting fonts is that they’re so versatile, and there are thousands of styles to choose from – whether you’re looking for a thick, heavy-handed font or neat and stylised, there’s a handwriting font out there for you.
We know that when you start your hunt for the best fonts, there are hundreds and thousands of options out there on the internet, which can be a little overwhelming. But that’s where we come in. We’ve gathered up a collection of the best free handwriting fonts around, so you don’t have to spend hours scouring the internet. All the fonts in this roundup are free to download, but we advise you to check the licensing for each font to make sure they’re suitable for both personal and commercial use.
If you’re just on the hunt for some fonts in general, then make sure you check out our guides on the best free fonts, free brush fonts and free script fonts. Or if you’re looking for something a little more specific, then you’ll love our roundup of the best fun fonts, Old English fonts and graffiti fonts. Once you’re fully equipped with all the fonts your heart desires, then head over to our guide to learn how to add fonts in Photoshop.
Buy fonts from myfonts.com (opens in new tab)
As well as the fonts below, we highly recommend myfonts.com by Monotype to find fonts for all kinds of projects. It has over 130,000 fonts, from brush fonts to display, and more than 900 of them are completely free.
Connecting letters
But watch out for letters which do not end on the baseline! Letters like “o”, “r,” “v” and “w” end on the median (x-height). These letters have to be connected on the median – otherwise you won’t recognize them anymore.
On the other hand there are letters which start on the median. When drawing them you have to keep in mind that the transition from the last letter has to end on the median, too. That’s the case for “r”, “v”, “w”, “x” and “z”.
Last but not least there are some letters which end below the baseline. If you want to connect these letters to the next letters properly you have to make the line end on the baseline again. This happens to the letters “f”, “g”, “j”, “p”, “q”, “y”, and “z”.
It’s your task to get creative when drawing letters and connections. You just have to keep in mind that the letters should stay readable. If you would connect an “o” to a “v” on the baseline it would look like an “u”. We don’t want that!
Choosing the best font for your design
—
In Arthean’s design for Planet Diamonds, we see a perfect example of a font that’s an ideal fit for its brand. Planet Diamonds creates lab-grown diamonds for its jewelry line, giving eco-focused consumers another option in the marketplace. With an angular, minimalistic font that matches the company’s geometric logo, the branding communicates Planet Diamonds’ focus on harnessing technology to create flawless diamonds without making a negative impact on the environment.
Different fonts and lettering styles will convey a different mood for the brand they represent. Design by BLVART
Typically, serif fonts like Mrs Eaves and Baskerville convey sophistication and timeless luxury, so they’re popular with more upscale brands. On the flipside, more casual, informal brands tend to use sans serif fonts like Akzidenz-Grotesk. If your brand personality calls for a handwritten style, you might be better off getting custom lettering rather than choosing a uniform font that mimics a hand-drawn look (see Fauxoitc above).
Impact is the font of memes, and Arial is a name you don’t want to associate yourself with
Also think about the associations people make with certain fonts. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, memes are inextricably entwined with Impact, so that’s a font to avoid unless you’re going for that meme-ish feel.
The best fonts are worth the effort
—
Want a font that steals the show?
Our designers have you covered.
The author
Lindsay is a copy and content writer who loves all things creepy, beachy, and cheesy. If something somehow hits all three, all the better. Aside from writing, her interests include making art, reading tarot cards, and exploring new places. Learn more about Lindsay’s writing services at lindsaykramercopywriting.com
Related articles
Any comments?
I’ve always felt that Didot is rather too difficult to read as well as being pretentious. It definitely falls into the category of gluttony. Never been impressed by Bodoni either. I love Garamond, specifically the Adobe Garamond that I modified in InDesign to be slimmer (although regular Adobe Garamond Pro is also fine). Apple’s old corporate Garamond is a bit nice, too, although too squished for small text.
The only satisfactory use for Verdana is for reading web content, but, back before high-quality font smoothing, it was the absolute best at low sizes. It’s quite ugly as a print font.
