As you would expect from a handwritten font, they come in a multitude of styles, from casual and formal to mischievous and lavish, and they can be used on various design projects, including logo design, apparel design, personal branding, social media posts, and so much more.

When it comes to using a hand-drawn font, you should exercise a certain degree of caution. While often elegant, some hand-drawn fonts may not be suitable for specific projects as they can be difficult to read, making them a terrible choice for body text or when viewed on smaller screens.

Today, we have a collection of free hand-drawn fonts that are perfect for all designers of all skill levels and budgets that will allow you to add a personal feel to your next design project.

What is a Hand-Drawn Font?

A hand-drawn font is a type of font that looks like someone wrote it by hand instead of being made on a computer. It’s like the letters you see in a comic book or on a fun poster. Each letter looks a little different, just like when you write something out with your own hand.

Hand-drawn fonts are great for making things look friendly and personal. They can make a project feel more like it was created by a real person, not a machine. This is perfect for projects like invitations, casual posters, or even a t-shirt design.

These fonts come in all sorts of styles. Some might look like neat handwriting, while others might be more scribbly or artistic. They add a unique touch to your work, making your design stand out.

The post 20+ Best Free Hand-Drawn Fonts for Designers in 2024 appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

As it turns out, you can accomplish some pretty amazing things when combining code and hand-drawn elements. For instance, you might use SVG animation to make it appear that the element is being “drawn” in real-time. Or you can add a touch of sketch art to something more modern. The sky is the limit.

Today, we’ll show you some examples of how hand-drawn elements (authentic or simulated) can be enhanced through code. Enjoy!

Crowd Watching by Szenia Zadvornykh

Watching this animation is reminiscent of sitting on a bench in the middle of a crowded city. Various quirky characters walk about at a healthy pace. The use of JavaScript turns this collection of illustrations into a moving piece of art.

See the Pen Crowd Simulator by Szenia Zadvornykh

Outstanding Flow by Daniel

Flow fields are a type of generative, grid-based art that allows for some stunning creations. Highly-detailed works that look as though someone spent hours drawing each and every stroke by hand. This snippet features a control panel that enables you to tweak background color, speed, and more.

See the Pen Flow Field Drawing by Daniel

Not-so-Useless Sketches by Sarah Drasner

Here’s a fun animated drawing that uses everyday objects to spell out the word “Useless.” It’s a bit of a misnomer, as this snippet is a great example of how the GSAP library can be used to enhance artwork.

See the Pen A Tribute to the Useless Web by Sarah Drasner

Chalkboard Menu by Josetxu

If you have a favorite coffee shop or café, chances are you’ve witnessed the casual elegance of a chalkboard menu. Sometimes a bit messy, but always filled with good stuff. This snippet brings a similar charm to your screen, complete with hand-drawn fonts and funky borders.

See the Pen Cafe Menu Layout by Josetxu

Write Your Name in Style Craig Roblewsky

Handwritten text animations are among the more popular use cases for adding character to a design. This tool makes it even more fun by adding a hand icon (which can be turned off), along with a number of settings to tweak.

See the Pen Animated handwriting with DrawSVG (GSAP3) by Craig Roblewsky

A Moving Mural by ilithya

This virtual mural is like a Yellow Submarine cartoon for the modern age. With bright colors and gentle animations, it’s definitely an attention-getter. Even more impressive is that it’s built with pure CSS.

See the Pen Multi-Screen Mural for JSConf EU 2019 by ilithya

Hand-Drawn 404 by Sarah Frisk

As this snippet proves, there’s nothing wrong with having a little fun on your 404 page. A silly alien character is drawn with crayon-like strokes. From there, it features a choppy CSS animation that brings a bit of a homemade vibe.

See the Pen 404:Players Not Found by Sarah Frisk

Draw It Yourself by Gemma Stiles

Nothing says “hand-drawn” quite like the Etch a Sketch. Master the classic toy’s unorthodox knobs, and you can draw something incredible. Here, an online version works by using your keyboard’s arrow keys. Oh, and you’ll hit the “CLEAR” button instead of shaking to start over. Even if you’re not a great artist, you should be able to create some fun block lettering.

