Handwriting Fonts: Quick, Natural Scrawling

The Handel Gothic™ typeface has been a mainstay of graphic communication for over 40 years - all the while looking as current as tomorrow. Designed by Don Handel in the mid-1960s, and used in the 1973 United Airlines logo developed by Saul Bass, Handel Gothic was an instant success when released to the graphic design community. Its generous lowercase x-height, full-bodied counters and square... Read More

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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