Best Cursive Fonts for Your Designs in 2024

When your goal is to make a project feel personalized, choose a font that looks like actual handwriting. But that might leave you wondering which fonts look like actual handwriting. Cursive fonts are a safe bet for any project that needs to have that personalized look.

That’s because, in many ways, cursive is handwriting—it’s a more organic, flowing representation of our thoughts on the page. Sure, plenty of people write in print, and plenty of print fonts can look like handwriting, but there’s something about a cursive font that makes a project feel like it’s got your personal touch.

Looking for that personal touch for your next project? Take a look at our best cursive fonts for a variety of project sizes and styles.

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What is a Cursive Font?

A cursive font is a font that, through linked letters and swooping lines, looks like handwriting. When you use a cursive font in your design, you make the design look like something a person wrote by hand rather than created using software.

In a cursive font, the letters are usually linked together. Because cursive fonts are linked and typically rely on long, looped lines to connect their letters, you will not see a serif in a cursive font.

What is a Script Font?

A script font is similar to a cursive font, but there are a few key differences. Script fonts tend to be more ornate than cursive fonts, which means they often use larger loops and more intricate designs.

This can make them more challenging to read, which often means they are most appropriate for larger designs and designs that only feature a small amount of text, like a signature or logo.

How to Choose a Good Cursive Font?

When selecting a cursive font, keep the following in mind:

• The size of your project. Is it something large, like a poster, or small, like an Instagram post that will be viewed on smartphone screens?
• The amount of text in your design. If your design is primarily text rather than images, choose a font that’s easy to read.
• Your project’s aesthetic. Is it a happy, celebratory design, like a baby shower invitation, or a more muted, sophisticated mood, like an invitation to a gala?

As you plan your design, start with technical limitations first. For example, if it’s a website design, opt for a cursive font that works on all browsers. That way, there is no risk of some users being unable to see your design.

Next, consider size. Larger projects can handle more intricate and difficult-to-read fonts, as larger letters can make up for some of the lost legibility. Small projects, like business cards, need to be easy to read.

Finally, choose a font that matches your desired aesthetic. A birthday card is likely best suited to a casual-looking, fun font. A more upscale event needs a more upscale font, like Dancing Script or Sign Rathi.

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Best Cursive Fonts

When you want to personalize a design, these are the best cursive fonts to help you reach your goal. Cursive fonts make a design feel personalized because they imitate handwriting.

That said, cursive fonts can be quite different from each other, which means that a font suitable for one project might not be suitable for another.

As designers, part of our job is to help our clients find the fonts that work best for their projects. If you’ve determined you want your project to have a classy, upscale, or personalized feel, a cursive font is a great choice.

Ashley Southine

Best Cursive Font Overall

If your goal is a font that looks like real handwriting, with imperfect swoops and all, Ashley Southine is the way to go. This font mimics the uneven letter sizing and a generally loose, relaxed feel that you’d find on any handwritten note—without sacrificing legibility.

Ashley Southine has a casual look, sitting somewhere between print and cursive writing. Use it for items like signs and t-shirts as well as paper designs like wedding stationery that need a friendly, personal touch.

Stylish

Most Popular Script Font

Similar to Ashley Southine in its casual feel, Stylish’s letters are more evenly sized and have more balanced brushstrokes. It has a light, fun, free feel that makes it versatile enough to fit minimalist or maximalist designs.

Because Stylish is highly legible and features large letters, choose it for any project that needs to be seen from afar, like a poster or sign.

Andalucia

Best Fancy Cursive Font

There’s a lot to like about Andalucia. It’s fancy, but not so fancy that it’s illegible. When you’re planning a design, that’s a very important point—especially when your design is going on a fairly small surface, like a wedding invitation or a business card.

Andalucia incorporates the graceful sweeping swoops of a classic calligraphy font with evenly sized, delicately linked letters that are easy to read and a pleasure to look at.

Raelyn

Best Script Font for Cricut

For a script font that has a little bit of edge, go with Raelyn. By “edge,” we mean more uneven strokes on the letters and a height gap between them, which makes this font look like hastily scrawled graffiti—which can be perfect for a modern t-shirt or sign design.

Chicano

Best Cursive Font for Tattoos

Chicano is a classic, handwriting-inspired font that makes any tattoo feel personalized. It's ideal for personalizing with names, like your child's name, or as a tribute to someone special.

