The best free fonts, from vintage-inspired typefaces to slap-you-in-the-face slab serifs. Read on for a slice of typography heaven…
We’ve scoured the web to present you with a fine and varied selection of free fonts. Including scripts, serifs, and a range of ligatures, these fonts will give you greater flexibility in your designs, and add to your arsenal of design tools.
Some of the free fonts listed below can be used on your web projects, but please be sure to check the terms. Now, without further ado, join us as we present you with 100 of the best free fonts, which you can download and use today. Let us know how you get on!
01. Dense
One of our favourite free fonts to recently surface, Dense is a versatile, elegant, geometric and compact sans-serif typeface. Three weights have been created thus far: thin, regular and bold. Created by Canadian artist Charles Daoud, Regular is currently the only weight available, but Daoud has said that he’ll update his Behance page with news on how to get the other weights in the near future.
FORMAT: TTF
02. Chrome Light
Created by London-based graphic designer Artem Sukhinin, Chrome light is available in two variations, Chrome and Chrome Black, with a full set of letters, numbers and four punctuation marks. This is one of those free fonts that can be used for any type of graphic design – print, web, packaging and more.
FORMAT: TTF
03. Higher
Created by Portugal-based graphic designer Marissa Passos, free font Higher was made as a student project during her time at the University of Porto. The typeface contains a full set of uppercase characters and numbers 0-9. It’s free for both personal and commercial use, and available in OTF and TTF formats.
Format: OTF and TTF
04. Look Up
New York based interactive designer and illustrator Filiz Sahin is quickly becoming known for her free fonts. Often experimenting with an array of different techniques, her fonts are as versatile as her own design style. Look Up is one of the most playful free fonts on our list, with a home-made feel, with little arrows at the edge of each letter.
Format: TTF
05. Woodwarrior
Woodwarrior is a typeface inspired by the north, and the contrast between modern man made structures and untouched nature shaped by wind and ice alone. Created by designer Anton Bohlin, Woodwarrior is one of those free fonts that’s perfect for experimental headlines and eye-catching straps.
Format: TTF
06. Fenix
Graphic designer Fernando Diaz describes this entry to our free fonts as a “serif typeface designed for display and long texts, its foundations are based in calligraphy, with strong serifs and rough strokes. Its proportions seek to gain space in height and width. Fénix is elegant at large sizes and legible at the same time, with a lot of rhythm in small sizes.”
FORMAT: OTF
07. Woodshop
Earlier this year, Pennsylvania-based graphic designer Nick Slater released this Woodshop typeface, which he generously offers as a free download. The slab font comes complete with a full set of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters.
FORMAT: OTF
08. Quirky nots
Toronto based typographer Amit Jakhu created this fun and playfully unique typeface for his Typography 6 class. He released it as one of the hundreds of free fonts out there, because he wouldn’t have further developed it after finishing college – and we couldn’t thank him enough!
It was a huge learning curve for Jakhu and we think he’s done a great job for a first timer. He’s happy for you to modify it, share it and basically do whatever you want with it. It is fully available to use anywhere; no restrictions!
FORMAT: TTF
09. Vincent
Vincent was developed by graphic and product designer for NBC Universal Ben Suarez. Created at the end of last year, this vintage-inspired design was Suarez’s first fully functioning typeface, and is a great addition to our free fonts.
“Vincent was intended to be used as a title font,” explains Suarez. It was “named after my grandfather who drove a ’76 Chrysler Cordoba and smoked out of an old wooden pipe. He was rad.”
FORMAT: TTF
10. BoB
Inspired by the playful asethics of illustration, Burma-based typographer Zarni has created this cool and characterful font. This kind of typography is perfect for experimentation and will work wonders on posters and headlines.
Coming in capital and lower case letters, BoB also includes numerical symbols as well as a variety of punctuation marks. As free fonts go it has plenty of uses – just be sure to show Zarni some love.
