Do you have good handwriting? Are you studying and perfecting calligraphy as a hobby? Why not learn how to earn from it by doing handwriting jobs from home?
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But where do you even start? What jobs can you apply for? What kind of services can you offer, and can you create any products that people will buy?
Well, wonder no more. Today, I list down 5 ways you can make money from doing handwriting jobs from home.
5 Ways to Earn Money From Doing Handwriting Jobs from Home
Below are just some of several options to get paid for your handwriting, mostly from commissions and the art industry.
If you’re looking for homebased and remote jobs, the first place I would suggest looking is on FlexJobs. Especially in the beginning, when you don’t have a lot of contacts or knowledge in the field, it’s important to only look at reputable companies.
FlexJobs takes care of it by verifying the employers that post job listings for them, so you can rest assured that every job listing is valid and from a legitimate employer.
Currently, there aren’t any listings for “handwriting jobs” in particular, but it’s worth keeping FlexJobs in your bookmarks.
1. Work As A Freelance Calligrapher
Calligraphy is the classic art of fine handwriting, a beautiful visual art that gives the words written with it more significance because of its aesthetic quality and makes everything extra special.
When everyone thought calligraphy would go extinct, with everyone stuck to their phones and computers, seemingly forgetting about the good old pen, the art of calligraphy suddenly made a comeback.
Calligraphy requirements
You don’t need to have formal training, but some calligraphers take up short courses in history to learn ancient alphabet and writing styles.
Other requirements for these online handwriting jobs include:
- Calligraphy pens and ink – If you’re doing brush calligraphy, you’d need a brush pen or a brush marker. If you’re doing pen calligraphy, you would need a calligraphy pen, with a holder (usually wood, but can be plastic) and a nib.
- Drawing tablet and stylus – Computers can now help with calligraphy, thanks to drawing tablets and pens, but some customers still prefer the look and feel of handwritten calligraphy on specialty paper.
If you’re a beginner to calligraphy looking to be commissioned for handwriting jobs, Etsy is a good place to start advertising your services.
Just take a look through some of the current handwriting offerings on Etsy to get an idea of what kind of work you should be aiming to sell.
Eventually, though, you can start your own website and offer your freelance services from there. You should really aim to become the best calligrapher locally, as word-of-mouth endorsements go incredibly far and I think most people feel pride in supporting someone local.
How much do calligraphers make?
In very rare cases, calligraphers find employment with design firms and companies involved in events or the wedding industry.
However, calligraphers mostly work freelance.
To give you an idea of how much you can make, let’s use the most frequent commission you’ll probably get.
For instance, many couples commission calligraphers to address their wedding invites, who then charge anywhere from $4 to $8 per invitation envelope, depending on the materials and any special requests.
Each envelope can take between 12 to 15 minutes to complete, so this comes out to around $16 to $40 per hour.
Exactly how much you will make will vary based on your experience, the project, technique used, equipment, materials, and so on.
Other wedding projects you’ll likely be commissioned for include signs, place cards, souvenir invitations for framing (as in the entire wedding invite, not just the envelopes), menu cards, vows, and thank you cards.
Those who have put some time, effort and marketing into their calligraphy craft has turned their Etsy shop into a full-fledged business earning up to $49,000 annually from custom, online handwriting jobs.
2. Sell physical products.
Aside from custom work, many calligraphers also create handmade products so that even during slow seasons for weddings, they’ll still have a way to generate income.
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Again, Etsy is the go-to place to sell crafts, but if you already have your own website, you can offer your handmade products there, too.
Some examples of crafts you can make and sell include greeting cards, raw or framed prints, postcards, generic signs, stickers, mugs, glasses, tumblers, and other knick-knacks and gifts you can write on.
If you can get hold of a supplier who can give you a good price, you can also try selling calligraphy supplies, such as brush pens, markers, pen holders, nibs, calligraphy ink (some calligraphers sell their own formula), ink bottles, specialty paper, and other handwriting and calligraphy essentials.
3. Font Creation: Passive Income Generation from Home
Another way to make use of your handwriting skills is to make and sell fonts.
