Spencerian script
Practice Spencerian script
Worksheet and print settings
Print at 100% (Actual size).
Spencerian script alphabet
Click a Spencerian capital or small letter to open its lesson, where the same letter appears in the four other styles.
Print the Spencerian script alphabet
The Spencerian sheet sets all 52 capital and small letters on writing guides with a joined line. The SVG keeps the hairlines sharp when you print it large.
What makes Spencerian script distinct
- The letters lean steadily to the right.
- Strokes swell and thin: heavier shaded downstrokes with hairline upstrokes.
- Capitals are built from ovals and loops, and the small letters have tall stems and long descenders.
A short history of Spencerian script
Platt Rogers Spencer developed Spencerian script in the mid-1800s. It is an ornate business hand in which strokes swell and thin.
Spencer taught his hand in business colleges, and the Spencerian Key to Practical Penmanship (1866) spread it across the United States. It stayed the standard American correspondence hand until the Palmer Method replaced it in the early 1900s. The Coca-Cola logo is written in Spencerian script.
How to practice Spencerian script
- Trace. Play the small letters first and trace them; every shaded downstroke follows the same steady slant.
- Copy. Copy the capitals one oval at a time. A flexible pointed nib gives the swells; a fine pen still shows the shapes.
- Write words. Join words with tall stems and long descenders, such as ledger, fully and joy, keeping each upstroke a hairline.
Swell each downstroke and keep the upstroke light, as the shaded letters show.
Open a letter
The letter pages teach each letter’s strokes and joins, then show its Spencerian form among the five styles.
Other cursive styles
Zaner-Bloser
The Columbus, Ohio method of Charles Zaner and Elmer Bloser, widely used in US schools.
Palmer Method
Austin Norman Palmer’s plain business writing, taught in US schools.
