Handwriting Fonts for Teachers and Kids

Fonts that help educators use to teach print handwriting to small children are helpful aids in the classroom, especially the trace and ruled fonts for the youngest writers. Common Core Standards do not require teachers to teach cursive writing anymore, but they are allowed to, and many do. When children start doing homework in cursive, they go to their parents and teachers regularly asking how to write various letters. Even if a teacher has classroom displays that illustrate the characters, it is helpful to prepare handouts and homework that include handwriting information and lettering. Depending on their age, most students can benefit from having a teacher who uses a print, trace, ruled, or cursive handwriting font at those times.

Several companies and websites offer fonts designed specifically to assist teachers and their students while they are learning to write. Some of the sites also include practice worksheets, tips, and instructional material. As you look for fonts be aware that some cursive fonts "hook up" and some are freestanding characters. Also, some of the ruled fonts print with the lines showing. Most ruled fonts have a shortcut to prevent the rules from printing. Check the information with each font for details.​​​​​

Educational Fontware

There are several styles of cursive writing, and your school may have a preference. Those styles include:

• D'Nealian
• Zaner-Bloser
• Harcourt Brace
• Peterson Directed Handwriting
• McDougal, Littell
• Palmer

The Educational Fontware website offers fonts in these and other formats. All fonts are illustrated with complete character sets, so you can judge which ones might be best for you in your classroom. Note that the cursive alphabet letters are not connected. Although businesses can purchase a single font for use, a Teacher Pack License includes all the educational fonts the company offers. The website's fonts are not downloadable. They ship on a CD, so your computer must have a CD drive to access them. A downloadable sample PDF sheet that shows all the fonts that are available.

Fonts4Teachers

The Fonts4Teachers website offers several bundles of fonts for educational purposes. The site's fonts are bundled for primary school and high school students. Fonts4Teachers Deluxe package includes 57 fonts and three additional programs. The fonts include Print Writing, D'Nealian-style, Box Writing, Cursive Writing, Phonics, and Sign Language. The programs are 2D Pop-Up Alphabet, 3D Alphabet, and Decorative Alphabet. The package is downloadable.

The Peterson Method Font Family

The Peterson Method Font Family website displays the fonts it sells to teach the Peterson Method of print and cursive handwriting along with age guidance. The font package provides for correlating handwriting lessons across the curriculum. The fonts are Vertical Print, Slant Print, and two versions of cursive. All the fonts are available in several styles to better individualize instruction.

Schoolhouse Fonts

The Schoolhouse Fonts website has redesigned its educational handwriting fonts to support the methods that are most popular in U.S. schools: Zaner-Bloser and D'Nealian. The website offers a handwriting font of the day for free download. In addition to fonts, the site includes instructional information. Fonts are downloadable or you can request to have them shipped to you on a CD.

FontSpace

Although not all the fonts are instructional at FontSpace, the site offers several trace fonts and penmanship fonts that illustrate letter forms with rules. These fonts are free. Several of the fonts, such as KG Primary Dots, Trace, and Trace Font for Kids consists of dotted letter forms that are designed to be traced by young children as they practice their letters. Others, like VA El 2 and VA Pe 2 provide cursive shapes for practice purposes for older children. Some, such as Rainbow Colors, are decorative fonts useful for classroom posters and handouts.

Other Uses for Handwriting Fonts

It's not just teachers who use cursive and handwriting fonts. They make a nice addition to a school newsletter, a school website, and any publication or website dealing with education.