How to Improve Your Print Handwriting (+ Free Worksheet)

If you’re anything like me, the urge to improve your print handwriting strikes at the very specific times that you need to write in print. You have to generate neat, legible print when you:

Fill out forms – Print handwriting is the obvious choice when it comes to writing important details like names, addresses, and phone numbers.
Write on a whiteboard or chalkboard – As most students can attest, a teacher’s print handwriting is easier to read from a distance and is often more legible than cursive.
Make a sign – If you want someone to understand signage at a glance, you’ll need to write it in print. Doing so will help to avoid confusion and ensure that everyone can understand the message.
Write for someone with visual impairments – People with visual impairments may have difficulty reading cursive, so opt for print handwriting instead. (Similarly, most young children can’t read cursive.)

How to Improve Your Print Handwriting: The Video

If you have time, watch this ~15 minute video. In it, I’ll walk you through several tips and demonstrations (pen grip, posture, drills, etc.) to help you improve your print handwriting:

The worksheets mentioned in the video are:

Free Basic Improve Your Print Handwriting Worksheet – One page printable worksheet with basic letterform practice
Premium Improve Your Print Handwriting Worksheet ($6.50) – 6-page printable worksheet with drills, detailed + traceable letterform practice, pangrams, and a blank grid practice page

How to Improve Your Print Handwriting: The Article

Basic Tips

How to Write Engaging Letters to Kids — Before my young niece learned how to write in cursive, I always used print handwriting for our correspondence.

There are several different things you’ll need to do in order to improve your print handwriting. My first three tips are basic and easily implementable:

Use padding paper – Any smooth piece of paper that’s the same size as (or larger than) the paper you’re writing on will work. That bit of extra padding gives your pen or pencil the cushion it needs for smooth writing.
Watch your writing speed – The vast majority of us have to write slowly in order to produce neat print letters.
Be mindful of your posture – The better your posture, the longer and more comfortably you can write.

You should also:

Use the pen grip that feels best for you – In my opinion, there’s no incorrect grip as long as you’re able to control your writing instrument and write comfortably. Don’t clutch! Maintain a comfortable, fairly relaxed hold on your pen or pencil, and you can’t go wrong.
Rotate your paper as needed – Your paper doesn’t need to be perfectly vertical in front of you. Experiment with different paper rotations and placements to see what’s most comfortable.
Use paper with guidelines – The best way to improve your print handwriting is to use guidelines. The best guidelines will have a vertical component (like a grid or dots) to help regulate the slant of your vertical strokes.

Advanced Tips

With foundational handwriting improvement techniques under your belt, the following supplementary tips will help you take your skills to the next stage.

You'll begin your print handwriting improvement journey by filling out several helpful drills. — These drills are from the Improve Your Print Handwriting Worksheet. You can do those drills directly in the worksheet, or just mimic them on a sheet of lined or gridded paper.

Do handwriting drills. When you have a nice chunk of time, do handwriting drills to establish a solid foundation over time (make it fun by listening to your favorite podcast/music/show). If you’re short on time, start out your writing session with a minute or so of drills. Doing so will warm up your hand and ensure confident, clean strokes.
Practice your letterforms. Letterform practice is invaluable when it comes to writing professional-looking characters. Dedicate a couple of practice sessions to writing out the alphabet and experimenting with the best letterforms for you.

Improve your print handwriting by writing out letterforms. — The Improve Your Print Handwriting Worksheet includes plenty of alphabet practice.

Be mindful of your spacing. The best print handwriting includes consistently-spaced letters that are grouped into consistently-spaced words. Letters all have different widths, which means you have to estimate spacing by sight. Consequently, the only way to improve your spacing is with practice.
Get creative + permit inconsistency. A lot of people struggle with juvenile-looking print handwriting. To battle that, try switching up letterforms within a sentence; you don’t have to write every “a” the same way, for example. Try, too, to think of ways to make certain letters stand out. For example, you can incorporate an elongated tail into letters like “K” and “R”, as shown in my video (jump to 10:41).

Writing pangrams helps you to practice your letter spacing and play with letterforms. Notice that in the “Gli accenti” pangram, not all “a”s are written the same. (Compare the “a” in “accenti” to the “a” in “buona”.)

Patience: The Key to Improving Your Print Handwriting

Neat print handwriting boils down to having patience. In order to write neatly, you have to write slowly. (Think about it: people got tired of having to write in slow print, so cursive was invented.) Developing print handwriting that is clear, polished, and professional requires a combination of focused practice, careful attention to style and spacing, and a willingness to continuously refine and improve your technique.

I hope that today’s article puts you on the path to producing print handwriting that makes you feel proud! Please feel free to work with the TPK worksheet that fits your needs best in order to achieve that.

DOWNLOAD THE BASIC IMPROVE YOUR PRINT HANDWRITING WORKSHEET ($0)

DOWNLOAD THE PREMIUM IMPROVE YOUR PRINT HANDWRITING WORKSHEET ($6.50)

Thanks so much for reading, and happy handwriting!

Warmly,