Handwriting fonts are hot. In our digital world of zeros and ones, on and off, black and white, handwriting fonts are a bit quirky. They evoke quickly written notes — but more deliberately than a scrawl. We sell a lot of handwriting fonts on Fonts.com and we are considering adding more to our offering.

Handwriting fonts are somewhat less sophisticated than formal scripts. They lack the refinement of most calligraphic designs. They differ from casual scripts in that their characters are not made from flowing brush strokes. They are rarely subtle, and sometimes are actually in-your-face. And, yet, they definitely have their own beauty as well as a "certain something." Used appropriately, they make their point with speed and style.

A handwriting font does not have a personality per se — the usage creates the personality. But a handwriting font does have a persona or attitude, affecting the content in a distinctive way. Handwriting scripts can be edgy, laid-back, playful, or ingenuous. You wouldn't want to set more than a couple of words in one of them. (If you did, the repeated idiosyncratic characters would call attention to themselves, making the copy look contrived.) They are, however, perfect designs for logotypes and wordmarks, posters and headlines. They are also ideal for successions of words not in big blocks of text. Such uses include invitations, menus, certificates and captions. These pieces, whether on a page, a sign, a banner or a screen, seem personal, like correspondence — perhaps because of the relatively quiet way in which they're read. So, even though part of your brain knows it's not processing a personal note, the piece "feels" a bit like one.

Please let us know if you are interested in seeing more of these kinds of fonts available from Fonts.com

Allan Haley is Director of Words & Letters at Monotype Imaging. Here he is responsible for strategic planning and creative implementation of just about everything related to typeface designs.