Girl write on paper book By Stock-Smart-Start
One of the best things about design is the variety of elements you can use and modify to not only achieve a specific aesthetic but also communicate your intended message.
Color and image selection are key to any creative layout, but equally as fundamental is your choice of font or typeface. A good typeface can effectively draw your audience’s attention to important parts of your content while beautifying your layout.
The search for the perfect font is a fun and exciting part of any design process. The virtual wellspring of typefaces is ever-growing, with a range of serif, sans serif, and cursive or script fonts, among others. In this article, we will focus on the latter, and explore the different kinds of beautiful cursive typefaces and the benefits of using them in your designs.
So, if you’re looking for the best cursive fonts for your personal projects, you’ve come to the right place! Keep reading for more tips and ideas.
Understanding the Cursive Handwriting Style of Font
Cursive typefaces are designed to mimic hand lettering and are a good way to add a personal touch to your layout. Besides that, their smooth lines and graceful strokes are easy on the eyes and can elevate any design. It’s no wonder, then, why script fonts are a popular choice for special and intimate collaterals like wedding invites, place cards, and greeting cards.
Cursive fonts are also a good choice for logo design and branding materials since they can add flair and personality to a company’s identity. In this day and age, when modern, minimalist serifs and sans serifs have become the convention, it’s refreshing to see creative projects embellished with the delicate curves and curlicues of cursive letters. You, too, can break the mold and stand out from the crowd with an eye-catching script font.
When to Use a Cursive Script Font
Even with the very best cursive font, you have to be careful how and where you use it. Studies show that script fonts are generally more difficult to read than sans serif fonts (fonts without any flourishes or flicks at the end of the letters).
However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t or can’t use fonts that mimic cursive handwriting. Indeed, in certain situations and locations, these fonts are undoubtedly the best possible options, creating a classic and elegant mood wherever they’re used.
Whenever you want to convey formality or elegance, the cursive font selection is the one to focus on. The distinctive, hand-drawn style of the letters helps to draw attention to whatever you’re writing, and it’s a fine fit for formal invitations, fancy logos, and so on.
Here are some examples where a cursive handwriting style is the right font to use:
- Formal Settings: Wedding invitations, galas, balls, proms, and similar grand, elegant, formal events are perfect scenes for cursive fonts. They’re also an excellent choice for official documents, such as certificates and awards.
- Marketing and Promotional Materials: Hand lettered script style fonts are also excellent for company marketing materials. That goes for the likes of blog post headers, letterheads, website titles, posters, banners, and billboards, for example.
- A Luxury Project: Luxury hotels, travel destinations, resorts, events, and brands can all benefit from the fancy letters and distinctive style of a cursive script font. It exudes class and sophistication, a far cry from the casual aura of simpler printing fonts.
- Personal Use: You can also feel free to use fonts with a cursive handwriting style for your own personal papers and uses. You might like to keep an MS Word journal in a cursive, hand lettered style, for instance, or plan a tattoo in elegant script lettering.
Tips for Making the Most of Script Style Writing
Whether it’s for business or personal use, here are some helpful tips to get the best results from cursive or script-style writing:
- Less Is More: With script-style writing, less is absolutely more. These fonts work best in brief bursts. You don’t necessarily want a whole block of text or an entire Microsoft Word document made up of fancy hand lettering. Instead, be selective in how and where you use it.
- Pick Your Spots: Following on from the previous point, it’s best to use cursive hand lettering fonts in specific locations, like headers and titles. Then, for body and blocks of text, opt for something simpler and neater. That’ll help you draw attention to the lines and sections that matter most.
- Avoid Mixing and Matching: Another golden rule of cursive fonts is to avoid using more than one font on the same document. These fonts are best used independently and individually. Two or more combined can create a jumbled, messy aesthetic.
- Be Careful with Font Size: This is true of all fonts, but especially cursive fonts. Size matters. At small sizes, even the best cursive fonts may be tricky to read, while larger sizes improve their legibility. Experiment with different sizes to find those that work best.
How to Spot a Good Cursive Font
Not all cursive fonts are created equal, though. There are factors to consider in the search for the best script fonts for your designs. Chief among these is legibility. A dainty font, for instance, might be perfect for a beauty brand’s logo but may not be all that readable when used on smaller collaterals like stickers, letterheads, and business cards. The key is to select a script font that’s scalable or flexible across a variety of platforms and applications.
The next factor to consider is the font’s suitability to your purpose and objectives—besides its theme, of course. There’s no one style that fits all. In fact, there are a number of cursive styles to choose from, some of which are explored later in this article. Be sure to pick one that fits your brand or project’s personality to make it appear more natural.
It’s also important to note that if you’re going to mix and match script fonts, you should do so sparingly so as not to overwhelm your design. Designers recommend sticking with one cursive typeface at best and pairing it with a more structural, simple, and bold option to create balance.
