20 Great Free Fonts

Erica Gamet

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Two words that bring creative pros rushing over with tongues wagging are “free” and “fonts.” And if they appear in a sentence as “free fonts,” then you’ve got yourself a dynamic duo to entice any designer. Well, assuming those fonts are of decent quality and from a reputable source. I’ve used my typographical prowess (read: “Ooooh…this one’s purdy!”) to ferret out a few gems to help you spice up your next project, all while keeping your budget under control.

Font Diner’s Featured Item is based on signage originally found on a department store marquee dating back to the 1940s. It has that clean art deco look, with a touch of modern poise, making it at home in a 50s-themed diner menu to high-tech headlines. Font Diner’s licensing is pretty strict and quite involved, so be sure to read their FAQs before using.

The Gothic styling of Adobe’s open source 12-font Source Sans Pro family was designed with user interfaces in mind. That being said, it’s a clean, sleek, highly-legible typeface that would be just as at home within an eBook as it would nestled inside a smartphone app. Desktop, eBook, PDF, app, and web

Part of Softmaker’s five-font Cambridge family, Cambridge Serial Regular is perfect for lending an old world feel to your layouts, especially when you get tired of Century Old Style. The other Cambridge Serial fonts are Light, Medium, Bold, and XBold, with the entire family going for only $15. Desktop and web

Steelfish from Typodermic is a 15-font family of condensed sans serif beauty, with seven of those fonts available for free. Typodermic explains that Steelfish was modeled after many different headline fonts, rather than one individual source. Definitely appeals to my love of mid-Century everything. Desktop

Space. The final frontier. C’mon, you were thinking that, too. While not exactly Classic Trek and not exactly Next Generation, Typodermic’s Ethnocentric boldly goes above and beyond to give your project a space-aged feel. Out of the 12 fonts in the family, the regular and italic fonts are free. Desktop

With 12 fonts in this family, Latinotype’s Sanchez Condensed provides a great alternative to Rockwell. I couldn’t put my finger on why I liked it slightly more than its more established relative, until I realized it was a bit more rounded (read: less stodgy). The regular and italic versions are available for free. Desktop and web

Insigne Design’s Le Havre Layers is a 21-font family with art deco design and accenting styles. Use the free Le Havre Layers Primary in combination with the other (purchased) fonts to create shadows, cross-hatching, wireframes, 3D shadows, and other dimensional effects. Desktop and web

CheapProFonts’ Scriptina Pro typeface is a modern script with an old-fashioned, hand-crafted look. Created as an upgrade to the original Scriptina, this version features an extended “non swoosh” collection of letterforms, though those swooshes are still available as OpenType extras. Scriptina Pro also features a multi-language character set and additional style sets. Desktop and web

If you grew up in the 1980s, even if you didn’t like heavy metal, you’ll instantly recognize Typodermic’s Metal Lord creation. Based loosely on Iron Maiden’s logo, this heavy metal font includes some stylistic alternates and uses the power of darkness, um, I mean OpenType, to join characters together and change forms when necessary. Desktop

Manic Depressive by SpideRaYsfoNtS features a hand-scratched look to create an edgy grunge typeface. Originally created as a fundraiser project for a bipolar disorder research group in the UK, it’s now available as a commercial font for most uses. The creator also provides a link to the foundation, so even users of the free license can donate to the cause. Desktop

I know it’s not even close to Christmas yet, but it’s never too early to start thinking about decorating. And Austie Bost’s Christmas Doodles font is fun way to decorate your creations with a little holiday spirit. This dingbat typeface contains roughly 90 (okay, exactly 90, I counted) characters. Desktop, web, ebook

Geometria from Brownfox is a 16-font family, with 8 weights, each with an italic version. I’m always on the lookout for clean sans serif fonts and Geometria really appeals to me. How could you not love that capital G? Geometria Light is available for free, which is my favorite (price, that is). Desktop and web

ChunkFive from the League of Moveable Type is a throwback to the chunky headlines of yesteryear and wanted posters of the Old West. But this ultra bold slab serif would look just as at home advertising this week’s grocery store specials or artisanal hand-made objet du jour. Desktop, eBook, PDF, app, and web

Check out this font, comrades! Arkhip from Fontfabric proclaims itself as a font with a Russian soul, made in the USSR. Whatever its history, I’m all for a font that is classically retro, yet somehow sleek and modern. The display font includes Cyrillic and small caps and comes in one flavor with limited special characters. Desktop, eBook, PDF, app, and web

Fontfabric’s Sprite Graffiti brings the bold artistic graffiti style to your layout, in three different fonts: regular, shadow, and extras. Each of the fonts evokes a look and feeling somewhere between marker lettering and spray paint. The extras include paint-dripped lines, symbols, and swooshes. Desktop, eBook, PDF, app, and web

Sorts Mill Goudy from The League of Moveable Type is a sort of revamped Goudy Oldstyle. Available in regular and italic, Sorts Mill Goudy offers old-world class, without looking just plain old. The League of Moveable Type is committed to providing practical open source fonts. This typeface certainly delivers with OpenType features such as roman small caps, ligatures, capital spacing, fractions, and oldstyle and lining figures. Desktop, eBook, PDF, app, and web

Waaaaay back in the early days of desktop publishing, I fell in love with Brush Script (don’t judge). I haven’t lost my love of thick-stroked brush fonts, but these days my heart belongs to Kaushan Script by Impallari. This display script looks like it was created with an organic ink brush, complete with uneven baselines and strokes. Desktop, eBook, app, gaming, merchandise

Not your typical dingbats font, Gismotype by The Sweatshoppe uses everyday objects as the letterforms themselves. From books, to martinis, to fish hooks, to protractors, Gismotype takes these objects and crafts them into a whimsical font. Each item’s shape determines the letter—or number or punctuation mark—it represents. Can I interest anyone in an underpants “D?” Desktop, eBook, app, gaming, merchandise

Fontfabric’s Nexa Rust Free Super Family contains five fonts including Sans Black, Script, and Handmade, but it was the Slab Black Shadow, with its weather-worn look that first caught my eye. The extras font contains hand-drawn ornamental elements with whimsical arrows and symbols. Desktop and web

Jura by Ten by Twenty provides a nice alternative to more rigid typefaces like Times New Roman. Jura is a narrowish, roundish serif with a sort of letterpress feel to it. With no hard edges, it looks at home pretty much anywhere and works as well in a headline as it does in the address line on a business card. Jura is available (as donationware) in regular, bold, italic, and bold italic. Desktop