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Overcoming Your UNNATURAL FEAR of Cursive Fonts

The unspoken fear all web designers dread - you've been asked to use cursive fonts! There is no escape... yes, it has happened to me, Bob Atchison, many times and I have the battle scars to prove it. Here are some cursive fonts I actually like.

Unnatural Fear of Cursive Fonts

Where did they go? Oh, those dear cursive fonts... they've vanished from the web like embarrassing relatives with bad taste and old-fashioned ideas you were happy to see leave.  Do cursive fonts deserve they're bad reputation?  Too ornate and frilly - or even down right silly? Are they bad design decisions in this era where ultra-modernity and sleekness rule?

Web designers - like me - ask ourselves those questions when we get asked to insert them in websites.  Sometimes it's a no-brainer to use them because it's a French bistro or a luxury health spa you're working for. Perhaps we have been wrong and need to be more open-minded.  Brothers and sisters, I say the time has come to be brave and give cursive fonts another chance.  Here's a few I like for different reasons - I'll talk about each one of them as I list them.

the cursive font Good Vibes

Ah Good Vibes, one of our clients asked me to use this font in their website - they are in the design business. My first reaction was it was going to ruin my clean, fresh and contemporary sans-serifed design.  I was wrong, totally wrong, this font is bold and clean.  It added freshness to the website which was too austere and brittle. Try it sometime.

the cursive font Qwigley

You can't possibly want me to use the wild font! QWIGLEY - I had never heard of it until one of my favorite customers picked it during our font search in Google fonts.  It just bursts with energy and optimism - don't you agree? You have to put some space between the lines.  Wow, what a Q and what a G!  It makes me want to start dancing.

The cursive font Grimshaw Hand

Jonathon Livingston Seagull and Khalil Gibran - oh wow, it's 1970 again.  I remember practicing this font with an ink pen in high school.  Can I still do?  I'm not sure.  When was the last time you used a calligraphy pen - or even a paint brush?  Ink and mess everywhere - 10 tries to get it right, now in Photoshop it only takes a few minutes to create what used to take hours.  Do you miss the human imperfections of 'real' calligraphy.  I say that people expect perfection 100% of the time.  It used to be that variations in hand-written text was something we looked for in long gone, olden times.  Anyway I like Grimshaw Hand.  It's one of my recommendations.

The font Cedarville Cursive

Would look good on a menu, right?  Here's a good, genuine hand-written font.  It looks like somebody actually scribbled this down. It's a good choice for 'personal notes' and 'hand-written' reviews.

the cursive font Monika

Monika tilts strongly to the right - like I said in the example it's strong and bold font. You can use it when you want to grab attention in a product description.  This font makes a great signature, don't you think?

the cursive font Meddon

In contrast here is an antique style cursive font that looks like something written by Benjamin Franklin in  the 18th century. Use when you need something dramatic - even creepy.  I mentioned Penny Dreadful because saw an episode last night and Meddon looks like a font they would have used in one of those old mysterious books of spells that keep popping up. This font gets your attention.  Look at those capital Ds and Gs.

Bob Atchison

 

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