The best free handwriting fonts can transform a project and adds an earthy and personal feel to your work. Handwriting fonts aren't dissimilar to cursive fonts, but they're normally a little less polished (in a good way, of course). The brilliant thing about handwriting fonts is that they're so versatile, and there are thousands of styles to choose from – whether you're looking for a thick, heavy-handed font or neat and stylised, there's a handwriting font out there for you.
We know that when you start your hunt for the best fonts, there are hundreds and thousands of options out there on the internet, which can be a little overwhelming. But that's where we come in. We've gathered up a collection of the best free handwriting fonts around, so you don't have to spend hours scouring the internet. All the fonts in this roundup are free to download, but we advise you to check the licensing for each font to make sure they're suitable for both personal and commercial use.
If you're just on the hunt for some fonts in general, then make sure you check out our guides on the best free fonts, free brush fonts and free script fonts. Or if you're looking for something a little more specific, then you'll love our roundup of the best fun fonts, Old English fonts and graffiti fonts. Once you're fully equipped with all the fonts your heart desires, then head over to our guide to learn how to add fonts in Photoshop.
The best free handwriting fonts
01. Grape Nuts
Our roundup starts with a typeface from Google Fonts. Grape Nuts is a simplistic font that was apparently inspired by well-known breakfast cereal. You can use Grape Nuts on both your personal and commercial projects, just make sure you read the fine print before sharing anywhere.
02. Gloria Hallelujah
Gloria Hallelujah is another simplistic yet effective handwriting font. We love the more playful feel to this font that makes it look quite friendly and approachable. This font is available for personal and commercial use, but we still advise you to check the licensing to make sure.
03. Homemade Apple
This adorable font reminds us of handwritten apple pie recipes with its warm and friendly typeface. The nice thing about this cursive font is that the glyphs link, just like handwriting does. Again, this font is available for personal and commercial use, but make sure you check the fine print.
04. Reenie Beanie Font
Here's another earthy and fun handwriting font you can add to your collection. Reenie Beanie if based on handwriting written with a ballpoint pen. Apparently, "Reenie Beanie could be used to represent the scribbling of a mad scientist, or the recipes of a genius chef". This font is available for both commercial and personal use.
05. Wild Youth
This cursive font is simplistic but fairly realistic for a handwriting font. The font was designed by calligrapher Kimberly Geswein (opens in new tab). Geswein has said that this script was inspired by her friend. This font is available for personal use only.
06. Vujahday Script
Vujahday Script is an organic cursive font. This font comes with both a plain and a script stylistic set, as well as Latin character sets that support Western, Central, and Vietnamese languages. This font is available to use for personal and commercial use.
07. Beth Ellen
Seriously, how cute is this font? The authentic and earthy feel to this script is perfect for a range of projects. This font was inspired by designer, Rob Jelinski's mother who passed away to cancer. This font is completely free to use for personal and commercial use, but Jelinski has requested that you send a short note to someone you love every time you use the font.
08. Hiatus Handwritten Font
For a very different but also very casual feel, the modern brushed handwritten font Hiatus offers a nice look for posters, t-shirts, branding and headlines in the right context. The free version is available for both personal and commercial use and contains uppercase, lowercase, number, Punctuation and symbols.
09. Timothy
Handwriting fonts aren't all swirly and delicate. Timothy uses block capitals and a chunky marker thickness to add a hand-written touch. Made by Ksenya Zoltsman, this quirky handwritten font was inspired by designer Timothy Goodman (opens in new tab). It's free for personal and commercial use and could make a nice, fun choice for use in invitations.
10. Something Wild
Add an authentic feel to your designs with this gorgeous handwritten type design Something Wild. Available over on Pixelbuddha, Something Wild is free for personal or commercial use and will add a touch of personality to your designs, making it perfect for poster and flyer designs.
11. Stay Classy
This well-named free handwriting font is one of the classiest out there. Delicate and interesting without being fussy, make your designs ooze chic by using this for headers and short pieces of text paired with simple, tasteful backgrounds. It's free for personal or commercial use.
12. No Time
Graphic designer Paula Painceiras Martínez is the master behind this quirky, tongue-in-cheek handwriting font, No Time. On her Behance page she states: "Expressive, aggressive and different. This font was created by the handwriting of a stressed designer." It's a totally free license, with a request from the creator to accredit her name or link her profile. (Painceiras says she loves to see projects using this font.)
