There are many websites available that offer all sorts of free fonts and one of the most common sections on many of these sites are for handwritten fonts. That perhaps shouldn't be surprising as it is one of the easier forms of font design, though this dearth of typefaces can make it more difficult for Graphic Designers to select the best fonts from those that are not so strong.
The five fonts presented in this article have been selected as between them they should cover a wide range of uses within Graphic Design allowing Designers to produce many different types of work without needing to hunt out more fonts. This can be particularly useful at the concept stage allowing ideas to be visualized quickly and more time can be devoted to finding a better font choice at later stages.
While these fonts are listed as free on the download websites, in this case they can all be found at dafont or ffonts, Graphic Designers should check licensing terms before using them commercially.
Honey Script by Dieter Steffmann
Honey Script is a display font with the appearance of stylish handwriting. It would be suitable for uses where a less ornate script type font is desired, but it generally appears more hand written than most true scripts. This font is available in light and semi-bold weights making it more flexible.
Ma Sexy by Margarete Antonio
Ma Sexy is a nicely formed handwritten display font that does have a romantic curvy shape. This would make a fine substitute for Curlz which is a popular, but, arguably, overused typeface. Ma Sexy would be ideal for headings that require a soft and feminine feel.
Arsenale White by Studio Kmzero
Arsenale White has an irregular and scrawled feel about it. The sense is of a child's handwriting, but it doesn't appear as contrived as many child like fonts do. The typeface is only offered in lower case, but this shouldn't be an issue for such a font. The real strength of Arsenale White, which sets it above some other similar child like fonts, is the way that the letter forms fit and flow together making it look very naturalistic. Some handwritten fonts appear with spaces between connecting strokes which can undermine their effectiveness.
Emma Sophia by 1001 Free Fonts
Emma Sophia is nicely constructed and uniform handwritten font ideal for display purposes. It is a relatively bold font, but comes with both upper and lower case forms. It is a very legible face and would be well suited for headings where there is a requirement for the text to be easily read, but with a less constructed feel than regular typefaces.
Barbara Hand
Barbara Hand is a legible font of a nice weight that would be suitable for use where larger volumes of text need to be displayed, but still with a hand drawn style. While not a true body copy font, the lack of connectors mean that it works well in more dense usage and would be well suited for uses such as adding pseudo hand written notes to an illlustration.
There are many more free hand written fonts available to download online, but the five presented here offer a good mix and will be suitable to cover a range of different uses.
Ian Pullen - Ian Pullen is a Graphic Designer with some 15 years of experience in the industry. His first foot on the ladder, after completing 2 years ...