Before I explain how this works, here’s a major disclosure: you won’t get rich with font design overnight.
Some font designers don’t even earn a cent for months or years after they’ve created a particular font.
However, font design allows you to earn passive income; once you sell a font, you can sell it again and again for numerous times and collect payment for each sale.
Visit DaFont and look around under handwritten category.
Do they look like fonts that you can write yourself?
If you answered “yes,” then you’re halfway there.
Font Design Requirements
- OLD METHOD: In the past, font designers scan handwritten fonts to convert their artwork into digital versions. They used paper, various kinds of writing materials from pens to markers, a scanner and computer.
- NEW METHOD: Today, font designers can directly write and draw from a drawing tablet and digital pen, see their work on a screen live as they work on a particular font, and edit when necessary.
Of course, if you’re new to font design, you can use any of these routes even today.
Your choice would probably depend on your proficiency and availability of equipment.
How Much do Font Designers Make?
Unlike other kinds of handwriting jobs for home, there is no general salary estimate for font designers.
This is because font designers sell their work in 3 different ways (each with varying fees, commissions, and terms).
Font Foundry
When you join a foundry like FontSpring, FontShop, Linotype, Monotype or P22, you sign a contract that says you’re selling your font with them exclusively. The royalties font designers earn can be from 20 to 50% depending on the company. You don’t have control on pricing here, but you also don’t need to promote your fonts anymore.
Font resellers
Becoming a member of resellers like Fonts.com or MyFonts.com bring your font to a wider audience. You can join multiple sites, but the percentage-per-sale is often small.
Sell on Your Own Website
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As with selling your services and physical products, you’ll have 100% control on pricing, marketing and promotions, but the work involved is definitely more challenging than the other methods of selling fonts.
To learn more about selling your font, I wrote a comprehensive font selling guide comparing these three routes.
4. Work as a Letter/Mail Handwriter
Another handwriting job that may sound interesting to you is being a letter handwriter, in which you handwrite a previously composed letter. Sometimes, you only have to address envelopes.
The good thing about this job you don’t really have to know calligraphy; you only have to be able to write clearly and legibly in either print or cursive.
Businesses who send direct mail are interested in this service, as it improves mail response rates; after all, we’re more inclined to open a hand-addressed envelope and read a handwritten letter than typewritten or computer-printed ones.
But because direct mail marketing is on the decline, there aren’t a lot of companies offering this service anymore, and you might have to offer this yourself as a freelancer.
5. Work in the Graphology Field
Graphology is the study of handwriting, particularly the physical characteristics and visible patterns of one’s writing, with the aim of identifying the writer or learning about their personality traits.
Although graphology is generally considered a pseudoscience, companies still hire companies that analyze handwriting through graphology for recruitment, jury screening, behavioral assessment, criminal and civil investigations, and sometimes even in medical diagnostics.
Check ScanMyHandwriting to get a clue how businesses use graphology and if you’d be interested in pursuing this kind of job.
The Outlook of Handwriting Jobs
Other handwriting jobs exist. Check job sites like Fiverr.com and you’ll see people and business owners looking for one-of-a-kind gigs.
For example, someone is accepting applicants for a handwriting project and requires anyone interested to have any Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone model with an S-pen, since you’ll be copying all the text assigned to you through the screen of your phone.
Calligraphy will always be a beloved art; as long as the wedding industry is alive, you’ll have clients in the foreseeable future. And as long as handmade crafts are appreciated, someone will buy them.
Font design is a bit saturated, but if you have new ideas and don’t mind aggressively marketing your fonts, then you can have a chance at competing with the millions of fonts already available to the public.
You can always invent a business that relies solely on your handwriting.
For instance, if you have perfect cursive handwriting, make a YouTube channel and teach the next generation how to do calligraphy.
Other Jobs From Home
The only problem with handwriting jobs is its physical demands. Calligraphers and handwriters can work probably 3 to 4 hours straight without compromising the quality of their product.
If you’re interested in other work-from-home jobs that you can do while taking a break from your handwriting job, check out our massive list of work from home jobs.
Have you been doing calligraphy as a hobby? Looking to earn from it? Share your stories with us in the comments!
