My mother is a professional calligrapher, so you can imagine how particular I am about handwriting. No font, in my humble opinion, can ever be as beautiful as hand-written letters.

That said, I do use handwriting-themed fonts in my projects quite often- and am absolutely delighted anytime I find a good, free one. Here are my top five choices:

JohnLennon

Yes, I’m a fan- and I’ll admit to writing out the lyrics to Imagine using this font when I first got it. Still, there’s no denying this is a great handwriting font- not only are the letterforms well thought-out, it also features a few John Lennon-inspired dingbats, including a facsimile of his signature. Download JohnLennon »

Amandine

It isn’t easy finding handwriting fonts that look both like real handwriting and like art. Amandine, a French-inspired font that makes me think of warm croissants, the Eiffel Tower, and cobblestoned streets, is simply beautiful. Download Amandine »

Daniel

An excellent font that comes in three varieties: Daniel, Daniel Black, and Daniel Bold. Doesn’t sound too exciting, but if you take a look at the full character maps of these variants, you’ll see what makes them special: each one has a distinct look to it, with Daniel being clean and plain, with different pen styles for Black and Bold. Download Daniel »

Luna

I can’t exactly put my finger on what I love about Luna, which is clean and nicely rendered and just a little bit quirky- but I find myself using this one a lot. It looks like handwriting, and yet it so clearly is not. Download Luna »

Santos Dumont

From font genius Billy Argel comes this absolutely lovely handwriting font, perhaps my favorite of the bunch. Great for everything from vintage illustrations to logos to letterheads to scrapbooking. Download Santos Dumont »

Do you use handwriting fonts?