Discover legacy content from FontShop.com, preserved for your reference.

Handwriting Fonts: Quick, Natural Scrawling | FontShop
Please update your browser. Why?

Handwriting Fonts: Quick, Natural Scrawling

Stephen Coles
H
Last edited July 17, 2018

Not careful print or decorative calligraphy, but fonts that emulate common, everyday handwriting while still remaining legible for most uses.

See also: Handwriting

winter
conceptional
The grass is smiling at you

Terry Junior is an exuberantly cheerful typeface, retaining the strokes of the paintbrush originally used to create it. It celebrates the joy of analogue creation, while offering all the typographic refinement needed in a digital typeface. Its warm and welcoming tone of voice is an obvious match for any environment or product aimed at children, as well as book covers and packaging. The Terry... Read More

jungle
zygapophysis
Contradiction keeps sanity in place

For a complete overview of all glyphs and OpenType features download the FF Uberhand Manual (PDF). The FF Uberhand Text family has two weights, Regular and Bold, with spacing and color tuned for longer text settings on paper or screen. The 11 versatile weights from Hairline to Black of the... Read More

rocket
guitarfishes
Beware of geeks bearing formulas

Lindsey™ Pro Bold is a new handwriting style font with advanced OpenType features including alternative characters and ligatures. Lindsey Pro Bold was created by Steve Matteson based on a teenager's handwriting. It is a casual typeface design with irregular alignments and occasional connections. Lindsey Pro Bold is a fun font to use in a wide range of documents, from Valentine™s Day cards to... Read More

always
wunderkinder
No selling delayed mildew food

ITC Bradley Hand is a calligraphy font from Richard Bradley, designed in 1995. The contours make it look as though it were written by hand with a felt tip pen on rough paper and it has all the details which give it a handwritten character. The font has a balanced, harmonious look and lends correspondence a personal touch. Bradley Hand is legible in point sizes as small as 8 and is good for... Read More

safety
zygapophysis
With lactic acid juice flavor

FF Erikrighthand and FF Justlefthand are two of the first examples of loose, natural handwriting made to work as type. The software used to produce the designs was just being developed. It certainly didn’t hurt that Erik van Blokland and Just van Rossum actually know “how to write.” That’s not to imply that van Blokland and van Rossum were merely literate, but rather that had been taught... Read More

grapes
bureaucratic
Courage is grace under pressure

Linotype Feltpen is part of the Take Type Library, chosen from the contestants of Linotype's International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. This fun font was designed by the Swedish artist Lutz Baar with clear, light forms. The spontaneous, even letters seem to have been written with the felt pen from which the font takes its name. Linotype Feltpen is available in two weights,... Read More

vortex
conceptional
You never must sausage a place

John Handy is the work of British designer Timothy Donaldson and based on his own handwriting. Part of the ongoing trend for casual letterforms in display typography, John Handy is an excellent choice for letters, greeting cards, menus, wherever an elegant yet personal look is desired.

rocket
illustrative
If you're going through hell, keep walking

ITC Samuel is a delicate and lively calligraphy font designed by Phill Grimshaw. Every detail has been worked to create harmony. The stroke contrast, the light brush character, the graceful forms all give ITC Samuel the spontaneity and individuality typical of handwriting. The font includes several ligatures and is legible even in smaller point sizes. ITC Samuel is perfect for invitations,... Read More

mystic
zygapophysis
Misery loves bacon and cheese

Caflisch Script was designed by Robert Slimbach in 1993. The design is based on the handwriting of Max Caflisch, one of the foremost graphic designers of this century. Caflisch, a teacher of graphic arts for over three decades in Zurich, is author of several books on typography and designer of the 1952 Columna typeface. Caflisch´s handwriting has a free flowing yet disciplined character, the... Read More

winter
enthusiastic
Humor is reason gone bad

Using Franz Kafka’s handwritten literary oeuvre as a source, Julia Sysmäläinen created the FF Mister K family, beginning with “the temptation and challenge” of capturing the writer’s free flowing penmanship as type. Its members, the original FF Mister K, a more relaxed Informal variant, and a Splendid style in two weights capture the lively charm of the author’s characters, whose temperaments... Read More

