Handwriting fonts, which look like they’ve been written by hand, come in all kinds of styles—cursive, swirly, rugged or with long tails and beautiful swashes—that convey different emotions and set the mood for your entire design.
That’s why they lend themselves particularly well to headers, logos and branding, posters and social media ads. While handwritten typography has a long tradition in graphic design, most notably in book and magazine publishing, it can also be used in web design to help draw attention to user interfaces.
Handwriting fonts can help your project stand out from a sea of cookie-cutter designs, but you’ll want to be sure to choose your font carefully. Find a family of fonts that adds a personal touch yet doesn’t become overwhelming. Also, consider font size and readability: most handwritten fonts don’t look right when used for body copy. They can, however, give a lot of impact to short standalone amounts of text.
We’ve compiled 20 of the most versatile, stand-out handwriting fonts—some free, some with paid licenses—to give you lots of variety for the best typography across your different projects. Want to use one of the fonts below? Make sure to check out a font’s usage and licensing before using it.
20 handwriting fonts
Free handwriting fonts
01. Marshmallow
By Neil Summerour
Think marshmallow and you get squishy, fluffy and joyful. Like its namesake, this font Marshmallow has a thick body with soft edges, minimal breaks and bubbly vibes. Create full-figured words in Fluff or Script—with attached letters—to infuse your site’s headings with a nostalgic or gleeful touch. Marshmallow is free for Adobe users.
02. Petit Formal Script
By Impallari Type
A cursive font feels timeless, personalized and elegant, perfect for wedding or luxury eComm sites. And yet Petit Formal Script also feels whimsical, taking us back to our school days when we traced these letters’ loops and curls on paper. A highly universal font, it supports 489 languages and is best used digitally in larger sizes.
03. Quentin
By Get Studio
Quentin brings the sensation of a rough writing surface or an imperfect thick marker to the screen. Ideal for signatures, Quentin gives the personalized touch to your logo, product packaging or “About” page. Notice how characters 'Q,' 's' and 'f' convey classic cursive but with a touch of handmade uniqueness.
04. Whomp
By Alejandro Paul
Whomp elevates the look of a thick marker to create a handwriting font inspired by Alf Becker, an American sign artist from the 1930s and 1940s. Yet there’s a ‘70s vibe that comes through with a bold attitude—so much so that glyphs 'K,' 'Q' and 'R' even look dressed in flared jeans—and encourages you to play with its outlines and shadows. Whomp looks great in logos, headings and social media imagery, and is free for Adobe users.
Paid handwriting fonts
05. All-Star
By Hunter E. Anson
With jagged edges and unconventional shapes, each All-Star character embodies a world of its own, with distinct features such as the outstretched lines in 'A,' 'K,' 'M' and 'S.' Create a headline that stands out, or assemble a mix of letters for a truly starry impression.
06. BADGER
By Hunter E. Anson
Use BADGER to amplify your message in the style of city graffiti or sidewalk chalk. The strokes convey the same spontaneity and man-made texture that you’ll find on concrete walls or pavements. Take a look at letters 'O,' 'R' and 'Q' where you’ll find points reminiscent of spray paint that hit the wall for a second too long, or numbers like '5' and '7' with the exaggerated angles and curves of fiery creation.
07. Baystar Script
By Mans Greback
Inspired by retro car logos like Chevrolet Chevelle and Camaro, Baystar Script fuses the glamor of mid-20th century type with the professionalism of practiced penmanship. The characters’ curves, crosses and dots pay homage to the beautiful calligraphy of the fountain pen. Thanks to an incredibly wide range of glyphs—over 4,800 variations across three font styles—there is plenty of variety to convey an authentic handwritten style.
08. Genty
By Flavortype
Genty, a bold, brush-like font, lets you play things funky or safe with more than 600 glyphs for maximum range. In particular Genty Regular, one of the two included fonts, provides characters with extensive connected flourishes for a feel of curated yet modern calligraphy—take a look at 'd,' 'h' and 't' for a first taste. Used separately or together, the fonts are excellent for both online and offline uses, such as headlines, supporting paragraphs, stickers, posters and more.
09. Gliker
By Cahya Sofyan
An undeniably cheerful font, something about Gliker is ripe for animation and a boogie. In fact this handwritten font looks like it’s already moving—without hard angles and systematically straight lines, Gliker feels amorphous and like it’s continuously responding to the space around it. Plus, with 28 styles, it can fit a wide variety of design applications, from logos to titles and body text.
