# Mansalva font

> A marker-pen handwriting face in one style, with two alternate forms of every letter and numeral.

Mansalva is a handwriting typeface by Carolina Short that looks written with a thick marker. Mansalva has one Regular style with 875 glyphs, among them two alternate forms of every letter and numeral, and covers Latin, Vietnamese and Greek. Mansalva is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and suits notes, annotations and informal short texts.

## Facts

- Classification: [Handwriting](https://trendhub.net/fonts/category/handwriting)
- Designed by: Carolina Short
- License: SIL Open Font License 1.1 (https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/)
- Styles: 1 (Regular 400)
- Variable font: No
- Glyphs: 875
- Character sets: greek, latin, latin-ext, vietnamese
- Last updated: 2025-09-16
- Official source: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Mansalva
- Page: https://trendhub.net/fonts/mansalva
- Tagged for: Packaging, Casual, Social media

## About Mansalva

Mansalva is a handwriting typeface drawn with the stroke of a soft marker: lines thicken and thin unevenly, ends are blunt, and letters tilt in slightly different directions. Capitals are large and loose while the lowercase is small and compact, which gives words a lively, uneven outline. What sets the font apart is its alternates. The official description says every letter and number comes with two alternate forms, so repeated characters need not look identical, and this accounts for much of the 875-glyph total in a family that has a single Regular font. Coverage reaches Latin, Latin Extended, Vietnamese and Greek. According to the same notes, an upgrade in October 2022 widened the Latin set and harmonised the vertical metrics. Mansalva is not a variable font. Carolina Short designed it, and it is published under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

## License

SIL Open Font License 1.1. Copyright 2019 The Mansalva Project Authors (https://github.com/carolinashort/mansalva)

Allowed:
- Use the fonts in personal and commercial work, in print, on the web and in apps.
- Modify the fonts and build new versions from them.
- Redistribute the fonts, on their own or bundled with software, as long as the license text and copyright notice go with them.

Conditions:
- The fonts cannot be sold by themselves.
- A modified version must stay under the same license and cannot use a Reserved Font Name without the copyright holder's permission.
- The authors' names cannot be used to promote a modified version without permission.

Summary only, not legal advice. Full text: https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/

## Where it works

- **Annotations on images and slides**: A marker-like line reads as a note added by hand to a screenshot, diagram or presentation slide.
- **Sticky notes and reminders**: The official description recommends the face for notes and informal passages, and it stays legible in a few short lines.
- **Quotes for social posts**: Alternate letterforms keep doubled letters from repeating exactly, so a short quote looks written rather than typed.
- **Callouts on packaging**: Blunt, heavy strokes make a few handwritten words stand out beside a printed product name.
- **Informal text in Greek or Vietnamese**: Greek letters and Vietnamese diacritics are drawn in the same marker hand.

## Things to know

- **One style**: Mansalva has Regular 400 only, with no bold or italic.
- **Alternates depend on the software**: The two alternate forms per character are stored in the font; applications without OpenType feature support show only the default shapes.
- **Line spacing changed in 2022**: The official notes warn that the harmonised vertical metrics can visibly increase line spacing in existing web pages and documents on Mac.
- **Greek but not Cyrillic**: Greek is included next to Latin and Vietnamese. Cyrillic is not.

## FAQs

### Is Mansalva free for commercial use?

Yes. Mansalva is published under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, which allows use in personal and commercial work, modification and redistribution. The font cannot be sold on its own, and modified versions stay under the same license.

### Who designed Mansalva?

Mansalva was designed by Carolina Short. The copyright notice in the license names The Mansalva Project Authors.

### How many weights does Mansalva have?

Mansalva has one weight, Regular 400.

### Why do repeated letters in Mansalva look different?

According to its official description, Mansalva carries two alternates for each letter and number, which lets the same character appear in more than one shape.

### Which languages does Mansalva support?

Mansalva includes the letters needed for English and other Latin-script languages such as Spanish, French, German, Polish, Turkish and Vietnamese, as well as Greek.

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Source: https://trendhub.net/fonts/mansalva (trendhub)
