Free Cursive Handwriting Font

All the Getty-Dubay® Fonts accommodate English and many Latin-based languages, including languages in these countries

To use the font on your laptop or desktop computer, you download the font files from our online store and install them.

First, click on"buy" to add a license to your cart, then checkout via the normal process for a web purchase. You are welcome to combine physical products with the fonts in your cart.

Save your receipt — it is proof of your right to use the fonts under the EULA. When you complete the payment process, a download link will be part of your order summary, and you will receive an e-mail with the link as well. Save this e-mail, as this link will allow you to download the font files up to five (5) times, in case you have installation issues. The file will be a compressed package that includes your copy of the EULA, the Font Guide PDF and the font files. Decompress ("unzip") the package, locate the .otf files, and install them according to your operating system requirements.

In the event we update any of the font files, you will be notified and have the opportunity to download the updated version(s).

We provide you with two ways to download your font files. One way is via the link in your order receipt, and looks like image A below. The other way is with the link we send you in our follow-up e-mail entitled "Your downloads are ready" (check your spam filter for this, if you don't see it). That portal will look like image B below. If you get an error message or have trouble downloading with the first portal (A), the second portal (B) should work.

If the above does not work for you, there are third-party software solutions for Windows and Apple computers available for "unzipping" the downloaded file. After taking these steps, please let us know if you have continued download issues.

The Getty-Dubay® Joined Italic join-as-you-type font families utilize Contextual Alternates available in the OpenType Font format. This allows word processors and other graphics applications to create ligatures based on surrounding letters.

Once these OpenType fonts are installed on your computer or tablet, you can use Microsoft Word, Pages, or most any other word processor app to type in cursive italic without the need for external software or websites. And you can cut and paste text as you normally would, because the joined letters are recognized as ordinary letters.

By downloading the free SAMPLE font in the same way that you would download a purchased font, it allows us to contact you in the event of font updates. It also gives you the choice of joining our mailing list — but you don't have to. All information you enter is subject to our Privacy Policy.

Getty-Dubay® Joined Italic font families are compatible with the Getty-Dubay® Italic Handwriting Series. Italic handwriting provides many join options. The most common join options are presented in the four varieties of this font:

Standard represents the customary cursive italic Joins 1-8. 

Pointed is a common option of using Join 2 (rather than the more rounded Join 1) into letters m, n, and r. 

Beginning contains only Joins 1-5 as presented in Getty-Dubay® Italic Handwriting Series Book C. 

e and k Options replaces the one-stroke e and two-stroke k in the Standard font with a two-stroke e and one-stroke k. The joins into and out of e change accordingly.

To make the dashed fonts available on a Windows computer, select the text you want to change and choose the "italic" style from the font menu. This method minimizes the number of font files in the font list. Apple computers use a more condensed system for categorizing fonts, so in this case one chooses the dashed font from the font family list.

Many applications offer a “smallcaps” setting, but they simply shrink the larger capitals, producing a less-than-ideal effect. With the Smallcaps font, you can correctly and easily convert ordinary text to all capitals. When writing text in capitals, it is preferable to use plain capitals (found in the Basic Italic, Precursive Italic and Smallcaps font families) rather than the decorative capitals in the Joined Italic fonts. For titles, maps, addresses, author names and other uses where you want to retain capitalization, you can use the Smallcaps font to mix larger and smaller capitals.

Arrows indicate the start of a stroke, a change in direction, or a directional reminder. Numbers indicate stroke sequence. Dashed-line arrows in b and p are a reminder that the stroke should retrace part of the previous line before forming the rest of the letter. (The b and p are both one-stroke letters.)

The Getty-Dubay® Italic Fonts include two sizes of numerals, consistent with the Getty-Dubay® Italic method: Capital-height numerals are used in the Basic Italic and Smallcaps font families, whereas x-height numerals appear in the Joined Italic and Precursive families. In each case, the numeral zero is a different shape than the letter O or o.

In most applications which support OpenType fonts, the Getty-Dubay® Joined Italic font letters will join as you type without any change in settings. In Microsoft Word, however, you might need to turn on the OpenType Font feature called Contextual Alternates, so that the letters join correctly.

1. In Microsoft Word, in the Home tab, select one of the Getty-Dubay® Joined Italic fonts from the drop-down font menu.

2. Click the small arrow next to the word Font (or hold down Ctrl and press D).

3. The Font Format dialogue box will appear. Click on the Advanced tab.

4. Click the check box in the OpenType features section to check “Use Contextual Alternates”.

5. Click the check box to select Kerning for fonts. This will improve the spacing between certain letter pairs.

These settings will remain in place until you change to a different font which doesn’t have OpenType features. If you change the font back to Getty-Dubay® Joined Italic, OpenType font features will need to be turned on again as above.

If you are using Photoshop or other more complex software and the letters are not joining, you may need to reset the Contextual Alternates by turning it off, then back on again.