Handwriting fonts are hot. In our digital world of zeros and ones, on and off, black and white, handwriting fonts are a bit quirky. They evoke quickly written notes — but more deliberately than a scrawl. We sell a lot of handwriting fonts on Fonts.com and we are considering adding more to our offering.
Handwriting fonts are somewhat less sophisticated than formal scripts. They lack the refinement of most calligraphic designs. They differ from casual scripts in that their characters are not made from flowing brush strokes. They are rarely subtle, and sometimes are actually in-your-face. And, yet, they definitely have their own beauty as well as a “certain something.” Used appropriately, they make their point with speed and style.
A handwriting font does not have a personality per se — the usage creates the personality. But a handwriting font does have a persona or attitude, affecting the content in a distinctive way. Handwriting scripts can be edgy, laid-back, playful, or ingenuous. You wouldn’t want to set more than a couple of words in one of them. (If you did, the repeated idiosyncratic characters would call attention to themselves, making the copy look contrived.) They are, however, perfect designs for logotypes and wordmarks, posters and headlines. They are also ideal for successions of words not in big blocks of text. Such uses include invitations, menus, certificates and captions. These pieces, whether on a page, a sign, a banner or a screen, seem personal, like correspondence — perhaps because of the relatively quiet way in which they’re read. So, even though part of your brain knows it’s not processing a personal note, the piece “feels” a bit like one.
Please let us know if you are interested in seeing more of these kinds of fonts available from Fonts.com
I really find Bradley Hand to be a bad typeface. I don’t think it has very much character. Like Comic Sans, non-designers seem to use it in fliers and other print to give a laid-back feel. However, I think it just looks clunky and amateurish, especially when there are so many handwriting fonts that work more effectively.
I do not use handwriting typefaces that often, but recently had to use them on two separate occasions which made me wonder about a growing trend. I found finding the right typefaces a bit more challenging than normal, as the handwriting really needed to reflect not only a company but a personality within that company. It seems that there was an extra set of parameters involved, and I had to reflect both a person and a firm. Attitude and persona definitely played a huge hand in my decision.
I like to use these fonts for creating my signatures for my blogs — I don’t usually have my real signature here (As it can be copied). I like to create a signature using these handwriting fonts.
Pretty cool post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really liked browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!