safety
enthusiastic
Sunshade with the firm crust

FF Erikrighthand and FF Justlefthand are two of the first examples of loose, natural handwriting made to work as type. The software used to produce the designs was just being developed. It certainly didn’t hurt that Erik van Blokland and Just van Rossum actually know “how to write.” That’s not to imply that van Blokland and van Rossum were merely literate, but rather that had been taught... Read More

winter
bureaucratic
Stick to coffee and alcohol

Controlled casualness is the watchword in this new handwriting script from the prolific young French designer Éric de Berranger, who also designed the sans serif type family ITC Octone. ITC Berranger Hand has its roots in chancery calligraphy, yet its surface looks like contemporary informal lettering that was written quickly with a felt-tip pen on slightly absorbent paper. The counters of some... Read More

always
microphysics
Miscellaneous bacteria pot monsters

The script typeface named Fineprint is based on its designer's own handwriting, or at least as Steve Matteson saw his handwriting on a really good day. Unlike many digitizations of handwriting, Fineprint maintains a consistent harmony and balance across its letters in a line of text. The Fineprint family includes a number of swash and alternate letterforms, which helps pull this quirky personal... Read More

always
hypothenuses
With lactic acid juice flavor

Linotype Sketch is part of the TakeType Library, chosen from the contestants of Linotype's International Digital Type Design Contests of 1994 and 1997. German designer Dieter Kurz gave his display font a calligraphic character. The forms lean slightly to the right and have a spontaneous and individual look. This light, cheerful font also displays a harmony among the forms and gives text a... Read More

chalet
conceptional
Irreverence is easy, wit is hard

Franciszek Otto of Poland designed Linotype Notec in 1999. Linotype Notec is a "low-tech" (or even "no tech!") typeface. By embracing handwriting's spontaneity, it has gotten as far away from technology as it can. Classified as an "inky"-style script face, for lack of a better term, Linotype Notec's informal design seems immediately artful and full of expression. Its irregularity and... Read More

safety
bureaucratic
Please do not chase slapstick

FF Ropsen Script was created in 1999 from various handwriting sources. Early versions were used in the dialog boxes of schoolbooks that the typeface’s designer was laying out at the time. Over several months, the typeface was refined until a definitive concept was reached: combining the traits of hand-written characters with the framework of a versatile text face, which would work large as well... Read More

replay
wunderkinder
It is warm and fragrant to hint

Ulysses was created by English designer Timothy Donaldson in 1991, an impulsive, dynamic alphabet in handwritten style. The sketchy strokes, the clear slant to the right and the light stroke contrast lend the font its flow and energy. Ulysses suggests randomness and individuality and is therefore perfect for invitations, greeting cards and other personal correspondence.

jungle
fiddlesticks
Do not write on the stalactites

H. A. Simon, an experienced figure in the German advertising world, drew the first version of what would become FF Market to use in a few specific design jobs. After the positive reaction that he received from clients and users of the fonts – and the fact that it appeared in designs far beyond Simon’s original intention – he re-drew and extended the family. As the name suggests, FF Market is... Read More

rocket
zygapophysis
Palace explodes diced chicken

Flood was designed by Joachim Müller-Lancé and is not just another handwritten face. At smaller point sizes it exhibits the natural, dynamic, and spontaneous flow of felt tip marker writing. At larger sizes Flood is immediate, urgent, and provocative in its stylized detailing, without being overly dramatic. Flood´s energetic rhythm is well suited for informal menus, logos, and brief ad copy, as... Read More

Terrance Weinzierl
Monotype
Jens Kutilek
FontFont 2017
Steve Matteson and Terrance Weinzierl
Ascender
Richard Bradley
ITC 1995
Just van Rossum
FontFont 1991
Charles Borges de Oliveira
Borges Lettering
Lutz Baar
Linotype 1997
Timothy Donaldson
ITC 1995
Phill Grimshaw
ITC 1998
Tagir Safayev, Gennady Fridman and Dmitry Kirsanov
ParaType 2022
Robert Slimbach
Adobe 1993
Julia Sysmäläinen
FontFont 2008
Erik van Blokland
FontFont 1990
Éric de Berranger
ITC
Steve Matteson
Monotype
Dieter Kurz
Linotype 1997
Franciszek Otto
Linotype 1999
Jürgen Brinckmann
FontFont 2001
Timothy Donaldson
ITC 1991
H. A. Simon
FontFont 1996
Jürgen Brinckmann
Elsner+Flake
Joachim Müller-Lancé
Adobe 1997