Capital & lowercase · click to copy

R in Cursive

See R in cursive as capital R and lowercase r in three script 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 R by hand.

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

More letters: 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 R Practice Sheet

A printable worksheet for handwriting the letter R: 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 R Stroke Order

Stroke order for a cursive capital R and a cursive lowercase r Two letterforms between dashed guide lines. The capital R is a stem with a bowl on its upper right and a leg kicking out to the baseline. The lowercase r rises to a small flat shoulder just above x-height, then drops to the baseline. cap height x-height baseline capital R lowercase r
The filled dot is where the pen starts, the open circle where it lifts.
R in cursive: the capital R and lowercase r written in joined cursive handwriting, with the name Rachel beside them
Capital R, lowercase r and the name Rachel handwritten in the site's own CTG Everly Script font — what the joined letter looks like on paper, next to the copyable Unicode styles above.

How to Write a Capital R in Cursive

  1. Start below cap height with a small entry curl and pull the stem to the baseline.
  2. Return to the top and sweep the bowl out to the right.
  3. Close the bowl on the stem at about x-height.
  4. From that join, kick the leg out and down to the baseline.

The leg starts where the bowl closes on the stem, not from the stem itself. That join is what separates a capital R from a capital P.

How to Write a Lowercase r in Cursive

  1. Start on the baseline and rise to just above x-height.
  2. Flatten into a short horizontal shoulder running right.
  3. Drop from the end of the shoulder down towards the baseline.
  4. Exit right along the baseline.

The flat shoulder is the whole letter. Round it and you have written an n.

Cursive r vs Cursive n

Both rise from the baseline and come back down to it, and both sit inside the x-height, so the top does all the work. An n makes a rounded arch; an r makes a short flat shoulder that overshoots x-height slightly before dropping. Writers who round the shoulder produce a letter that reads as n, which is why run can come out looking like nun.

Joining Cursive r: Off the Shoulder

The r exits on the baseline and joins forward easily. The difficult sequence is rn, as in corner or turn: a rounded r followed by an n gives two near-identical arches, and the pair is frequently misread as an m. Keeping the r's shoulder flat is the only reliable fix.

Cursive R Mistakes: A Rounded or Overlong Shoulder

  • A rounded shoulder. That makes it an n.
  • A shoulder that is too long. It becomes a v or a stray connector.
  • Not overshooting x-height. The r's shoulder sits slightly above the line, which is part of how it is recognised.
  • Confusing the capital's leg origin. The leg leaves the bowl join, not the stem.

Names Starting With R in Cursive

  • Rachel — ℛ𝒶𝒸𝒽ℯ𝓁
  • Ryan — ℛ𝓎𝒶𝓃
  • Rose — ℛℴ𝓈ℯ
  • Riley — ℛ𝒾𝓁ℯ𝓎

Words Beginning With r in Cursive

  • ribbon — 𝓇𝒾𝒷𝒷ℴ𝓃
  • river — 𝓇𝒾𝓋ℯ𝓇
  • rust — 𝓇𝓊𝓈𝓉

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 R FAQ

What is the cursive R?

The cursive R is the joined-up form of the letter R. The capital is a stem with a bowl on its upper right and a leg kicking out from where the bowl closes; the lowercase is a short stroke with a flat shoulder just above x-height, dropping to the baseline. Online, “cursive R” also means the copy-and-paste characters (ℛ and 𝓇) above.

How do you write r in cursive?

In short: rise from the baseline to just above x-height, flatten into a short shoulder running right, then drop back to the baseline and exit. The flat shoulder is the letter. Steps and the diagram are above.

Why does my cursive r look like an n?

You are rounding the shoulder into an arch. An r's top is flat and slightly above x-height; an n's is a rounded arch at x-height. It is the only difference between them.

Why is ‘rn’ hard to read in cursive?

Because a rounded r followed by an n produces two matching arches, which the eye reads as a single m. Words like corner and modern are the usual casualties. Keep the r's shoulder flat.

Can I copy and paste a cursive R?

Yes. Note that the Cursive Script, Old Style Script and Double-Struck capitals (ℛ, ℜ and ℝ) all come from the Letterlike Symbols block rather than their own — R is one of the few letters where three of the five styles are drawn from elsewhere. They paste normally.