10 Beautiful Free Hand-Sketched Fonts
Brilliant Design: Provide An Amazing Experience
As you’ve probably already noticed, I’m a huge fan of site designs that look like they were sketched at the hand of an artist with a pencil or paintbrush.
Just take a moment to look around at the layout of Site Sketch 101 and you will see what I’m talking about. I love using rich textures and colors with hand-drawn fonts.
If you are interested in going down the textured, hand-drawn look then these are the perfect fonts to get you started. They are free and ready for you to download.
Just click on whichever font you like to be taken to a page where you can download and install it to your computer. Once installed, you will be able to use it in Photoshop, Microsoft Word or any other program installed on your computer.
Nicholas Cardot
Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping bloggers and webmasters connect with real people through brilliant designs, unique content, and genuine creativity. Nicholas Cardot has 200 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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sadhu said:
thanks for sharing, perhaps i coudlt do sketch theme for my new poftfolio site..
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
sadhu » If you do that, be sure to stop back by here and tell us how it comes out. I’d love to see it!
iZabotin said:
Cool! But I think a better way is use handmade font by yourself.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
iZabotin » I agree. That would be pretty awesome!
Arisu said:
Awesome fonts!! :3 Now, the problem is, wich one to choose? I guess I´ll have to experiment with all of them XD
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Arisu » I know exactly what you mean! I’m glad that you like them!
Arisu said:
Rating:
No.1!! Pointy
No.2!! Mia´s Scribblings
No.3!! Jamaistevie
No.4!! Tire Shop
Raiting is based in usability, unfortunately in some lovely fonts the autor forgot to make the numbers and punctuation marks… and those are important!
Also, in case one font creator reads this: internet is full of people who´s native language ain´t English… we would love to see accents and “eñes” in your fonts ^^
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Arisu » Since my language is English, I haven’t even thought about that. Is it safe to assume that your native language is Spanish? Also, great points about some fonts not having the punctuation and special characters.
George Serradinho » I never use fonts like this for anything except web design work. I never use them in MS Word of anything like that.
George Serradinho said:
There are just so many fonts that a person could use.
I seem to like Grutch Shaded font, seems nice. Still wondering if I would actually use it on my PC or not.
Arisu said:
Nicholas >>
Yep, my native language is Spanish ^^
But I´m also talking for french and german people and all those who need to use special characters thingies.
I mean, I don´t think anyone would be using skechet fonts for a book, but making the punctuation marks yourself just for the title or a whole poster ain´t funny at all
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Arisu » I agree with you. Before you brought it up, I’d never even thought about it. I used a font for one project where the font creator didn’t create any capital letters. Everything was lower case. The font was awesome, but it was all lower case. If I ever try to design a font I’ll certainly keep that in mind!
Arisu said:
Nicholas >>
Yep, been there myself. Sometimes you can get it done just by making lower case letters bigger or even bold or changing the color. But when you can´t it´s quite frustrating …
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Arisu » Yes it is. I think I ended up just leaving everything in the lower case on that project but it would have been nice to have other options available.
unsmart3d said:
These fonts will always be perfect for the different flyers I’m always making. Excellent selection!
Best of all… they’re free!
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
unsmart3d » As I always say, “If it’s free, it’s me…if it’s pay, no way!
FLiTz said:
nice list. thanks for sharing..
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
FLiTz » You’re welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed these!
Ruchi said:
I loved the Mia’s Scribblings best ,thanks for sharing.
Satkrit said:
I like the Sketch Block. Should come in handy
tryfatur said:
tanks for sharing, i like the fail one
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
tryfatur » Great. I’m glad that you enjoyed them.
bangchoy said:
Great Nicho,..
i think your unique font, can make us more creative when make some design from photo shop..
Sara said:
These are great!
Also, I wanted to Digg this post, but I got an error page instead! Don’t know if this is your end, my end, or their end, but I thought I’d pass along the information!
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Sara » Thanks. I’m going to look into that right now. I appreciate the love and I certainly want to get that working as soon as possible.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Sara » Thanks again. I got it working now. It was definitely at my end. If you do digg it I’ll look you up and add you as a friend on there! Thanks.
Sara said:
Thanks for fixing it! I dugg indeed, and look forward to more great posts to digg!
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Sara » Thanks for digging it and thanks for contacting me and letting me know that that button was broke. I’m glad that we were able to get that fixed!
Kaplang said:
thanks for sharing these, they are really cool
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Kaplang » You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed them.
Extreme John said:
I never really noticed much of the Sketch font’s and designs in my daily surfing until I found your site. Thanks to Karen at Blazing Minds.
I can’t tell you how much I really like the design of this site and the fonts you posted are killer, makes me want to redo some of my blog with the sketch look.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Extreme John » I think that the Web 2.0 glossy look became so popular so fast that it’s now boring to me. I want variety. I want fresh, unique designs. The hand-sketched look is another way to go against the norm and create a unique layout for a site.
Fran Civile said:
Thank you for presenting those distinctive fonts… I don’t know when or where I could use them but it’s worth
dreaming up something!
