TypeTalk: Give These Fonts a Hand
Q. Which is better for an informal look: a handwriting font or real handwriting?
A. Handwriting, whether it’s a font that looks like handwriting or custom lettering produced for your project, can be a warm, personal treatment for ads, book jackets, packaging, invitations, logos, signage, film titles, and other designs. There are pros and cons to consider when deciding whether to use a font or real handwriting.
Handwriting Fonts
- Fast and easy
- Consistent
- Easily scalable and editable
- A fixed cost, just the price of the font(s)
- You know exactly what you’re getting beforehand
Note that fonts often contain only one design per character. Therefore, repeated glyphs might all be the same letterform, a repetition that can spoil the individuality you’re aiming for. Look for an OpenType font with alternates to avoid this problem.
Real Handwriting (Or Hand Lettering)
- Unique
- The person doing the lettering can infinitely customize each letter and/or the overall look, feel, and fit
- Not easily editable
- Could be relatively expensive if you’re using a lettering artist, especially for a lot of text
- Could be free if using your own handwriting or that of someone you know
If you want to use hand lettering, don’t be afraid to try your own “hand” at it, so to speak, or ask other people you know for samples of their handwriting.
Jill Bell creates some of the best handwriting and hand lettering around. All of the following examples are her work.
Some other excellent lettering artists to check out:
Georgia Deaver
http://www.georgiadeaver.com
John Stevens
http://www.johnstevensdesign.com
Julian Waters
https://waterslettering.com/
Feel free to add to this list!
Ilene
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T H E T Y P E S T U D I O
Westport, CT
203.227.5929
http://www.thetypestudio.com/
Jessica Hische is my favorite letterer:
https://jessicahische.is/awesome/
Terri Stone
Editor in Chief, CreativePro.com
Since cursive writing is becoming a lost ‘art’, maybe we need the fonts more than ever.