A cursive capital L starts with an undercurve up to the top line, loops back to the left, comes down to the baseline, and makes a small loop lying on the baseline before finishing with a curve to the right. A lowercase cursive l is one stroke: an undercurve up to the top line, a narrow loop to the left, a straight slant stroke down to the baseline and an undercurve out.
How to write L in cursive, step by step
The steps follow a Zaner-Bloser-style school cursive. The lowercase l is the base for several other letters, so it is worth writing it well before moving on to the capital.
Capital L
Start just above the midline. Make an undercurve up and to the right, ending at the top line.
Loop back to the left at the top line, keeping the loop narrow.
Curve down through the midline to the baseline, leaning at the same slant as the loop.
At the baseline, swing left and around to make a small loop that lies flat on the line.
Finish with a curve under, running along the baseline to the right.
The two loops should face opposite ways. The top loop opens to the left of the downstroke; the bottom loop sits on the baseline and points left, with the final curve passing through it. If the bottom loop stands up instead of lying down, the L starts to look like a cursive capital S or a number 2.
Lowercase l
Start at the baseline, or come in from the previous letter, and make an undercurve up toward the top line.
Loop back to the left at the top line.
Pull a straight slant stroke down to the baseline, crossing the undercurve near the midline.
Exit with an undercurve.
The l is a tall e. Both letters use the same loop, and the only difference is height. The same loop also starts the b, h and k, so a good l carries over to all of them.
12 ways to write L
The capital L shows how differently styles treat a base loop. Copperplate and Spencerian make the bottom loop large and elegant, often with a long hairline tail that runs under the next letters. Gothic and italic drop the loops altogether and build the L from a straight stem and a short foot. Modern and bouncy styles tend to exaggerate the lowercase l's loop, sometimes making it wider than it would be in school cursive.
If you are lettering a name that starts with L, the flourished and signature tiles show how far the bottom loop can be stretched before the letter stops reading as an L.
Common mistakes with L
the lowercase l stops well short of the top line, so it reads as an e
the loop of the lowercase l is so wide that it fills in or looks like a b without its checkstroke
the bottom loop of the capital L stands upright instead of lying on the baseline, so the L looks like a 2 or a cursive S
in a double l, the two loops differ in height or slant, or touch and merge into one thick stroke
The quickest test for a lowercase l is to put it next to an e. If the two are nearly the same height, the l needs to go higher, right up to the top line.
Joining L to other letters
The lowercase l leaves the baseline with a plain undercurve, which makes it one of the easiest letters to join from. "Le" and "li" are the first drills. "La" has to climb up and over to reach the a's oval. "Ll", as in "all" and "hello", is the real test: two tall loops side by side need the same height and the same slant, and they need space between them, or they merge into one thick line. "Lo" ends at the midline with the o's checkstroke, and "ly" takes the exit down into a descender.
Hand-lettered exemplar coming soon
Le
Hand-lettered exemplar coming soon
Li
Hand-lettered exemplar coming soon
La
Hand-lettered exemplar coming soon
Ll
Hand-lettered exemplar coming soon
Lo
Hand-lettered exemplar coming soon
Ly
The capital L is often left unjoined. Its final curve runs along the baseline, and many writers leave a small gap after it and start the next letter fresh.
Practice L
The L sheet starts with a row of tall loops, then the capital L, the lowercase l and the joins to trace. Print it at 100% scale on US Letter or A4.
Because it is the same shape at a different height. The e loops at the midline and the l loops at the top line. When writing quickly, the l often gets shorter until the two meet in the middle. Use paper with a top line and make every l touch it. The narrowness of the loop helps too: an l's loop is long and thin, while an e's is short and rounder.
How do you write a cursive capital L for a signature?
Most signature L's play with the bottom loop. Stretch the final curve so it runs under the rest of the first name, or make the bottom loop larger and let the curve sweep back up into the next letter. Keep the top loop small, since a large loop at both ends makes the letter hard to read. The tile marked "Signature style" in the gallery shows one version.
Why does the cursive capital L look nothing like the printed L?
The printed L is a vertical line and a foot, two straight strokes. Cursive is designed to be written without lifting the pen, so the corner at the bottom is replaced by a loop and the foot becomes a curve that can lead on. The top loop is borrowed from the lowercase l. Older copybook hands, such as Spencerian, made the same loops even larger, and the school cursive L is a simplified version of those.
Where does the letter L come from?
L comes from the Phoenician letter lamedh, thought to be a picture of a shepherd's crook or goad. The Greeks turned it into lambda, which pointed upward. The Romans gave it the shape still printed today, with a vertical stem and a short foot to the right.