See the Pen Etch A Sketch 🖌 by Gemma Stiles

Two Diverse Artforms Coming Together

Whether you’re into drawing, coding, or both – you’re an artist. After all, each allows you to express your creativity in exciting ways.

And, even though these two artforms require vastly different skillsets, they go together quite well. The snippets above are proof that code can bring a new dimension to hand-drawn elements. Movement, interactivity, and other special effects work to enhance the experience.

The post 8 CSS & JavaScript Snippets for Creating Hand-Drawn Elements appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Words tell a website’s story. Typography, on the other hand, often reflects something about you or your brand. Your choice of typography can elicit a response, turn a user off, or have no noticeable effect. Think of typography as being the tone of voice of your website as you relate your message.

Times Roman, Arial, Calibri, etc., are attractive fonts when used in the right places. Yet, to add a little personality or pizzazz to your site, hand-written fonts are far more interesting. They can be used almost anywhere. And there is such a broad range of free handwritten fonts available that finding the right one is usually not that difficult.

It can be a time-consuming ordeal to find that “just right” hand-written font-style. Hence, we would like to offer some inspirational help – by showing you websites with some distinctive personalities. These are driven in large part by the style of the hand-written typography they use.

Serve Seattle

At first glance, this decorative text appears to be hand rendered. In truth, it is actually a decorative typeface the Serve Seattle site executes to near perfection.

Notice how it perfectly reinforces the site’s message, whereas a more common sans serif font would not be near as inviting.

Pauline Osmont

Pauline Osmont is an Art Director, Web Designer, and Illustrator in Lyon, France. her page showcases her creative projects using a beautiful hand-written typography positioned squarely on the hero image.

Tadah Foods

Multiple font sizes and font types can often conspire to convey a message perfectly. The inspiring hand-written font is the driver of Tadah Foods’s mission – promoting the sales of high-quality East Mediterranean cuisine to help fund non-profit organizations.

Sweet Magnolia Gelato

Sweet Magnolia Gelato Co. makes delicious gelatos, sorbets, and other treats in a variety of unique combinations. Their quirky website hints at the variety of offerings and the fact that this business features local and regional ingredients.

The hand-drawn typography and handcrafted design elements are a perfect fit for this company’s brand.

We Are Island

The streamlined minimalist design of the We Are Island website is not only engaging, but provides the perfect backdrop for the use of a calligraphic-style of font.

A particular synergy exists between the image and the typography; a synergy that the guys at Island understand quite well.

Skylark Learning

Husband and wife team Alexey and Svetlana founded Skylark Learning with the aim of creating products that offer better opportunities to young children through early, fun-based learning. The website typography has the right audience in mind.

Austin Eastciders

Authenticity and commitment to quality is evident in the Austin Eastciders website, which reflects their service to both their employees and their community. These ideals set the stage for enjoying a tasty beverage in the company of good people.

This culture is also reflected in the site’s carefully chosen, beautifully hand-written typography.

Creatures and Features

They have neither experience, nor prior knowledge. All they have is an insane amount of passion, a case of crazies, a love for the arts, and the desire to create a life we love, doing what we love to do.

It’s little wonder Creatures and Features has such a whimsical artistic look, sprinkled thorough with beautiful handwritten typography that totally matches the mood.

Mahedine Yahia

The creative portfolio of Mahedine Yahia doesn’t quite fit normal design expectations. Yet, it stands out, with its interactive effects and eye-catching hand-crafted text.

WinShapeCamps

Interaction and a large video are the key highlight of the WinShape Camps website. Compared to other sites in its niche, its design is stellar, and its typography is strongly suggestive of fun and excitement.

Petit Mariage entre Amis

Any wedding-themed brochure, invitation, or website would be lacking something without a pastel or watercolor palette and a handcrafted font. Petit Mariage entre Amis beautifully showcases both.

Sarah Ray

Most designers will tell you that text and typography not only be beautiful, but can often be the most critical element in a design. Since text is necessary, it is fortunate when it is also a thing of beauty.

