Hey friends!
Free and open-source fonts continue to grow in numbers and improve in quality. The sad part is it's hard to find out about the latest ones unless you know where to look. We curated some for you!
Every font on this list loosely matches a few criteria...
Free! Every font on this list has been handpicked by me (Hayden) and verified to be actually free. No shady "free" fonts on this list.
Beautiful. Beauty is a bit subjective however we all have a designer gut that tells us when something looks good.
Versatility. Can this typeface be used in different design situations? For example, could we use this font for a heading as well as a paragraph?
Not overused. Some free fonts (especially some Google Fonts) have been used SO MANY TIMES that brands and websites start to all look alike. We tried including fonts that are a little less widely known and used. Many are new fonts that have launched in the past year!
Without further ado, here are 50 free fonts to consider using for your next design...
Acari Sans Neue is a sans-serif font developed from Hanken Design Co.
Aileron is a sans-serif font which adds my own interpretation with reference to a typeface classified as neo-grotesque including Helvetica.
Albert Sans is an elegant and modern family crafted & designed by Andreas Rasmussen.
Aleo is a contemporary typeface designed by Alessio Laiso.
Archivo is a grotesque san-serif inspired by late 19th century American typefaces.
Arimo was designed by Steve Matteson as an innovative, refreshing sans serif design that is metrically compatible with Arial.
Besley is an antique slab serif inspired by Robert Besley's Clarendon.
Big Shoulders is a superfamily of condensed American Gothic variable fonts, created for the Chicago Design System, and the citizens of Chicago.
BioRhyme Expanded takes inspiration from older slab serifs, but adds a friendly, playful personality. It works best at large sizes, both for headlines and short bursts of body copy.
Catamaran is a Latin and Tamil text type family designed for the digital age.
Caveat is a handwriting type family designed by Pablo Impallari. It is designed for both short annotations and body text usage.
Chivo is a new Omnibus-Type grotesque sans-serif typeface family. The strength of Chivo Black makes it ideal for highlights and headlines. Chivo Regular's elegance makes it ideal for combining with the strength of Chivo Black for continuous reading.
Crimson Pro is a redesign of the Crimson face by Sebastian Kosch. It’s ideal for long-form texts where readability is key.
DM Sans is a low-contrast geometric sans-serif design, intended for use at smaller text sizes. It was designed by Colophon Foundry.
EB Garamond is intended to be an excellent, classical, Garamond. It is a community project to create a revival of Claude Garamont’s famous humanist typefaces from the mid-16th century.
Epilogue is a sans-serif variable font with a weight axis. 9 weights, upright and italic.
Fira Code is an extension of the Fira Mono font containing a set of ligatures for common programming multi-character combinations.
Fraunces is a display face inspired by 20th century faces such as Windsor and Cooper.
Grenze draws inspiration from Roman and Blackletter typefaces. It was originally designed to be used in magazines.
Hahmlet is inspired by a poster for the Korean ‘Hamlet’ in the 1940’s, created by an unknown letterer. Hahmlet is great for any kind of typesetting, print or screen but also a perfect eye-catcher for signage and poster designs.
Inknut Antiqua is an Antiqua typeface for literature and long-form text
Inter is a versatile typeface designed especially for screens. It’s an excellent choice for general user interface needs, but can also work well for body copy and headlines. It's VERY POPULAR.
The idea of this typeface is to be geometric, elegant, with a vintage feeling, for use at larger sizes. It is inspired by geometric sans serif designs from the 1920s. There is a sister family, Josefin Slab.
Jost is a sans-serif inspired by Futura
Lexend fonts are intended to reduce visual stress and so improve reading performance. Initially they were designed with dyslexia and struggling readers in mind, but Bonnie Shaver-Troup, creator of the Lexend project, soon found out that these fonts are also great for everyone else.
Libre Franklin is an interpretation and expansion of the 1912 Morris Fuller Benton classic. The Libre Franklin project is led by Impallari Type.
Manrope is an open-source modern sans-serif font family, designed by Mikhail Sharanda in 2018. In 2019, Mirko Velimirovic worked with Mikhail Sharanda to convert Manrope into a variable font.
Neuton is a clean, dark, somewhat Dutch-inspired serif font which reminds you a little of Times. It has a large height, short extenders, and a compact width for better screen use, and economy of space.
Noto is a global font collection for writing in all modern and ancient languages
Overpass is an interpretation of the well-known “Highway Gothic” letterforms from the Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices published by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration.
Palanquin is designed for the digital age. The Palanquin superfamily is versatile and strikes a balance between typographic conventions and a bit of sparkle. The project is led by Pria Ravichandran.
Plus Jakarta Sans is a fresh take on geometric sans serif styles, designed by Gumpita Rahayu from Tokotype
Prompt is sans-serif suitable for both web and print usage, such as magazines, newspapers, and posters.
Quattrocento is a classic, elegant, sober and strong typeface. It's wide and open letterforms, and the great x-height, make it very legible for body text at small sizes.
Quattrocento Sans is a classic, elegant and sober typeface family. Warm, readable and not intrusive. It's the perfect sans-serif companion for Quattrocento.
Recursive is typographic palette for UI & code
Source Code was designed by Paul D. Hunt as a companion to Source Sans
Spectral is a versatile serif face. It offers an efficient, beautiful design that’s intended primarily for text-rich, screen-first environments and long-form reading.
Tinos is an innovative, refreshing serif design that is metrically compatible with Times New Roman
Vollkorn is the German word for ‘wholemeal’, which designer Friedrich Althausen felt described this ‘dark, sturdy, and grainy’ serif well
Zen Maru Gothic is a rounded sans-serif family that gives a soft and natural impression due to the deep rounds in the corners. Because of this unique soft impression the thin weight is also easy to use in any scenes. Cute and fashionable, soft and easy for any communications.
Zilla Slab is Mozilla’s core typeface. It’s a contemporary slab serif with true italics, small caps and good OpenType support.
We're always trying to make this typography newsletter as helpful as possible for creative people of all backgrounds and skills levels. We welcome any and all feedback on how we can improve! It's as easy as responding via this email or sending a DM to @fontpair on Twitter.
✌️
Hayden Mills
“Readers usually ignore the typographic interface, gliding comfortably along literacy's habitual groove. Sometimes, however, the interface should be allowed to fail. By making itself evident, typography can illuminate the construction and identity of a page, screen, place, or product” ― Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type