FORMAT: TTF
11. Biko
Biko is a design by graphic designer and visual artist Marco Ugolini: “a geometric sans serif with a strong and yet friendly character”. The name is a tribute to Steve Biko: a South African anti-apartheid activist. Perfect for display, copy text and logos, it’s available in regular, and black versions. It’s also one of our free fonts that’s only gratis for use in personal projects, while you can purchase the font for 20 Euros for commercial use. So, what are you waiting for?
FORMAT: TTF
12. Linny
This, one of our cutest free fonts, was designed by Maya aka Linny. It’s based on Maya’s own handwriting and comes in upper and lower case, as well as numbers and punctuation.
FORMAT: TTF
13. Parisish
This is one of the most elegant free fonts, and was created by type designer George Williams; it has the feel of old Paris about it. One of 57 fonts created by the designer, this is one of his most popular, having received over 200,000 downloads. It’s free for both personal and commercial uses.
FORMAT: TTF
14. Baron
Created by graphic design student Frank Hemmekam, this is one of many may free fonts designed for display, and Hemmekam describes it as “a free uppercase display typeface inspired by the classic sans serif font families. This typeface is, because of its many alternative options and weights, perfect for usage in posters, logotypes and headlines.” Baron is free for both personal and commerical use.
FORMAT: TTF
15. True Love
Davide Cariani is a UX designer and web developer with a passion for typography, which led to him creating this entry in our free fonts list. True Love was created in his spare time and his first type experiment. Inspired by old-school tattoo fonts, glyphs available include letters, numbers, dash and dot.
FORMAT: TTF
16. Flex Display
Developed by young designer Álvaro Thomáz, this is a thin geometric display font, available for both personal and commercial use, with donations to the author greatfully received. With a passion for typography, Thomáz specialises in font and logo design.
FORMAT: OTF
17. Calendas Plus
Calendas Plus is an improved version of atipo studio’s first typeface, calendas. The team at the Spanish design agency completely redrew the font with new ligatures and includes a full glyph set. You can download this, one of our growing list of free fonts, simply by sharing news of the design on Facebook or Twitter.
FORMAT: TTF
18. GoodDog
A contemporary and decorative font, GoodDog was created by Fonthead Design. The curly typeface is a popular choice, having been download almost a million times since its release. The font comes complete with a full set of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and characters.
FORMAT: OTF
19. Brush Hand New
Brush Hand New is a free brush font based on Flash Bold, a typeface created by Edwin W Shaar in 1939. K-Type‘s New version simplifies, lightens and smoothes out ragged edges. Outlines are improved to remove any remaining harshness, resulting in softer, smoother flowing glyphs ideal for titles and display purposes.
Format: TTF
20. Kilogram
This font was created by KalleGraphics and based on Nick Curtis’ font Anagram. The bold design includes a full set of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. Free for personal use.
FORMAT: OTF
21. Construthinvism
Pedro Fernandes and 4838Design are collectively responsible for free font Construthinvism. Fernandes describes the design as being “inspired by the Russian Constructivism, Cyrillic characters and Alexander Rodchenko”.
FORMAT: OTF
22. Molesk
This vintage-style inclusion in our free fonts rundown was designed by communication and multimedia student Pedro Lobo. A slab serif font with shadows on the right, the design includes a full set of upper-case letters, numbers and a selection of special characters.
FORMAT: TTF
23. Bigmouth
What’s that? You want even more free fonts! Well, say hello to Bigmouth: a font by Timo Kuilder of Twelve Twenty. The typeface is available in both regular and bold versions. All the Timo asks for in return for the download is a simple tweet (click the ‘Pay with Tweet’ button on the top right).
FORMAT: OTF
24. Tracks
Tracks type is all caps fonts and alphabet only, inspired with railway tracks slash, static, dynamic, and clean. It was designed by Indonesia-based design student Gumpita Rahayu and is available in two different styles – medium and slanted. This font was designed for display purposes, so will look great when used for headlines.
FORMAT: OTF, TTF
25. Ziamimi
Ziamimi is a gorgeous font that comes in capitals – making it perfect for headers and eye-catching statements. Its sleek finish allows it to really stand out as one of the best free fonts we’ve come across. It also comes with numbers and a few punctuation marks.
