Handwriting fonts are an easy way to add a personal touch to your content. Designers use them to create eye-catching logos and pull quotes on websites because they contrast sharply against the body text. While handwriting fonts aren’t particularly appropriate for corporate contexts or in professional documents, they are a great choice for personal blogs, arts & crafts websites, comics, restaurant menus and ads, as well as for small businesses in the creative industry. Handwriting fonts are especially popular thanks to the lettering trend in web design, because the hand lettering effect can be achieved by using decorative fonts. You can even create your own handwriting fonts for free!
Best Free Handwriting Fonts for Designers in 2020
The list brings a selection of 40 handwriting fonts which are all free for commercial use. While these aren’t all new, they are tried and tested handwriting fonts that we like. Font repositories categorize handwriting fonts differently, so some of them might be tagged as “script”, “calligraphic” or “decorative”, depending on the website.
1. Teen Idle
Teen Idle is a casual script type font with thin lines accentuated by an “overwrite” effect. This gives it a realistic handwriting vibe and makes it great for titles or image captions on personal blogs.
2. Antique Book
3. As Cute As…
As the name says, this is a cute font that comes in four weights (regular, bold, heavy and semibold). It supports extended characters and diacritical marks, and there’s also a “Comic” version available for download separately.
4. DP Dork Diary
Another quirky informal font, DP Dork Diary is neat and quite readable for a handwriting font, so it’s perfect for explanations and notes on a screenshot, or for personal websites and Tumblr blogs.
5. Handschrift
Handschrift is a blocky handwriting font with thin lines that give the impression of writing with a fine pen. Its high readability makes it suitable for image captions on Pinterest, for example.
6. Kalam
Kalam is an informal handwriting font developed by the Indian Type Foundry. It supports Latin and Devanagari scripts and it’s optimized for screens, which gives it a smooth, balanced look. It’s slightly slanted and great for titles, but also for body text and block quotes.
7. Tragic Marker
Tragic Marker is fat marker-style handwriting font which, as its name suggests, resembles the neat and bold handwriting of a thick marker. The font can be used in a variety of different settings, including headings, e-greeting cards, and designs that aim to be playful yet professional.
8. Shrag Script
Shrag Script will look equally good on a DIY website or in designs for schoolchildren – it looks warm and friendly, but more importantly, it’s neat and readable.
9. Mervale Script
Mervale is a script font with a distinctive retro feeling, perfect for vintage designs, bold titles and quotes. It combines wide and thin brush strokes and has a great flow, so it wouldn’t look out of place even on a professional website or magazine.
10. Black Jack
Black Jack is an informal handwriting font that looks light, fresh and simply effortless. It features a peculiar lowercase T glyph which is sure to catch everyone’s eye. It’s one of the oldest fonts on this list, but it’s still incredibly popular and looks good in modern designs.
11. Blenda Script
Blenda Script is all about wide brush strokes and that retro feel. It has defined ligatures and is a good choice for titles in vintage designs and posters.
12. Grand Hotel
Grand Hotel is one of those versatile handwriting fonts that can be used for almost anything: from logos and headlines to image captions and quotes. It’s a condensed upright script that works well both for vintage and contemporary designs.
13. Yellowtail
14. Admiral
Admiral is a brush script font with bold strokes and support for accents. It simply commands attention, so you can use it for titles or headlines on your website.
15. Belepotan
This handwriting font has thick brush strokes, so if you’re going for a permanent marker look with a slightly Oriental touch, Belepotan is the solution. It supports accents and features small caps. An italic version is also available for download.
16. 99% Occupy
This brush handwriting font has a historical significance – it was created by the members of the Occupy movement that protested for freedom and human rights, and against the richest 1% of the population. However, you don’t have to be an activist to recognize the beauty of this font. It has thick brush strokes with a tinge of calligraphy and offers support for several character sets.
17. Oneer
Oneer is among the most original fonts on this list. With extra thick strokes, it looks like it has been freshly painted with a brush, and its most prominent feature are the underlined and overlined small caps. Whether you use it on a poster or as a title, Oneer will definitely get noticed.
18. Alex Brush
Alex Brush is a formal, very elegant cursive handwriting font perfect for invitations and Pinterest images. Thanks to variable line thickness, it’s legible and has an excellent flow.
19. Anke Calligraphic
Anke is a neat calligraphic handwriting font with optimized kerning and support for accents. You can use it as a signature for a refined and unique look.
20. Dancing Script
Dancing Script is a casual handwriting font that combines thin and thick lines for a calligraphy effect. It’s great for retro and informal designs, and it’s available on Google Web Fonts in bold and normal styles.
21. Modeschrift
Modeschrift is a handwriting font with calligraphy brush strokes that give it a professional look. It supports accents and some extended characters.
22. Rundkursiv
Rundkursiv would be just another formal handwriting font if it wasn’t for the ornate swashes that give it a classic and refined look. It works best for quotes and has support for accents and extended characters.