13. Ambarella
Ambarella is a beautiful free typeface from Polem Studio. Free for both personal and commercial use, the design includes various swashes, alternates and Western European characters.
14. Kristi
Designed by Birgit Pulk, Kristi is an elegant and quirky free handwriting font with flowing ligatures that remind us of fountain pen writing. The capital letter glyphs would work particularly well in headers.
15. Marrisa
Imperfections are beautiful, aren't they? Marrisa reminds us of enthusiastic hand-written notes we've received from relatives; all swooping ascenders and unpredictably sized ligatures. It's full of heart, and embraces its relaxed vibe and carefully curated 'flaws'. It's free for personal use only, but commercial licenses are available.
16. Over the Rainbow
"This font always makes me smile," says the designer of this sweetly named font, Kimberly Geswein. "Something about the style of the handwriting just makes me feel happy. It is slightly connected but not a true script by any means and will lend an upbeat feel to any project you use it on."
17. Stay Writer
Charming handwriting font Stay Writer is free for commercial and personal use. "A hand-drawn display font, every single letter has been carefully crafted to make your text look beautiful," the makers comment on Behance.
18. Fair Prosper
Another free handwriting font packed with personality, Fair Prosper is a marker pen font designed by Khurasan. Available free for personal and commercial use, this font set includes upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. It would look awesome on branding and designs that rock (and roll).
19. Claire Hand
The team at Australian-based design agency Team Scope are behind handwriting font Claire Hand. Available over on Behance, the team describe the design as: "fun, bold and friendly, and its handwritten style represents our commitment to creative spontaneity (you know how the best ideas get scribbled down on a napkin?). Because we're serious design tragics, we even created each letter in two different weights so it's even more individual."
It's free for personal use, and there's a small fee if you want to use it commercially.
20. Mightype
Free for both personal and commercial use, Mightype was created by designers Mats-Peter Forss and Adam Fathony. A hand-lettered script font, Mightype is great for packaging designs, branding and much more.
21. Reis
This handwritten design Reis was created by art director Marcelo Reis Melo. Great for posters, logos and much more, Reis is available free for personal and commercial use, with donations to the creator (as always) appreciated.
22. Bellaboo
In need of an authentic handwritten font for your latest project? Bellaboo, another design by art director Marcelo Reis Melo, may be just what you're looking for. A bold design, this free handwriting font is great for creating eye-catching headlines, posters and more. It even supports Spanish, German and Swedish characters.
23. Ludicrous
A free handwriting font from Missy Meyer, Ludicrous is great for giving your projects an authentic handmade feel. "With every font, I learn something new," she comments on Behance. "This time around, I did my first ligatures, and included the 15 lowercase letter pairs I thought were most common." It's free for personal use and includes one-user desktop commercial license.
24. Tragic Marker
As we've seen, Missy Meyer is a runaway talent when it comes to creating free handwriting fonts. With Tragic Marker she has created a satisfyingly chunky font that looks like it's been scribbled with a Sharpie. And most impressively of all, it was created in just one day while she learned more aspects of type creation.
25. Skinny
An oldie but a goodie, this handwriting font is, by far, the most popular of the type designs offered online by the artist known as notfon1234. The last update to the design saw a clean up to the spacing and characters, and the font is now completely free for commercial use.
26. Gunny Rewritten
Based on his older font Gunny Handwriting, type designer Vit Condak released this new free handwriting font Gunny Rewritten. Wanting a tidier version of his original (based on his natural handwriting style), Condak completely remade the design and now offers it as a free download for all to enjoy.
27. Halo Handletter
This elegant handwriting font was developed by graphic designer Mario Arturo. One of over 20 fonts created by Arturo, who specialises in fancy and script designs, Halo Handletter is perfect example of the latter. It's free for non-commercial use only; you'll have to pay to use it commercially.
28. Whatever It Takes
The Whatever It Takes free handwriting font harks back to our school exercise books. It's free for personal and non-profit use. However, its creator, designer Brittney Murphy does ask for a $8 donation for commercial use, which we think is still a bargain. There's a bold version, too.
29. L'Engineer
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.
30. Calligraffiti
Spanning both the genres of handwriting fonts and calligraphy fonts, Calligraffiti is an elegant and simple free single-weight font with 228 glyphs, designed by Open Window.
Next page: more of the best free handwriting fonts
