Cursive L

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Put side by side, the two letters differ in one measure only, their width: the small l is 0.86 of the capital. Each fills the whole space between the baseline and the cap height and goes no lower, so the two are as tall as each other.

Capital L, one unbroken line

The capital L is one unbroken line. Its middle is a slanted line, and there is a closed loop at each end of that line: a large loop at the upper right and a small loop at the lower left. These are the two enclosed spaces of the capital.

The line has a free blunt tip at the left, roughly midway between the x-height and the cap height. Nothing leads into the tip. Away from it the line heads right and curls around into the large loop. The top of the large loop touches the cap height, and its right side is the part of the capital L furthest right. This loop closes above the x-height, where the slanted line comes down through the line from the tip.

The small loop lies flat on the baseline. It reaches further left than the tip above it.

Out of the small loop the line passes over the slanted line a second time and sags to the baseline. It rises at the right to a blunt tip, which stops about halfway to the x-height.

Small l, one tall loop

Nearly all of the small l is one tall closed loop. The loop touches the cap height at its rounded top and narrows to a point below the x-height.

A blunt tip rests on the baseline at the far left, and the small l reaches no further left than this. A line slopes away from the tip toward the upper right. It crosses the straight side of the loop midway up from the baseline to the x-height.

Under the crossing the straight side bends along the baseline and curls up at the right into a short tail that stops low. The widest reach to the right belongs to the loop high above, not to the tail below.

Two loops on the capital, one on the small l

The capital L has two closed loops, a large one at the top and a small one at the bottom. The small l has only one, the tall loop. Both letters finish at the lower right with a line that rises off the baseline, and this line is longer on the capital than on the small letter.

Nail and limb, the l beside an i

An i is the neighbor of the small l in three of these ten words: after it in limb, and before it in nail and in steadily, where a y comes after the l.

Three look-alikes: the small b, e and f

The small l's look-alikes shown below are the small b, the small e and the small f of this font.

• Small bDescribed on the page for B
• Small fDescribed on the page for F
• Small eDescribed on the page for E

SCRIPT CAPITAL L for the capital

The two text characters of the Cursive style for this letter are SCRIPT CAPITAL L, U+2112, and U+1D4C1, MATHEMATICAL SCRIPT SMALL L. The capital's character sits in the Letterlike Symbols block.