Lastly, when searching for a font to use, go for those with OpenType features. A font family with such is compatible with more platforms, so you can use them on design programs like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, and even Microsoft Word without any trouble on any operating system. Additionally, an OpenType typeface can support a wider range of alternate characters for more variation.
Cursive Font Styles and Their Applications
Now that you have a better idea of the examples of cursive fonts and the wonders they can do for your designs, it’s time to dive into some beautiful font options that you can use on your projects today.
Head on over to Creative Market for more of these and other pretty cursive fonts and typeface styles designed for easy application on your personal branding projects.
Cursive Fonts for Logos
1. Palmer Script & Sans
A bold script font that gives off a natural handmade feel, perfect for brands and businesses who wish to emulate a retro spirit. The weight and thickness of both upper and lowercase characters also make it flexible for different applications.
2. Audrey
Introducing Audrey, a stylish handwritten script font that is perfect for logos and quotes. This font is feminine but has a bit of an edge, making it perfect for unique designs. Audrey also comes with a range of ligatures to create a truly hand-written feel.
3. Heather Oliver
A stylish font with solid strokes that translate well on a range of branding materials. It’s hailed by its designers as a “swiss army knife” among typefaces because of its versatility: this font includes stylistic alternates for lowercase characters, so you can tweak each word to your liking.
4. Thistails
A monoline font (read: a font with the same thickness vertically and horizontally) that combines vintage aesthetics with modern sensibilities for a unique and refreshing effect. This font is perfect for cool, youthful brands with an old soul.
Cursive Fonts as Digital Signatures
5. Signature Collection
One of those handwriting fonts you could just instantly imagine seeing at the end of an editor’s note or newsletter. This stylish cursive font was designed to look as natural as possible, and comes with a full set of stylistic alternates for lowercase letters as well as charming watercolor overlays for extra oomph.
6. Barley
A script font created with an authentic modern calligraphy look. Its gentle curves were designed in moderation, ensuring its legibility in different applications. However, the handwritten quality makes it ideal for digital sign-offs. Use all lowercase letters for a touch of cute.
7. Faustine
This font adds a bit of flourish to digital signatures and emphasizes the handwritten effect with its charmingly “messy” style and swashes. This cursive font package includes uppercase and lowercase letters, with beginning swashes for all of the former and beginning and ending swashes for all of the latter.
Beautiful Cursive Font Options for Fancy Occasions
8. Haute Couture
Featuring multi-thickness strokes that look like each letter was just scribbled with a fountain pen. This opulent quality coupled with a calligraphic flair makes this sophisticated font a great option for fancy events like weddings, black-tie parties, and metropolitan cocktails.
9. Wild Love
If you’re a font lover, you’ll love the Wild Love Collection. This set comes with two perfect fonts and a set of beautiful symbols that will make your Instagram quotes, websites, and invitations look amazing.
10. Desirable Calligraphy
This might just be the fanciest script font on this list. The classic elegance of this font family is palpable with grand flourishes that could make any cursive text pop. Just look at those curves and swashes—we could almost see it on an immaculate wedding invitation.
Fun Cursive Fonts for Other Creative Projects
11. Groovy
A playful script font that, as its name suggests, adds a touch of retro to any type of media. Use this cursive font to lend an authentic vintage vibe to your ‘60s- or ‘70s-themed designs. We think it would also make a great choice for pop culture collectibles like posters, special product packaging, shirts, bags, and stickers.
12. Theodore Bagwell
Theodore Bagwell is a typeface that is vintage, clean, and rough. It combines a sans serif and script font to create a unique and beautiful look. This typeface is perfect for traditional typography lovers who want to quickly and easily create different types of layouts.
13. Monoline
Simplicity makes this font a great cursive option for web design and other digital media. We can almost imagine this casual script font in newsletters and digital magazines. It’s easily legible and incredibly versatile.
14. Wild Irish Rose
This font is one of the most charming brush script fonts we’ve seen. The raw, “just painted” quality of this typeface would work nicely on a large range of media, from book covers to album covers, posters, social media posts, and web pages. Lay it over a nice photo, and it can also work as a t-shirt design.
Fancy Cursive Fonts for Business and Personal Use
15. Serenity Blush
Serenity Blush is a font that looks as beautiful as its name sounds. Designed with OpenType features, its offers both beginning and ending swashes, and every single letter has been designed with remarkable attention to detail, delivering an elegant and refined, calligraphy-style result.
16. Baxter
A lot of cursive fonts lack legibility, but Baxter manages to bridge that gap between elegance and clarity. Its letters and symbols are both sophisticated and remarkably readable, perfect for invites, branding materials, and much more besides.
Get All of These and Other Beautiful Cursive Font Styles On Creative Market
Visit Creative Market for more of the best script font options and sign up for access to our extensive library of design assets from creative minds all over the world!
Download these worksheets and start practicing with simple instructions and tracing exercises.
Download now!
Making beautiful design simple & accessible to all.
View More Posts