Sarah Ray demonstrates this on her site with beautiful typography complementing her illustrations.

Pilar de la Banda

Pilar de la Banda specializes in building brand experiences. On her site, she combines technology and design with passion to create innovative solutions to brand communication problems and needs.

Vintage Hope

Hand-written typography is combined with useful information to give the Vintage Hope site a retro appearance. Although hand-drawn elements are only used for section headers, they still contribute to the authentic style that typifies this website.

The Production Kitchen

Examples of heavy hand-writing and hand-drawn elements is not widespread, and may or may not represent a trend. Overcrowded and “too artistic” designs such as The Production Kitchen website nevertheless appeal to an audience, although it may be a limited one.

The Ordinary

Designers try to achieve a distinctive design without compromising on its user-friendliness. It’s actually not all that hard to do, as the web design of The Ordinary suggests.

Space Needle

Visiting the actual Space Needle is a great experience. Visiting its single page website is as well, with its beautiful loading screen and amazing scroll effect.

The power of gamification is put to good use here to achieve the right user experience. This site is fantastic inspiration for any project requiring a dose of typographical creativity.

Finished

Typography has its own personality. And it can transfer that character to the entire website just as imagery can. Your choice of typography has the power to turn a not-out-of-the-ordinary website into a compelling, a relaxing, or suspenseful one.

The post The Rise of the Hand-Written Typography Trend in Web Design appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

In an effort to stand apart from the pedestrian usage of standard typefaces, many companies have begun to incorporate a completely new and unique font into their brand. Like the fancy calligraphy addressing a wedding invitation, the hand-drawn type is now a luxury item, much like typed print used to be not so long ago.

The usage of hand-drawn typography communicates definitive personalities with distinct references to the past. This “old-fashioned” feel can bring up sentimental emotions of long-lost love notes or the revolutionary feel of the Beetles’ iconic psychedelic album typography.

More often, hand-drawn typography is used to evoke the feelings of:

• raw, organic, earthy;
• a retro, pre-computer age;
• juvenile and teenage years;
• comics, zines;
• handmade, homegrown;
• indie and revolutionary (think protest signs, album covers of the 60’s and 70’s);

Here is a selection of some of the best utilized hand-drawn typography found in print and digital media:

Logos, Branding, and Packaging

In many cases, designers use images in branding to give the person, company, product, etc. a recognizable “face” to attract a specific target group. In the case of the images below, what better way to breathe life into a brand than to create a hand-written signature for it?

Corporate ID

Hollandaise

Spindle Magazine

Healthy Hounds

Laura Berglund Products

Chipotle Brand

Print: Ad Layout and Posters

Here, these two posters illustrate the earthier qualities of hand-lettered typography. The artist, Tad Carpenter, beautifully integrates type with his illustrations.

Tad Carpenter

Websites

Using hand-lettering on the web means images, images, images. This can be a risky business as images risk alienating foreign language speakers, internet users with slow internet connections, or those using adaptive equipment. However, the use of alt_text and HTML5 may completely solve these issues.

Below are some of these best designed, hand-drawn type websites around. Their beautiful integration of text, text in images, and illustration make them wonderful works of art. The irony of hand-drawn type used in an electronic format continues to amuse and redefine the age of digital design.

Project 365

Frank PR

Artists/ Design Groups

These masters of typography specialize in creating digital and print magic with their unique typefaces. Be sure to spend time drooling over their galleries and blogs.

Alison Carmichael

Eduardo Recife

Hi My Name is Fiodor

Adam Amaral

Sonmi

Linzie Hunter

Fuzzco

Buckingham Studio

Shadowplay Studios Films

Shadowplay Studios deserves their own category for their hand-drawn animation, illustration, and typography. Most notably, their work for the opening credits of Juno is simply amazing.

Juno Film

Chase Film

Interested in More? Here are some great Resources:

• 50 Creative Examples of Illustrations in Web Design.
• 20 Beautiful and Free Hand-Drawn Fonts.
• 30 Beautiful Sketch and Hand-Drawn Style Websites for Inspiration.

The post The Beauty of the Hand-Drawn Typography Trend in Design appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.