How it works
- Type or paste your text. A row of short words, a few sentences, a spelling list or a favorite quote. Long lines wrap onto the next line on their own; press Enter where you want a new line to start. The buttons above the box fill it with common words, b, o, v and w joins, short sentences or a pangram.
- Pick a tracing style. Light gray letters are the easiest to trace over. Dotted outline leaves more of the work to the writer.
- Pick a line size. Large while the joins are new, medium for most practice, small for older children and adults.
- Print, save as PDF or download PNG. Longer text runs on to as many pages as it needs, up to 30.
Under More options you can add a solid example above each traced line and change how many empty lines follow it.
From letters to joins to words to sentences
Cursive comes together in steps, and each step is easier when the one before it is steady:
- Letters. Learn the lowercase letters in their stroke families with the cursive alphabet worksheets, one letter per page.
- Joins. Practice two and three letter pairs, such as in, it, el, ou and br. This is where cursive differs most from print.
- Words. Short words made from letters already learned, then everyday words like and, the, was and said. A child's own name is a good early word; the cursive name tracing page repeats it across every line.
- Sentences. Short sentences bring in capitals, spacing between words and punctuation. A pangram such as The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog uses every letter, so it makes a good weekly check.
The tricky joins: b, o, v and w
Most cursive letters end on the baseline, so the next letter starts from the bottom. Four lowercase letters do not: b, o, v and w end with a short stroke at the midline, sometimes called a bridge, and the next letter joins from up there. The common mistake is to drop the pen back to the baseline first, which turns or into something that looks like ar.
Give these joins a page of their own. The b, o, v, w joins button fills the box with words like boy, on, very and was. Watch the letters after the bridge, especially e, r and s, whose shapes change a little when they start from the midline.
Slant and spacing
- Slant. Cursive leans to the right, and the lean matters less than keeping it the same. Turn the paper so it lines up with the writing arm, about the same angle as the slant, rather than twisting the wrist.
- Letter size. Lowercase letters fill the space between the baseline and the dashed midline. Tall letters such as b, d, h, k, l and t reach toward the top line, and g, j, p, q, y and z drop below the baseline.
- Spacing. Letters inside a word are joined, so the gap between words carries all the spacing. A common guide is the width of a lowercase o.
- Lift only at the end of a word. Finish the word, then go back to dot the i and j and cross the t and x.
A simple practice routine
Ten minutes a day works better than one long session a week. A routine that suits children and adults alike:
- Warm up with one line of a letter or join you are working on.
- Trace three or four lines of words or a sentence, then write each one again on the empty line below it.
- Print the same sheet two or three days in a row, then move on. Repeating a page is how the joins become automatic.
- Once tracing feels easy, switch to the dotted outline, then to medium or small lines.
For print letters, D'Nealian letters or mixed text, use the handwriting worksheet generator.