ManyTools › My Handwriting › Font Maker
Handwriting Font Maker
Make your own font from your handwriting. Print one sheet, write the letters, photograph it, and download a font you can type with in Word.
🔒 Free, no sign-up. Your photo and your font never leave your device.
-
Print the sheet and write your letters
One page of boxes, one character in each. Print it at 100% and use a dark pen.
-
Upload a photo of the filled-in sheet
Photograph the whole sheet in even light, with all four black corner squares in the frame. A phone photo taken slightly at an angle is fine.
-
Name your font and download it
The name is what you will pick in the font list once the font is installed.
Type in the box to try your font before you download it.
Want a whole handwritten page instead? Type your text and get it written out in your handwriting on ruled paper, as a PDF — with small natural variations a font can't give.
Open My HandwritingHow to make a font from your own handwriting
A font is a file that holds the shape of every letter. To make one from your handwriting, the tool needs to see each letter you write and know which letter it is. The printed sheet does both jobs: you write one character in each labelled box, and the position of the box says which character it holds. That is why there is no sign-up, no handwriting recognition and nothing to correct afterwards.
- Print the sheet on A4 or Letter paper at 100% size. “Fit to page” shrinks the boxes and can make the photo harder to read.
- Write one character in each box with a dark pen, resting on the solid line the way you would on ruled paper. Write at your normal size and slant.
- Photograph the whole sheet flat on a table, in even light, with the four black corner squares inside the frame. The page is straightened automatically.
- Upload the photo. Your letters appear in a grid within a few seconds, so you can see that each one was read.
- Name the font, try it, and download it. You get a small .ttf file.
The whole thing takes about fifteen minutes, most of it writing.
How to install your font
| Where | What to do |
|---|---|
| Windows | Double-click the .ttf file and press Install, or right-click it and choose Install. Restart Word if it was open. |
| Mac | Double-click the .ttf file and press Install in the Font Book window that opens. |
| Word, PowerPoint, Excel | After installing, pick the font by the name you gave it in the font list. |
| Canva and other online editors | These use fonts you upload to them, not the ones on your computer. Upload the .ttf file there, if your plan allows custom fonts. |
| Google Docs | Google Docs cannot use fonts installed on your computer. Write in Word, or use My Handwriting to make the page here and download it as a PDF. |
| Phones and tablets | Most phones cannot install a font for every app. Some apps, such as note-taking and design apps, let you import a .ttf file inside the app. |
What is in the font
Every character on the sheet that you filled in:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 . , ' " ? ! : ; - ( ) / & @ + = #
Curly quotes and long dashes, which Word swaps in as you type, are drawn with your own straight quote and hyphen, and the three-dot ellipsis is three of your full stops. A box you leave empty is simply left out, and anything typed with that character falls back to another font.
The font does not hold accented letters or other scripts, and it holds one shape for each character.
Tips for a font that looks like your writing
- Use the pen you normally write with, as long as it is dark. A fine ballpoint gives a thin font; a gel pen or felt tip gives a bolder one.
- Keep your letters a consistent size. The font is scaled from the height of your small letters such as a, e, o and x.
- Let tails hang below the line on g, j, p, q and y, as they do when you write normally. The tool keeps them below the line in the font.
- Don't trace or draw the letters slowly. Letters written at your usual speed look more like your handwriting than careful ones.
- Avoid shadows. A shadow across part of the sheet is the most common reason a letter is missed. Daylight near a window works well.
- If a letter comes out wrong, write it again in its box on a fresh print, or correct it neatly, and upload a new photo. The new photo replaces the old one.
Font or handwritten page: which do you need?
A font is the right choice when you want to type in your handwriting in other programs: a letter in Word, labels, a slide, a card design.
A font repeats the same shape every time a letter appears, so a long passage typed with it can look too regular to pass for writing. If what you want is a page that looks written by hand, the My Handwriting page does that better: it places each letter with small changes in position, tilt and ink, can switch between several versions of the same letter, and prints on ruled or notebook paper. It uses the same sheet, so the photo you upload here works there too.
Questions
Is the handwriting font maker really free?
Yes. There is no charge, no account, no limit on the number of characters and no watermark in the font.
Is my handwriting uploaded to a server?
No. The photo is read, the letters are traced and the font file is built inside your browser, on your own device. Neither the photo nor the font is sent anywhere. Your letters are kept in this browser so they are still here next time, and “Remove my handwriting from this device” deletes them.
Can I make a font from a photo of any handwritten page?
No, it has to be the printed sheet. The boxes are what tell the tool which letter is which, so it works without handwriting recognition and makes no mistakes about which character it is looking at.
What kind of font file do I get?
A TrueType font, a .ttf file. It installs on Windows and macOS and works in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Photoshop and other programs that use the fonts installed on the computer.
Will joined-up (cursive) handwriting connect in the font?
No. Each letter is captured on its own, so the font types separate letters. Joined-up writing still makes a usable font, but the letters will sit next to each other without the joining strokes meeting.
Can I scan the sheet instead of photographing it?
Yes. Save the scan as a JPG or PNG image and upload that. A scan is usually sharper and more evenly lit than a photo.
Can I make more than one font?
Yes. Give each one a different name before downloading. If you install a font with a name that is already installed, the computer will ask whether to replace the old one.
Who owns the font?
You do. It is made from your own handwriting, on your own device, and no rights in it are claimed. You can use it for personal or commercial work. Please make fonts only from your own handwriting, or with the writer's permission.
More tools: My Handwriting · Certificate Maker · PDF Tools · All ManyHand tools