My Notes: A Handwritten Font That Feels Like Real Ink on Paper
I opened a fresh brand board for a local ceramicist’s rebrand—no moodboard yet, just a clean artboard and the quiet hum of my laptop fan. She’d asked for something “human, not perfect”—a voice that matched her wheel-thrown mugs and hand-painted glazes. I dropped in My Notes as a test, typed “Clay & Co.” in all caps, and paused. Not because it looked flashy—but because it looked *listened to*. Like someone had sketched it while thinking aloud.
What It Actually Looks Like in Practice
My Notes is a true handwritten font—not a digital mimicry, but one where each uppercase and lowercase character was drawn by hand. There’s subtle variation in stroke weight, slight irregularities in baseline alignment, and gentle tapering on terminals that feel intentional, not accidental. No two “a”s are identical. No “t” stands rigidly upright. It breathes. That warmth isn’t abstract—it’s tactile. On screen, it holds up well at 36pt and above; printed on uncoated paper, it gains even more texture, especially in letterpress or foil-stamped applications.
Where It Shines (and Where It Steps Back)
In logo design? Yes—but selectively. I used My Notes for the ceramicist’s wordmark, paired with a light, airy sans serif for the tagline (“Handmade in Portland”). It worked because the logo sits centered on her studio door, embossed on packaging tape, and scaled large on Instagram highlights. At 14pt on a business card? Too delicate. At 8pt on a product label? Unreadable. It’s a display font first—ideal for short phrases, headlines, social media banners, and hero sections—not body copy, captions, or dense editorial layouts.
On packaging mockups—especially for handmade goods like small-batch soaps or artisanal tea—I found My Notes added instant authenticity. It didn’t scream “handmade,” but it quietly confirmed it. A customer scanning a shelf doesn’t read the font—they *feel* its rhythm before they parse the words. That matters when your competitor’s branding leans heavily into sterile minimalism.
Web use is possible, but only with care. I loaded it as a webfont (WOFF2) for the homepage headline and testimonial quotes—never for navigation or paragraph text. It rendered cleanly in Chrome and Safari, though I did notice minor hinting inconsistencies in Firefox at smaller sizes. For client sites, I always pair it with a highly legible sans serif (like Inter or Work Sans) for everything else—no exceptions.
Pairing It Without Overcomplicating Things
You don’t need three fonts to make My Notes work. One strong pairing does more than five timid ones. I default to a neutral sans serif (not too geometric, not too warm)—something with open counters and generous x-heights. For print-heavy projects like posters or stationery, a low-contrast serif (think Merriweather or Lora) adds grounded elegance without competing. Avoid other script or handwritten fonts nearby—they’ll clash tonally. And skip bold weights of My Notes unless you’re using them as pure accent elements (e.g., a single word in a quote graphic).
Script Amp includes My Notes as a single-weight font—no italics, no bold variants. That’s not a limitation; it’s a constraint that keeps usage honest. The package delivers clean OTF and WOFF2 files, basic Latin character support (including accented characters common in English, French, and Spanish), and standard punctuation. No swashes, no alternates, no ligatures—just the core set, drawn with consistency and care. If you need multilingual expansion beyond Western European languages, check licensing details before committing to global rollout.
A Few Honest Notes Before You Use It
Test it early—and test it *where it lives*. Don’t judge My Notes on a Typekit preview. Drop it into your actual InDesign layout, export a PDF at 300dpi, print it, hold it at arm’s length, then squint. Try it on a mockup of your client’s actual shop sign (even if it’s just a screenshot overlaid on a photo of their storefront). See how it holds up next to photography—does it get lost in busy backgrounds? Does it pop against muted tones?
Licensing is non-negotiable. My Notes is a commercial font from Script Amp, and while personal use is often covered, client work—especially across packaging, merchandise, websites, and digital templates—requires an extended license. I’ve seen designers assume “one purchase = unlimited use,” only to hit a wall when the client orders 500 branded tote bags. Always verify scope before presenting anything final.
It won’t solve vague briefs or weak concepts. But if your project calls for sincerity over polish—if your brand lives in the space between sketchbook and shelf—My Notes doesn’t perform authenticity. It embodies it. Quietly. Confidently. With ink-stained fingers.
