Capital & lowercase · click to copy

P in Cursive

Capital P and lowercase p in three cursive styles, plus two fancy variants people often compare them against. Click any letter to copy it, or scroll down for the stroke order if you are writing a cursive P by hand.

Capital P and lowercase p in three cursive styles and two fancy variants
StyleCapital PLowercase p
Cursive styles
Cursive Script
Bold Cursive
Old Style Script
Fancy variants (not cursive)
Double-Struck
Clean Monospace

More letters: Q in cursive · B in cursive · Y in cursive · all letters A–Z

Write Anything in Cursive

The table above is single letters. Type a word, a name, or a whole sentence here and get it in all five styles — click a row to copy it.

Cursive P Practice Sheet

A printable worksheet for handwriting the letter P: the stroke order at the top, then ruled lines with grey letters to trace and blank lines to finish on your own. For all 26 letters on one worksheet, use the cursive alphabet practice sheet.

Cursive P Stroke Order

Stroke order for a cursive capital P and a cursive lowercase p Two letterforms between dashed guide lines. The capital P is a stem from cap height to the baseline with a single bowl on its upper right. The lowercase p is a stem that drops well below the baseline into the descender, with a bowl attached at x-height on its right. cap height x-height baseline capital P lowercase p
The filled dot is where the pen starts, the open circle where it lifts.

How to Write a Capital P in Cursive

  1. Start below cap height with a small entry curl.
  2. Pull the stem down to the baseline and flick right.
  3. Return to the top of the stem and sweep the bowl out to the right.
  4. Close the bowl back on the stem at about x-height.

One bowl and it sits in the upper half. A P with a bowl reaching the baseline is a D.

How to Write a Lowercase p in Cursive

  1. Start at x-height and pull the stem straight down past the baseline into the descender.
  2. Come back up the same line to x-height.
  3. Sweep the bowl out to the right.
  4. Close it on the stem and exit at the baseline.

The stem goes below the line, the bowl does not. Keeping the bowl inside the x-height is what stops p sprawling.

Cursive p vs Cursive q

They are near mirror images: a bowl and a descender, with the bowl on opposite sides. In cursive the confusion is less about mirroring than about the tail β€” the p stem drops straight and comes back up the same line, while the q tail kicks out to the right and does not return. Children learning to write reverse these two more than any other pair.

Joining p to the Next Letter

The p exits at the baseline from the bottom of its bowl, so joining forward is straightforward. The descender is the spacing problem: on ruled paper a p directly above an ascender letter on the next line β€” an l or an h β€” collides with it. Writers usually solve this by shortening the p stem rather than the l.

Common Mistakes with Cursive P

  • A bowl that dips below the baseline. Only the stem descends.
  • A tail kicking right. That is a q.
  • Not returning up the stem. The bowl needs a stem to attach to at x-height.
  • A stem that stops at the baseline. Without the descender, p is an n with a bowl.

Names Starting With P in Cursive

  • Penelope — 𝒫ℯ𝓃ℯ𝓁ℴ𝓅ℯ
  • Parker — 𝒫𝒢𝓇𝓀ℯ𝓇
  • Piper — 𝒫𝒾𝓅ℯ𝓇
  • Phoenix — 𝒫𝒽ℴℯ𝓃𝒾𝓍

Words Beginning With p in Cursive

  • paper — 𝓅𝒢𝓅ℯ𝓇
  • plum — π“…π“π“Šπ“‚
  • pine — 𝓅𝒾𝓃ℯ

Want a whole word or sentence? Use the cursive letters generator, or the cursive name generator for names. To practise these strokes on paper, print a cursive practice sheet.

Cursive P FAQ

What is the cursive P?

The cursive P is the joined-up form of the letter P. The capital is a stem with one bowl on its upper right and does not join forward; the lowercase has a stem dropping into the descender with a bowl at x-height, exiting on the baseline. Online, “cursive P” also means the copy-and-paste characters (𝒫 and 𝓅) above.

How do you write p in cursive?

In short: stem straight down from x-height past the baseline, back up the same line, bowl out to the right, close it on the stem and exit at the baseline. The bowl stays inside the x-height. Steps and diagram are above.

What is the difference between a cursive p and a cursive q?

The tail. A p stem drops and returns up the same line, with the bowl on the right; a q tail drops and kicks out to the right without returning, with the bowl on the left. This is the most commonly reversed pair in early handwriting.

Should the bowl of a cursive p go below the line?

No. Only the stem descends. A bowl that dips below the baseline makes the letter look like a badly formed g.

Can I copy and paste a cursive P?

Yes. Every P above is a Unicode character, so clicking copies real text. The Double-Struck capital (β„™) is drawn from the Letterlike Symbols block rather than its own, but behaves identically when pasted.