What Are The Different Styles of Script Fonts
Script fonts have always been an integral part of a designer’s toolkit. A script font is basically a style of typography that resembles cursive or connected writing. The kind of writing that can be categorized as calligraphy or simply handwritten cursive.
All types of script typography are widely used for a variety of projects. They can be used in formal and elegant branding schemes, signature logos, wedding invitations, social media graphics, and anything that requires a little bit of elegance and originality.
As a designer, it’s good to know what the different styles of script fonts are. It’s also good practice to know the names of the most common ones and recognize them on the spot. That way you will know which style fits which project better and when to use it.
The script fonts you might already know and recognize
Script fonts like Brusher, Alex Brush. and Playlist Script is the most common cursive fonts used on the online graphics editor, Canva. These three fonts are literally everywhere. They are used by bloggers and online entrepreneurs throughout the world for their graphics and promotions.
More classic script fonts like Allura, Zapfino, Great Vibes, Lobster, Euphoria Script are also used quite often in all sorts of designs for web and print. When you are considering a script font for a new project, consider using one that isn’t already over-used like the ones mentioned above. There are plenty of new and unique options on sites like Creative Market and Fontbundles. Freepik even has some novelty script sets ready for your creative designs. If you are working on a project with a good budget, you can consider buying a script font specifically for that client.
Below are the main types of script fonts in which they can all be categorized and organized.
Calligraphy
Calligraphic style fonts are the most elegant of all the script or cursive fonts. They are generally used for wedding invitations and formal designs that can use a little extra visual impact. Elegant calligraphy is also used for decorative purposes like posters with quotes or famous sayings. An important aspect of this style of typography is the swashes and swirls that grace the ligatures between letters and the endings of sentences. Calligraphy fonts can be sleek and defined or extremely decorated with variations in loops and brush strokes.
Calligraphy fonts can resemble old style brush letterings like the Chopin Script and Candlescript, or a more modern marker style writing like The Blacklist and Quincho Script.
Handwritten or Modern
Handwritten script is a style of typography which is basically a cursive handwriting turned into a digital font. This type of font differs from calligraphy in the sense that it’s not necessarily formal or elegant. The brushstrokes are sometimes uneven and not in a standard calligraphic brush style of thick ascenders and thin curves.
There are a couple different styles of handwritten script fonts; general cursive, and modern hand-lettering. Some designers consider the modern hand-lettered fonts as a modern style of calligraphy, but every font is debatable due to their uniqueness.
In the past few years, we have seen a large influx of modern hand-lettering fonts all over the web and printed merchandising. As designers, we know the number of font bundles available online, full of new and unique script fonts. Every blog about design has published their own collection of “best free script fonts,” and I’m sure you have your own favourites too.
Novelty or Unique
A novelty font is one that has such a unique design that it doesn’t really fit into any other category, but it sure might resemble one. For example, the Coca-Cola font is a novelty handwritten font.
Graffiti style fonts are also considered novelty script fonts because they are so special and different. They don’t always connect and follow no particular pattern, each style depends on the artist that created it. Some graffiti script fonts resemble spray paint and others look like fat marker. Not all graffiti fonts are script fonts though.
Another style of script font that fits into the novelty category is the brush script font. This one is almost like a mix between calligraphy and handwriting with an Asian flair. They resemble Asian glyphs but in western letters. There are lots of types of brush fonts, from thick to thin styles. The more modern style of brush fonts don’t resemble Asian writing at all but have their own unique style.
Novelty script fonts are not always available as a working font in .otf format. They are mostly in vector format to use as if they were images and are therefore infinitely customizable. Freepik has lots of novelty script collections which can be used to design intricate compositions.