10. Kaligari
By Franziska Weitgruber
“Inspired by expressionist techniques,” Kaligari is sophisticated and original. With exaggerated angles reminiscent of penmanship from days gone by (check out the 'g' and 'r' variations) and European museum posters, this font looks best in larger, shorter uses. It supports a wide range of languages with many localized characters.
11. Millie
By Kyle Wayne Benson
There’s no need to rotate your screen. As the font’s creator explains, “[Millie] was designed to be used on about a 20 degree angle, though she looks just fine on a level plane.” The connected glyphs in particular have a tactile, industrial feel, such as bent and twisted metal bars. Take an extra look at connected characters 's,' 'f' and 'r' which are all distinct and beautiful.
12. Mushy
By East of Rome
If melting ice cream was a font, then you’d find this ice cream dripping down your screen. Letters join together “making words look like a sticky mess,” and words stretch out like a paper doll train. However, Mushy gives you lots of room to tailor the typography to your needs, with options for unjoined letters and four font weights. Try out this psychedelic font for logos and shorter words.
13. Nonplus
By OHNO
If you’re going for experimental typography or “short words at large sizes,” then Nonplus is designed especially for you. This handwriting font is the total opposite of “non.” It’s full of enthusiasm, unpredictability and wit. With two font types, Nonplus plays simultaneously with minimalist linework and filled in rounded figures, giving the reader equal amounts of riddle and answer.
14. Outback Brush Font
By Greg Nicholls
Honest to its name, Outback Brush Font is a brush-like font that not only provides a genuine, handwritten appearance, but comes with over 100 glyphs so that each letter has multiple variations for more authenticity and more variety. Plus, with over 50 swashes, you can emphasize or embellish with lines and ink dots for that true brush-on-paper feel.
15. Palm Club
By Set Sail Studios
Capturing the essence of summer break, rebellious romance and breaking the rules, no film (or typeface) did it better than 1987’s Dirty Dancing. Now, you can tap into that nostalgia and dial up the retro-vacay feeling with this ‘80s’ inspired handwritten font. Palm Club supports 23 Latin alphabet languages and also includes 21 different swashes for underlines and embellishments.
16. Rage Italic
By ITC
Don’t be fooled by the name. Rage Italic won’t leap off the screen in a rage, but this handwritten font does convey a rage of inspiration. The speed and imperfections in its letters and connected forms show a fury to get the words down on (digital) paper. The uniqueness comes through with characters like 'B,' 'D,' 'f' and 'z,' which show the authentic strokes of nostalgic pen-on-pepper cursive writing that’s not found in many other handwritten typefaces.
17. Scalter
By Dirtyline Studio
Anyone who has played with stencils and pencils will feel right at home with Scalter. With 38 fonts covering all the bases—serif, sans serif, condensed, expanded, slanted and more—the font’s versatility ranges from elegant art deco to colorful ‘70s’ retro. It can be a perfect fit both for outdoor signs as well as for video animations.
18. Waverse
By Typeji
Just like rolling waves, this font is gentle and smooth, best captured by the rolling lines on letters like 'Q,' 'w,' 'x' and 'z.' And also like the sea, Waverse suggests a mystery that lurks beneath the waves—note the cut-off on 'g' and 's.' This handwritten font would look equally at home on a city cafe sandwich board as it would on a beach club T-shirt, and is best used in large and medium sizes.
19. Wubberly
By Set Sail Studios
Go for Wubberly if you’re looking for something bubberly…er, bubbly that is. This handwriting font is Y2K, balloon animals and gravity-free floating all in one. Perfect for logos, 3D lettering, short headlines and social media posts, there is just enough glyph variety to keep it fresh. Wubberly comes with two variations of uppercase letters and 50 swashes.
20. Zombie Punks
By wingsart
Channel the suspense of a horror VHS or thriller paperback novel with Zombie Punks, one of the scariest fonts in the mix. Play around with colors, sizes and outlines to give the impression of fresh paint, toxic slime or even freshly spilt blood. Available only in all-caps, Zombie Punks is best used for headlines, titles and attention-grabbing callouts, like, "Watch out behind you!"
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