The uppercase and lowercase letters connect seamlessly and are enhanced by accompanying swirls. Moreover, its long, twisted lines make it perfect for tattoos, tattoo-inspired t-shirt designs, signage, and logos.

Marney Holland

Best Script Font for Logo

The beauty and versatility of Marney Holland come from its two parts: an elegant serif and a signature script. This makes the font duo a great choice for fancy logos.

The serif typeface is ideal for anything that needs to be read from a distance, like a sign. And the script font adds visual texture, drawing the reader’s eye for a closer look. This makes it perfect for a subheading or any other text that engages the reader upon closer inspection.

Maddison

Best Cursive Font for Wedding Invitations

Maddison is perfect for wedding invitations because it’s just so cute! With swooping linked letters of varied weights and adorned with little hearts, Maddison is the perfect font for communicating the love between an engaged or newlywed couple.

Beyond wedding invitations, it’s perfect for birth announcements, baby showers, and anything else sweet and welcoming.

Sign Rathi

Best Cursive Font for Signature

Sign Rathi is a great choice for any design that needs to feature or look like a signature because this font mimics the freehand look of a signature.

Its capital letters are tall, while its lowercase letters have a varied weight reminiscent of actual handwriting. Choose Sign Rathi for personalized designs like email signatures, business cards, and letterhead.

Rustling Sound

Best Cursive Handwriting Font

Another font that mimics actual handwriting, Rustling Sound has a softer look than Sign Rathi. It’s a feminine and modern script with glyphs and swashes to customize your design further.

This makes it a great choice for quotes and any other design featuring lengthier sections of text because it’s more legible. Its dynamic letters are linked but evenly spaced, making it easy to read. Perfect for everything from apparel to logos and branding.

Breathine

Best Modern Script Font

Breathine is a modern script font that gives any design a sleek, contemporary look. Its letters are bold and beautifully linked, recreating the look of an inky fountain pen.

It’s a great choice for a professional signature or logo, particularly for a boutique, salon, or similar business. With its large, extended letters, it’s likely not great for longer pieces of text—but it can be a great contrast to them because it stands out.

Moraline

Best Bold Cursive Font

For big, bold designs that need to make an impact, go with Moraline. Moraline is a cursive font that’s perfect for headers, attention-grabbing flyers and signs, t-shirts, and anything else meant to be noticed.

Use it in social media and website designs to make sure your design gets noticed. Moraline can also be a great script for any design that has a retro or vintage feel, as it is reminiscent of old-fashioned signage.

Malira

Easiest to Read Cursive Font

Malira, a monoline cursive font, is a very easy font to read, which makes it perfect for greeting cards and other text-heavy designs.

Its lowercase letters are all the same size, widely spaced from each other, and all the same height. The loops in and between Malira’s letters feel gentle, like careful handwriting in a friendly letter.

Edwardian Script

Best Script Font in Microsoft Word

Among fonts in Microsoft Word, Edwardian Script is your go-to for anything that needs to look fancy.

Choose it for wedding invitations, dedications, memoriam posts, and anything that needs to feel classy. It’s also a great choice for a professional signature or a personalized design, as it looks like a handwritten signature.

Playlist

Best Script Font on Canva

Playlist is a fun, lighthearted brush font available on Canva that feels right at home in social media and web designs. Its letters are close together, but not so close that they’re difficult to read. It’s perfect for projects such as wedding invitations, greeting cards, and social media posts.

Dancing Script

Best Google Script Font

Dancing Script is a Google font that gives any design a delicate, visually intriguing look. Like many other cursive fonts, Dancing Script mimics actual handwriting.

However, it does not contain the imbalanced strokes or uneven letter placement that are often part of real handwriting. Sometimes you want these, but for designs where you don’t, like invitations and official documents, Dancing Script is the perfect choice.

Adobe Handwriting

Best Adobe Cursive Font

One of the most appealing parts of a cursive font is that it looks like actual handwriting. Out of all the fonts on this list, Adobe Handwriting is perhaps the one that looks the most like actual handwriting, hence its name.

This font has an imperfect look, with some letters attached and others detached. It’s another ideal choice for any design meant to mimic real handwriting, like a greeting card or book cover.

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