23. Sevillana
Sevillana is different from other cursive handwriting fonts in several ways: it’s backslanted, has small curlicues and an interesting background story. This font is an attempt to recreate and preserve the lettering style used on handmade commemorative plates from the Spanish region of Andalusia. This is one of my favorite free handwriting fonts.
24. Amatic
Amatic is a thin handwriting font that comes in two styles – regular and bold. It’s a narrow, all-caps font that will give any design a fresh and modern look.
25. Beer Money
Beer Money truly stands out. It’s a handwriting font with thick strokes that looks sketched and fits best in grunge, informal and poster designs.
26. Hentimps Circlet
This blackletter font evokes old Gothic scripts. With its neat, ornate strokes and support for accents, Hentimps Circlet can give a touch of history to your designs. It is one of the most beautiful and best free handwriting fonts that one can use.
27. Newbie Serif
Newbie Serif is a graffiti-style handwriting font with thick strokes and outlines, perfect for posters, titles and anything that needs to arrest the reader’s attention.
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28. Pecita
Pecita is a funky handwriting font with an outstanding character support – it features several sets of special symbols, Devanagari, Kannada, Thai and even Runic scripts, as well as support for Katakana, Vedic Extensions and more. It all comes to a total of five thousand characters – a really impressive font.
29. Something Wild
Something Wild is another great handwriting font that looks like something you’d write with a flat brush. The font, with its imperfect finish, has a rustic feel to it which makes it a great option for posters and flyers, and probably even for that gaming project you needed a title screen for.
30. No Time
To make your message grab eyeballs effortlessly, No Time can be quite effective. Said to be created by a stressed designer, this font looks bold and is quite expressive. And it’s this expressive appearance that makes it spot-on for posters and banners. I find this one to be one of the best handwriting fonts.
31. Debby
If a crisp and natural look is what you prefer, Debby could be a better pick. The hand-drawn brush font features irregular bouncy characters and the rough shapes. Whether you wish to make your quote look pleasing to the eyes, design your greeting card, make your poster stand out, or give the wedding invitation the needed x-factor to look elegant, it can cater to your needs with aplomb.
32. Swistblnk Monthoers
If I were to pick out a font to design titles and logos with precision, “Swistlnk Mothoers” would turn out to be my first choice – more often than not. The vintage-inspired handwriting font has a striking similarity with a letterpress courtesy the lines and stamp-like look. Furthermore, it comes in clean and texture versions which make it a better pick for designing logos.
33. Neon Absolute
Inspired by the 1980’s neon lights, Neon Absolute has got a classy look. The contemporary pair of script and sans fonts are designed for beautiful typography. And that’s exactly what makes it suitable for a variety of design projects such as social media posts (i.e Instagram), logos and branding, advertisements, and product designs.
34. Luna
Amanda Lesson’s Luna can easily stake the claim of being one of the best fonts for designers. The clean handwriting font features a contrast between letters and lines. Therefore, it’s more legible. With the crisp design, it suits diverse design projects including logo, badge, insignia, packaging, headline, poster, t-shirt/apparel, greeting card, and wedding invitation.
35. Fofer Font
If enhancing handwriting is your main priority, Fofer Font can easily fit into your needs. Thanks to the irregular shape and seamless looking flows, it makes your text appear striking. So, save it for the times where you want your message to shout out loud for instant attention.
36. Ruffle Beauty
Every time I have tried out Ruffle Beauty, I have come out impressed. And rightly so as this font has got a nice mix of a sporty and beautiful look. While this font is available for free for personal and commercial use, you can offer up some donations to bolster creativity.
37. The Woodlands
Thanks to the nice-looking calligraphy aesthetic, The Woodlands has long been one of my favorite fonts. Created by Jeremy Vessey, the brush script adds the lettering feel to a text, making it appear beautiful. Courtesy the ability to add a bit of whimsical charm, it can come in handy for a variety of projects including ads, social media posts, wedding invitations, and more.
38. SoulMarker
Times when you may want your handwriting to appear eye-catching without having to put an extra effort, a font like SoulMarker can have a role to play. The handwriting font comes in two distinct styles. While the bold variant gives your design an attractive look, the light one endows natural and minimalist appearance.
39. Mazak
A good-looking font like Mazak deserves a safe spot in this roundup of the top fonts for designers. It’s a brush drawn vector-free font and comes in capital letters. Thanks to the highlighted marker strokes, it has a retro look. You can use it to make your posters and banners appear more attention-grabbing.
40. Shopping Script
For an impressive cursive signature style handwritten script, “Shopping Script” appears to be a fine option. It’s a pretty simple yet good-looking font, and more importantly, has got the quality to make your signature leave a lasting impact. But do note that it’s free (basic version) for only personal use. And if you want to use it for commercial purposes, you will need to go for the full version.
Use These Handwriting Fonts to Enhance Your Content
These are our pick for the best free handwriting fonts that you can use in 2020 to enhance your content. Whether you want to use them in your blog, your website, your business card, or your book, they will serve you well. You should also read our articles on best monogram fonts for designers as it pairs right with this article. Anyway, that’s all from us, let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