I wish you would tell me what font you are using for your posts and comments -
I’m not satisfied with the font in my posts and this is the first time I’ve seen the look I would really like.
Thank you Nicholas,
Fran
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Fran Civile » I have the following font family being referenced by the style sheet for this website: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; Also note that to really set it off I increased the font size quite a bit and chose a color that isn’t straight black. It’s kind of a gray. It takes all three features to make it look really nice: font family, size, and color. I hope this helps!
lindsay said:
my fav is SKETCH BLOCK as i can kinda see yours is as well.. I am designing my portfolio in a sketch book style.. and i this is cool.. I have already settled on my font for my site, but having a few extra to play with for other projects never hurts.
The great thing about sketchy/doodle style sites is that the sky is the limit. You can use as MANY fonts as you want, because when you are doodling, you end up mushing a million styles into one anyway.. so long as it is done PROPERLY and doesnt look overwhelming
I will post the site as soon as I finish it.. I also plan on doing my blog to match my portfolio.. so the icons in the other post will be great
oh.. this is the one i am using in my site. a basic free font, but the great thing about sketchy fonts is they dont HAVE to be perfect
http://www.dafont.com/intimacy.font
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
lindsay –> Thanks! I really like that one that you linked here. That’s a good font. I love the unique, limitless possibilities that are available through sketching.
Arisu said:
Lindsay>> That is a very complete font -special characters and all- thanks, it may come handy for some projects.
akira07 said:
Hmm i think intimacy font is not too far different with sketch-block and sketch-rockwell font. But thanks for sharing
lindsay said:
huh???
Arisu said:
Akira>>
Not at all! Even if having the same uhm, pattern? The form of the characters and the feeling they give it´s very different.
But I guess only font freaks like us get that -_-U
akira07 said:
Haha i’m not font freak so i’m sorry if i can’t get that
.
I think what makes it different is just a line pattern inside the alphabet.
If sketch rockwell and sketch block using diagonal pattern, intimidacy font have horizontal pattern. Do you understand what i said, i fear my english is hard to understand
lindsay said:
Look at the shapes of the lettering. In the SKETCH BLOCK the letters look like BLOCK letters called Slab Serifs. They have big thick vertical lines and big thick Serifs. A serif font is a font that has the little “tabs” that come off of the letters. For instance, this font here is a serif:
OLD STYLE FONT – serif font
If you look at the letter L you will see two tabs that come off of the bottom, they kind of look like a stand.
A sans serift (meaning without serif) is like this font:
Sans Serif example
You can see that there are no tabs coming off of the font.
Now, a slab serif is just a serif with big, thick lines. The font i posted is VERY different from the SKETCH BLOCK font in that the shapes of the lettering offer a much more “refined” feeling with their thinner serifs and vertical lines.
Arisu said:
As I said, people that ain´t into typography won´t get it. But my English is not good enough to explain fonts in proper but simple terms.
Ron Boracay said:
I think I can start my self made handsketched fonts. I do have many things or idea in mind. Hmmm. This gives me an awesome idea .
akira07 said:
This blog is using sketch block, right? And i think its the best choice, i love it to better than other hand-sketched fonts.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
akira07 –> This site is actually using Sketch Rockwell.
Lauren said:
Nice sketchy fonts. Lindsay is right, free fonts can be very useful in serious web designs and this is particularly true regarding those of the hand-drawn variety.
I make fonts so I know that it is true. Making quality traditional serif or sans serif fonts requires attention to EVERY detail and aspect of each character, while making a good hand-drawn font does (or should) require attention to detail, much of what needs to be considered when makign tradiotnal fonts does not apply.
BTW ::aghem:: I know of another amazing sketchy font not on this list. Just so happens to be my LT Chickenhawk font. You can find it on my blog or dafont http://www.dafont.com/lauren-thompson.d1997
Love fonts, really nice of you to share them with your readers.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Lauren –> Thanks for letting us know about your fonts. I checked them out last night and they actually are very cool. And even though you think that your newest one is cutesy, as you said, I think that it looks very professional and I plan on using it for some graphics probably around Valentines day. I think it looks great.
Gonzo the Great said:
Hi Nick,
great selection of free hand-sketched fonts. As always with free fonts it’s always missing some character, style or symbol and some have really issues problems like the kerning. Therefore not always of good use in your graphic design work!
I love the Sketch-book type and if you’re willing to use this font on a ‘commercial basis’, best buy this: http://tinyurl.com/cluugh (light and bold version)
And yes, check out the charactermap, almost all are there: http://tinyurl.com/ydaqv5g
And best part of it all: Both fonts cost you just $30! And no, I’m not working at this particular foundry/fontshop, hihi!
Thanks again for the post, Cheers & Ciao …
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Gonzo the Great » Thanks for those recommendations. I’m in no need of a commercial font right now as I personally do very little graphic development myself but I’ll keep them in mind if I do need something like that.
Kok Siong Chen said:
Among the fonts you recommended above, i like the Sketch Block the most. It is more nature to look at. Thanks for sharing!
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