Hershey Script font

Hershey Script is the lighter of the two Hershey cursives: thin, evenly weighted strokes, looping capitals and lowercase letters that join the way a tidy schoolbook hand does. Because each letter is a single centre line, the writing looks like it came from a fine-tip pen rather than a typeface.

Type
Single-line (stroke) font
Style
Handwriting
Characters
95 in the file
Licence
Hershey fonts licence
Download
HersheyScript.svg
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”, written in Hershey Script.

About Hershey Script

What it looks like

It reads best at medium and large sizes. At small sizes the loops close up, so keep it for names, short titles and greetings rather than long sentences.

On video

Use it for a signature at the end of a vlog, a handwritten title card, or a note that appears to be written over a travel clip. The thin line looks best on calm footage; add the shadow band in Inky Clips when the background is busy.

For plotters, engraving and cutting machines

A classic choice for plotted handwriting. One pass of a fine pen gives a clean, joined handwriting look, and on an engraver or laser the single line keeps cutting time short. The SVG file's own name is “Hershey-Script 1-stroke”.

Every character in Hershey Script

Each letter below is drawn from the single pen line stored in HersheyScript.svg, exactly as a plotter would draw it.

Capitals (26)

  • 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

Lowercase (26)

  • 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

Numbers (10)

  • 0
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9

Punctuation and symbols (33)

  • !
  • "
  • #
  • $
  • %
  • &
  • '
  • (
  • )
  • *
  • +
  • ,
  • -
  • .
  • /
  • :
  • ;
  • <
  • =
  • >
  • ?
  • @
  • [
  • \
  • ]
  • ^
  • _
  • `
  • {
  • |
  • }
  • ~
  • 

Letters Inky Clips adds (74)

Not in the font file. Inky Clips draws these on video from the font’s own letters: adding the accent or bar, dropping the dot for ı, or writing ß as “ss”.

  • Ä
  • Æ
  • Ç
  • Ó
  • Ö
  • Ø
  • Ü
  • ß
  • ä
  • æ
  • ç
  • ó
  • ö
  • ø
  • ü
  • Ā
  • ā
  • Ą
  • ą
  • Ć
  • ć
  • Č
  • č
  • Đ
  • đ
  • Ē
  • ē
  • Ė
  • ė
  • Ę
  • ę
  • Ğ
  • ğ
  • Ģ
  • ģ
  • Ħ
  • ħ
  • Ī
  • ī
  • Į
  • į
  • İ
  • ı
  • Ķ
  • ķ
  • Ļ
  • ļ
  • Ł
  • ł
  • Ń
  • ń
  • Ņ
  • ņ
  • Œ
  • œ
  • Ś
  • ś
  • Ş
  • ş
  • Š
  • š
  • Ū
  • ū
  • Ų
  • ų
  • Ź
  • ź
  • Ż
  • ż
  • Ž
  • ž
  • Ə
  • ə
  • ẞ

Write with Hershey Script

Type your own words and watch them write themselves over a clip. Switch fonts and ink colours to compare.

The clip shows “With love, from Riga” written in Script.

Clip
Pen
Handwriting fonts
Ink
Classic inks

Ink: White

Style
Pen tip

Letters for other languages

  • Latvian: the font file doesn't include ā č ē ģ ī ķ ļ ņ š ū ž Ā Č Ē Ģ Ī Ķ Ļ Ņ Š Ū Ž, but Inky Clips draws all of them on video from the font’s own letters.
  • Lithuanian: the font file doesn't include ą č ę ė į š ų ū ž Ą Č Ę Ė Į Š Ų Ū Ž, but Inky Clips draws all of them on video from the font’s own letters.
  • Polish: the font file doesn't include ą ć ę ł ń ó ś ź ż Ą Ć Ę Ł Ń Ó Ś Ź Ż, but Inky Clips draws all of them on video from the font’s own letters.
  • Turkish: the font file doesn't include ç ğ ı İ ö ş ü Ç Ğ Ö Ş Ü, but Inky Clips draws all of them on video from the font’s own letters.
  • German: the font file doesn't include ä ö ü ß Ä Ö Ü, but Inky Clips draws all of them on video from the font’s own letters.

If you plot or engrave with the downloaded file, only the letters in the file are available.

Where it comes from

Dr. Allen V. Hershey drew the Hershey fonts at the U.S. Naval Weapons Laboratory in Dahlgren, Virginia, and published them in 1967, among the first typefaces made for computers. Every letter is stored as pen strokes rather than an outline, because they were drawn for the vector plotters and screens of the day. They have travelled through plotter software, CAD and engraving tools ever since, and Inkscape's Hershey Text extension still uses them.

Licence and download

Hershey Script is free under the Hershey fonts licence. Free to use for anything, including commercial work, as long as the attribution below is kept with the font.

The SVG version comes from Inkscape's Hershey Text extension (Windell H. Oskay, Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories) and the inkscapestrokefont project.

The Hershey Fonts were originally created by Dr. A. V. Hershey while working at the U. S. National Bureau of Standards. The format of the font data in this distribution was originally created by James Hurt, Cognition, Inc.

An SVG font. Load it in Inkscape's Hershey Text extension (Extensions › Text › Hershey Text) to set text as single pen lines for a plotter, laser or engraver.

Want a clip of your own words being written? Try the handwriting animation generator, or browse all fonts.

Write on your own video in Hershey Script

Start for free