FORMAT: OTF
26. Dooodleista
Why Doodle? This question can be answered with two simple words – for fun. This is the first and most important rule that designer Filiz Sahin has set out for anyone that uses one of the quirkiest typefaces in our free fonts list. We love its playful style and doodle art feel.
FORMAT: OTF
27. Klinic
In four weights (and italics), the eight-font Klinic Slab family is one of Lost Type‘s most comprehensive releases to date. A contemporary, versatile slab serif, Klinic is a workhorse that marries personality and functionality. Designed by Joe Prince, it’s free to download, but if you decide to use it then we’d encourage you to make a donation.
FORMAT: OTF
28. Albert
Albert is the latest offering from 22-year-old, London College of Communication design student William Bayley Suckling. One of many designs created by the talented creative, Albert is a new decorative headline typeface, inspired by Victorian signage and lettering.
FORMAT: TTF
29. Muchacho
Designer Jeff Schreiber describes his typeface Muchacho as “a western-style serif font with quirky legs”. Based in the Netherlands, Schreiber’s design contains all capital letters, numbers, diacritical marks and most punctuation marks. Muchacho is a free version of his Wild West-inspired typeface Gringo.
FORMAT: TTF
30. Cylburn
You can find semi-connected script font Cylburn on Lost Type Co-op. Designed by Dai Foldes, the artist comments on his creation: “Cylburn is a semi-connected script, structurally based on Roundhand but written with a pointed brush and restrained tension that separate it from its traditional roots.” Like many free fonts there is no charge for personal use, but donations are gratefully recieved.
FORMAT: OTF, TTF
31. Lovelo
Designed by Austrian typographer Renzler Design, the Lovelo font is a remake of the original Lovelo Inline. It’s a geometric sans serif typeface with two line versions, making it an eye-catching choice for any large text or headlines. As always, the font is free but there is a donation option if you’d like to show the designer your appreciation.
FORMAT: OTF
32. Iron
Introducing Iron, a new Sans Serif Typeface for you all to download for your free personal use copy. Designed by 22-year-old William Bayley Suckling, Iron is an original and playful font that will be perfect for all your design experiements. You can also purchase the font for commerical use.
FORMAT: TTF
33. Fairview
Fairview is a condensed sans serif, with small cap alternates, inspired by the industrial lettering of the 20th century. Designed by Riley Cran for the Lost Type Co-op, the font comes in uppercase, lowercase, numerals and punctuation. There’s also a donation option with this font, so be generous and show your appreciation!
FORMAT: OTF
34. Zwodrei
Perfect for personal headline use, Zwodrei was designed by 27-year-old German based graphic designer Lukas Bischoff. After graduating from his studies of communication design at the University of Applied Science, Lukas has gone on the create some beautiful typefaces – including this one!
FORMAT: OTF
35. Distractor
Distractor a new typeface designed by London-based graphic designer Simon Stratford. Loosely based on Bevan, the inspiration behind this font was the old letterpress styles and hand printed lettering – a passion of Simon’s. Use for personal projects and be sure to let Simon know what you think of it!
FORMAT: OTF
36. Linux Libertine
Linux Libertine was designed by the Libertine Open Fonts Project and, according to Wikipedia, ‘aims to create free and open alternatives to proprietary typefaces such as Times Roman’. The font is licensed under the GNU General Public License and the SIL Open Font License, and contains more than 2,000 glyphs and includes character sets such as the Greek Alphabet, Cyrillic script, and Hebrew.
FORMAT: TTF, OTF, WOFF
37. Museo Sans 500
This extremely popular font is part of the Museo family of fonts, and you can get both the Sans 500 and Sans 500 Italic versions for free. You can either get one desktop license, one web font license for 500,000 page views, or a combination of the two. Registration is required to access the fonts.
FORMAT: OTF, TTF, EOT, WOFF, SVG
38. Museo Slab 500
If you thought a free Museo sans font was good, we’ve also got two Museo Slab variants to accompany it. If you’re looking for an impactful heading font, this could be it. As with the Sans versions above, you can either get one desktop license, one web font license for 500,000 page views, or a combination of the two. Registration again required to access the fonts.
