Pulen: A Hand-Drawn Font That Brings Warmth to Editorial Design
It started with a blog header. Not a complicated one—just the name of a small lifestyle site I was helping a friend redesign. She wanted something that felt like her voice: honest, unhurried, and just a little bit artistic. I opened my font library, scrolled past the usual suspects, and landed on Pulen. One glance at its hand-drawn letters and I knew the search was over.
Pulen is a handwritten font created by Rifki, and it carries a quiet charm that is rare in the world of script typefaces. It does not shout. It does not try to impress with excessive flourishes or forced elegance. Instead, it writes itself onto the page with a natural rhythm—like a thoughtful note left on a kitchen table. That quality made it perfect for the project in front of me, and it has since become a staple in my editorial toolkit.
The Character of Pulen: Gentle, Expressive, and Deeply Human
What drew me to Pulen first was its texture. In an age of overly polished display fonts, Pulen feels refreshingly real. Every letterform carries subtle variations in stroke weight, slight irregularities in slant, and a consistency that comes from a human hand rather than a rigid grid. The lowercase letters lean gently forward, giving the font a sense of motion without sacrificing legibility. The uppercase letters are confident but not aggressive—perfect for titles that need to lead a reader into a story.
This is a script font that understands restraint. The ascenders and descenders are well proportioned, so headlines remain readable even at smaller sizes. The letter spacing is open enough to breathe, yet tight enough to hold a word together as a single visual unit. For editorial designers like me, that balance is everything. Pulen does not force me to choose between personality and practicality.
Rifki designed Pulen with a clear editorial sensibility. It works beautifully across a range of applications, from blog headers and magazine covers to ebook titles and newsletter graphics. The handwritten quality invites readers in, while the consistent baseline and thoughtful character shapes keep the reading experience comfortable. It feels like a font that was tested on real pages, not just on a screen.
Building a Better Reading Experience with Pulen
The project that first introduced me to Pulen was a lifestyle blog redesign. The client wanted a header font that felt approachable yet refined—something that would work across her homepage, category titles, and social media graphics. We tested several script fonts, but most felt either too formal or too casual. Then we placed Pulen in a mockup of her hero banner, pairing it with a generous amount of whitespace and a soft photograph in the background. The result was immediate: the letters sat comfortably on the page, drawing the eye without screaming for attention.
Pulen excels at establishing visual hierarchy. In editorial layouts, the font shines as a display typeface for:
- Blog headers that define a brand's voice
- Article titles that invite curiosity
- Chapter openers in ebooks and workbooks
- Pull quotes that break up long passages of text
- Newsletter headlines that stand out in a crowded inbox
- Cover text for printable guides and planners
- Section headings in digital magazines and PDFs
What surprised me was how well Pulen worked in shorter body text applications. For a recipe ebook I designed later, I used Pulen for recipe titles and ingredient headers, then paired it with a clean serif font for the instructions. The contrast created a warm, cohesive reading experience. Readers commented on how the font choices made the ebook feel like a personal collection of family recipes rather than a mass-produced product.
Practical Considerations for Editorial Projects
Before committing to any typeface in a professional project, I always check the included styles and features. Pulen offers a solid set of alternates and ligatures that add variety to longer headlines. The swashes are tasteful—they enhance the letterforms without overwhelming them. In a wedding guide I designed, the alternate characters allowed me to vary the look of recurring section titles, keeping the layout fresh across multiple pages.
Multilingual support is another important factor for editorial work. Pulen covers a generous range of Latin-based languages, which made it suitable for a small digital magazine I produce that includes occasional French and Spanish articles. The accents and diacritics are designed with the same hand-drawn care as the core alphabet, so nothing feels like an afterthought.
