Handwriting fonts have been gaining more popularity over the past few months, so we decided to pick 24 of the best free ones from across the web.
When we talk about free handwriting fonts, we’re not just referring to one style of typography; they can come in a number of various executions. More recently, this style of typography has been making more appearances than ever before, with print and digital alike favouring it over more traditional offerings. Here, we plucked some awesome free fonts in a handwritten style for you to download and enjoy.
01. LeHand
LeHand is the first font created by indieferdie. The LeHand font reflects a playful handwriting style that will be great for experimenting with on your new design projects. As a web designer and branding designer, we think there’s much more inspirational work ahead for indieferdie.
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02. Yore
Created by Vietnamese designer Poem haiku, the Yore script is a fun take on the more traditional script offerings. Pulling in his influences from illustration, Yore will be perfect for content experimentation and might even work well on a branding project or two.
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03. Whatever it takes
The ‘Whatever it takes’ font harks back to those school boards and chalk typography. It’s free for personal and non-profit use. The designer does however, ask for a $5 donation for any commercial use, which we think is still a bargain!
04. Before Breakfast
Recently, designer Simon Stratford discover iPad app iFontMaker and shortly after challenged to create a font with it in under 10 minutes. The result? This hand drawn typeface Before Breakfast. It may not be one of the most considered entries in our free fonts list, but, as Stratford comments: “It’s a fun, handwritten typeface that probably breaks every rule in typography.”
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05. Engine
One of our favourite free handwriting fonts, this design by Ferdie Balderas comes in regular and italic as well as capital and lower-case letters. He’s even made it supportive of a number of different languages including French, Spanish and Polish.
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06. Chomp
We just had to include this download in our list of free handwriting fonts. Chomp is a playful design created by Camberwell based designer William Bayley Suckling. As a student at The London College of Communication, Suckling regularly experiments with fonts and is happy for you to use it with any personal or commercial work.
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07. LSTK Bembo
One of the loveliest free handwriting fonts we’ve seen in a long time, LSTK Bembo is an ode to one of the real daddies of book typefaces, Bembo. This handdrawn version of this classic typeface can be used whenever you want to combine personality, tradition and a pinch of attitude. The important glyphs are included in this postscript font except the lowercase x.
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08. Haiku’s Script
Haiku’s Script is Poem Haiku’s first attempt at creating a font. Beginning in 2011, it took three months to finish, from July to September. It’s free for personal use and Poem Haiku would love to hear any thoughts and comments about this free handwriting font.
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09. Pops
New York based designer Sune Matras tasked himself to create a font based on one of his father’s handwriting styles – a very personal and specific one – normally used for short messages and headlines. We’re pleased as punch to include this gorgeous design in our list of free handwriting fonts.
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10. Sketch Block
This hand-sketched headline font was designed by artist Lukas Bischoff. He comments: “Created solely by me from sketch by hand and then digitized, Sketch Block makes a perfect font to create the hand-made character look, or to supplement illustrations with typography.” Free for personal use only, it’s one of the nicest free handwriting fonts we’ve seen in a long time.
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11. GoodDog
A contemporary and decorative font, GoodDog was created by Fonthead Design. The curly typeface is a popular choice, having been download almost a million times since its release. This free handwriting font comes complete with a full set of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and characters.
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12. J.D Handcrafted
J.D Handcrafted is one of 16 fonts created by Emerald City Fontwerks, the stylish design being one of the studio’s most popular. The brush, script-style typeface is free for personal use, with a full set of characters at your disposal.
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13. Amatic
A quirky, narrow and condensed design by typographer Vernon Adams this free handwriting font is perfectly suited to designs on the funny side, such as comedy strips. Amatic only includes uppercase letters but comes in both regular and bold styles.
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14. Journal
Created by Hans Gerhard Meier aka Fontourist, this beautiful script-style font’s name explains exactly the type of design its suited to. This is one of three fonts designed by Meier and his most popular download by far.
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15. Mari & David
The charming free handwriting font was designed by Chilean designer and typographer Rodrigo German. The Mari & David font comes in regular, bold and extrabold, which means there’s plenty to play around with. You can also receive numbers and symbols in this style when you download the font.
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16. DHD Cool: Regular
The DHD Cool font is a pretty standard handwriting font but with some irregularities, which means there’s still plenty of scope for some serious design work. Created by Paris based typographer Konrad Bednarksi, you can also download the DHD Cool font in skinny form!
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17. Sumitra
This gorgeous, calligraphy based handwriting font was created by Nepal-based graphic designer and typographer Ananda Maharjan. Placing the font on a base of watercolours as well as a white canvas ensure that its versatility shines.
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18. LSTK Clarendon
Created by Austrian mobile studio Studio Elastik, this is their second free font to be released into the wild. They describe it as their “handlettered badass version of the English slab serif typeface, Clarendon”, which explains the name! It comes in bold and outline.
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19. Mawn’s Handwriting
This free handwriting font – Mawn’s Handwriting – was created Måns Grebäck; a graphic designer specialising in font, logotype, and typography design. It is to be downloaded for personal use and as always, donations to the designer are always welcome!
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20. Bispo
Bispo is a script typeface made inspiring on italic chancery calligraphy, with a flat nib pen and a module of 10 pen widths. Designed by Brazilian typographer Jackson Alves, he decided to make this typeface to allow everyone to be able to create pieces with a charm of calligraphy and taking advantage of the Opentype features.
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21. Scribulous Scrawlin’
We had to pop a chalk-styled free handwriting font in the list and this one which was designed Alphabeta85 is a perfect addition. It comes in both capitalised and non, as well as numbers, punctuation, and symbols. As always, make sure you only use it for personal work!
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22. Linny
This cutesy font was designed by Maya aka Linny. This handwriting type is actually Maya’s handwriting and after being asked to develop the font for personal use, she finally did! It comes in upper and lower case, as well as numbers and punctuation.
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23. Fatstack
We love this heavy duty, scribble-friendly font designed by Blambot Comic Fonts and Lettering. Consisting purely of capital letters, this is a free handwriting font that would be perfect for some seriously bold design work. You can also grab some punctuation and numbers in the free package.
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24. Soft Sugar
This fun handwriting font can only be downloaded for free in the regular format but we think it’s a great one to play around with. Evoking a sense of the old-school comic book style fonts, we’re sure you’ll be able to create something special with this one!
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