Comic Sans is not just hated because it’s popular. It’s hated because it’s really ugly and fake. It’s the font equivalent of the plastic yellow Wal-Mart grin. Dom Casual would have been a better choice. I have never been the type to like or dislike something based on its popularity. Arial is worse than Helvetica but nothing compares to Comic Sans. It’s also the fact that the font is routinely misused. It should be used for balloon text in Comic Strips and that’s it! It should not be used by secretaries of the world to use on everything.
Vectora is a very unknown font and try as I might I can’t warm up to it. It’s a bit dysfunctional, although tolerable in the light weight. So, liking or not liking a font, for me, has nothing to do with its popularity. The same thing goes for knock-offs. Plain Times (long bundled with the Mac) is a apparently a knock-off of Times New Roman but I prefer it.
Microsoft’s core font package was nearly 100% ugly fonts (with Verdana, which is a pretty good web font only, as the exception). Georgia. Comic Sans. Arial. Impact. All horrid. The only good thing about Impact is that it became the foundation of the Internet meme, likely as a joke because, as one person said, it has so little impact.
Then there are even more unwelcome fonts that come with office, like Desdemona and Harrington. Let me tell you, between Harrington and Comic Sans, secretaries all over have inflicted grievous wounds on the psyches of otherwise sane people. The worst of the entire bag of tricks is Modern No. 20, because unlike monstrosities like Wide Latin and Desmedona, people might actually think they’re accomplishing something by using it.
AmourTendre
Zapfino
Shelly
Bank Gothic
Lilith
Brush Script
Myriad
Palatino
Coronet
Bernhard Fashion
Allura
CAC Champagne
Italianno
Minion
Friz Quadrata
Helvetica Rounded Std Bold Condensed
Klang
Korinna
Letter Gothic
Nuptial Script
Parisian
Present
Russell Square
Ruzicka Freehand
Umbra (totally useless, but fun)
Andale Mono (for monospaced web/app usage)
Verdana, Geneva (for old computers)
Braganza
Throhand
Laser (useless, but fairly pretty)
New Baskerville
Didot
Zapf Chancery
Bodoni
Gill Sans
Perpetua
Imprint
Nueva
Chaparral
Frutiger
Warnock
New Caledonia
Arno
Akzindenz Groteske
Cushing
Galliard
Goudy
Kabel
Big Caslon
Mistral
Caxton
Nevison
Shuriken Boy
Wide Latin
Critter
Quake
Modern No. 20
Comic Sans
Desmedona
Giddyup
American Typewriter
Algerian
Jokerman
Rosewood
Spumoni
Trebuchet
Eras
Party
Strumpf
Studz
Harrington
Brittanic
Bauhaus
Kable
Benguit
Script
Cooper
Tiffany
Eurostile
Broadway
Caflisch
Calisto
Cambria
Tahoma
Lucida Sans (although Lucida Grande is good for OS X as a system font)
Lucida Bright
Century Gothic
Century Schoolbook (and New)
Stencil
Hoefler Text
Rotis
Avant Garde
Franklin Gothic
Americana
Amigo
Antique Olive
Arcadia
Arnold Böcklin
Blue Island
MVB Bossa Nova
Briem
Brioso
Bruno
Bulmer
Clarendon
Clearface
Cutout
Ironwood
Lithos
Mesquite
Mona Lisa Solid
Monoline Script
Onyx
Pepperwood
Pepita
Photina
Poetica
Pompeia
Pompeijana
Ponderosa
Poplar
Postino
Quorum
Raphael
Reliq
Reporter
Rockwell
Ruling
Runic
Sassafras
Sava
ITC Serif Gothic
Serifa
Serpentine
Viva
Wendy
Willow
Zebrawood
Kristen
Lubalin Graph
Berranger Hand
Humana Sans
Weber Hand
Klepto
Boink
Coventry
Princetown
Avenida
ITC Binary
Simran
Zinzinnati
Zemke Hand
Data 70
Matisse
Juanita
CuppaJoe
Synchro
Silvermoon
Santa Fe
Pioneer
Mo’ Funky Fresh
Airstream
ITC Deli
Chivalry
Julietrose
Fontoon
Dartagnon
Gigi
Cancellaresca
Minska
Snap
Source:
https://www.creativebloq.com/typography/best-handwriting-fonts-12121527
https://lettering.org/hand-lettering/
https://99designs.com/blog/tips/the-best-and-worst-typefaces-and-why/