File formats matter too. I received Pulen in both OTF and TTF formats, which cover my needs for print PDF exports and on-screen layouts. The font installed cleanly on both macOS and Windows, and I encountered no issues when exporting InDesign files or embedding the font in a Squarespace site. For anyone selling printables, planners, or digital templates, commercial licensing is essential—and Pulen is available with standard commercial licenses that cover most client and product use cases. Always verify the license terms for your specific project, especially if you are creating paid digital downloads or client-branded materials.
Readability Across Screens, Print, and Mobile
A display font is only useful if it remains readable in the contexts where readers actually encounter it. I tested Pulen across several environments: a lifestyle blog viewed on an iPhone, a recipe ebook viewed on a tablet, a wedding guide printed on uncoated paper, and a newsletter graphic displayed in Gmail on a desktop monitor. In every case, the font held up well.
The open counters and generous x-height contribute to legibility even at smaller display sizes. On mobile, where screen real estate is limited, Pulen keeps its character without becoming muddy. For long-form reading, I recommend reserving Pulen for titles and accents—it is a display font at heart—but for short bursts of decorative text, it performs admirably. In a printable planner I created, Pulen was used for month headers and inspirational quotes. Readers told me the handwritten feel made the planner feel more personal, which is exactly the response I was aiming for.
Font Pairing: Finding the Right Companions for Pulen
No typeface exists in isolation, and Pulen works best when paired thoughtfully. In my editorial projects, I have found two pairing approaches that consistently deliver strong results.
The first is to pair Pulen with a readable serif font for body copy. A classic serif with moderate contrast and generous leading creates a quiet, elegant tension with Pulen's hand-drawn warmth. The serif provides stability and reading comfort, while Pulen adds personality to headlines and accents. This combination works beautifully for editorial layouts, ebook interiors, and printable guides where long-form reading is the primary activity.
The second approach is to pair Pulen with a clean sans serif font for captions, navigation, and secondary information. A neutral sans serif keeps the layout grounded and prevents the overall design from feeling too decorative. This pairing is ideal for digital magazines, newsletter templates, and blog layouts where clarity and scanning are important. The sans serif handles the functional parts of the layout, while Pulen infuses the design with emotion and brand identity.
For my lifestyle blog project, I paired Pulen with a warm serif for article text and a subtle sans serif for the menu and footer. The combination felt cohesive without being monotonous. Readers did not notice the typography consciously—which is the highest compliment I can give as a designer. When the type disappears into the reading experience, the font has done its job.
Using Pulen Across Content Formats
One of the reasons Pulen has become a go-to font in my practice is its versatility across different content types. Here are a few formats where the font has proven particularly effective:
- Blog headers and social media graphics for lifestyle, food, and travel brands
- Ebook covers and interior titles for self-published authors and indie publishers
- Newsletter headers and featured article graphics for creator-driven publications
- Printable planners, workbooks, and guided journals for coaching and wellness
- Course PDFs and presentation decks for online educators
- Wedding and event guides for stationery designers
- Digital magazine layouts and editorial features
- Packaging design for small-batch products and artisan brands
In each of these formats, Pulen brings a consistent editorial mood—warm, human, and quietly confident. It does not fight for attention; it earns it through authenticity.
Why Pulen Deserves a Place in Your Editorial Workflow
Choosing a font for a publication is never just about aesthetics. It is about how the typeface supports the reader's journey through your content. Pulen, with its hand-drawn honesty and thoughtful design, does exactly that. It creates a visual rhythm that feels natural, not forced. It builds brand identity without overshadowing the message. And it works across the formats and devices that modern readers actually use.
Whether you are redesigning a blog, launching a newsletter, or creating a printable guide, Pulen offers a warmth that digital tools rarely capture on their own. It reminds us that behind every publication is a human voice—and sometimes, the best way to honor that voice is to let it write itself onto the page.
For my friend's lifestyle blog, the redesign launched six months ago. The header still holds the top of her homepage, and every time I visit, I smile at the quiet confidence those hand-drawn letters bring. That is the power of a font chosen with intention. That is Pulen.