FORMAT: OTF, TTF, EOT, WOFF, SVG
39. Lobster
We love Font Squirrel. It’s a brilliant resource for free fonts, and this is one of its hottest properties over the last few years. Chances are you’ve seen this font, and never realised that you could use it both on and offline at no cost. Lobster is a compact and legible calligraphy-based script font that works in both upper and lowercase, and can also be used on the web. Definitely one to snap up!
FORMAT: OTF, TTF, EOT, WOFF, SVG
40. Bevan
This is Vernon Adams‘ reimagining of a traditional 1930s slab serif by Heinrich Jost. The letterforms have been digitised, reshaped and optimised for the web, with more open counters and stronger stems to ensure that Bevan functions as an ultra-bold display font that suits modern browsers.
FORMAT: TTF
41. Typode
You’ll either love or hate this experimental new font created by typographer Santiago Ortiz. Typode’s characters are defined by coordinate, which means you can skew, stretch and twist the font to your heart’s content.
FORMAT: TTF
42. Govote
Craig Ward, a British designer and art director based in New York, is known primarily for his pioneering and experimental typographic works. He created this free font last year in support of the GoVote campaign, which aimed to encourage people to vote in the US presidential election.
FORMAT: TTF
43. Langdon
Langdon is a free typeface from XLN Telecom and leading graphic designer, illustrator and typographer Steven Bonner. The result of the collaboration is a typeface that is solid, serious and dependable. Langdon is available as a free download and can be used privately and commercially with no restrictions on usage.
FORMAT: OTF
44. Bohema
An Art Deco font with a modern twist, Bohema was created by graphic designer and illustrator João Oliveira. Perfect for retro designs, Bohema is ideal for headlines, editorial letterings, branding, merchandising and special occasions. Available in eight distinct styles, payment is required for the full set but Oliveria generously offers the regular alternative style demo as a free download.
FORMAT: OTF
45. Airbag
This trendy display typeface was created by designer Simon Stratford after he failed to find a free font online suitable for his artwork. The slab serif typeface is the Stratford’s first, the designer creating a full set of uppercase letters, numbers and a few special characters. And all he asks for in return for the download is a simple tweet.
FORMAT: TTF
46. Fail
This grunge typeface does anything but what its name suggests, having been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times since its release. This is one of 129 fonts designed by Douglas Vitkausk, whose work has amassed over 12 million downloads collectively! Free for personal use only.
FORMAT: TTF
47. Ink In The Meat
Type designer Billy Argel is the man behind tattoo font Ink in the Meat. Argel has created numerous fonts and this is one of his most popular downloads. The free version (for personal use) of this font is partial and doesn’t contain any numbers. Ink in the Meat commercial licenses are available on Argel’s website.
FORMAT: OTF
48. KanKin
The designer of this contemporary yet ‘old style’ sans serif, Alexey Frolov, claims it’s perfect for posters, logos, print and web. It’s certainly clean and bold, and it’s no surprise, given the nationality of the font’s designer, that the Russian characters look particularly good in this set.
FORMAT: TTF and OTF
49. Nexa: light and bold
The Nexa font family includes 16 styles and weights. The font family has great legibility, and works very well as a headline font. Here you get two parts of the family for free, and if you want the rest then you’ll have to put your hand in your pocket.
FORMAT: OTF
50. Grand Hotel
Designed by Brian J Bonislawsky and Jim Lyles for Astigmatic, this font takes its inspiration from the title screen of the 1937 film Cafe Metropole starring Tyrone Power. It has a classic weight and subtlety that make you think of artisan signage and craft, but its cursive lowercase lends itself to a host of different uses.
FORMAT: OTF
Reblogged this on HD Beautiful Wallpaper – Vedat Öncelik.
This article presents clear idea in support of the new viewers of blogging, that genuinely how to do blogging.
Thank you 🙂 follow me.
magnificent publish, very informative. I ponder why the opposite experts of this sector don’t notice this.
You must proceed your writing. I am sure, you have a great readers’ base already!
Thank you 🙂 I will continue to share.I’m coming up with new ideas 🙂 I recommend you follow me.