Getting Graphic Design Fonts to Look Like Ads
The 86 best free fonts for designers
The best free fonts can really add to your creative arsenal, offering a rich variety of types for all kinds of projects, from branding to graphic design and personal work. Of course, there are many not so great free fonts out there, and it takes a lot of time and effort to sift through different websites and platforms to find the kind of font you're looking for. We've done just that to make things easier for you, compiling an extensive list of the best free fonts you can find.
We've divided the free fonts below into eight categories to make it easier to find what you're looking for. You can use the quick links to jump straight to the style you're after, from serifs and san serifs to retro fonts and graffiti. The fonts listed are all available immediately without paying a penny (in some cases you might need to provide your email address). Just note that although many are free for both personal and commercial use, some are free fonts for personal use only. We've mentioned the conditions for each at the time of publication, but always double-check the terms because permissions can change.
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For a great range of fonts available at the touch of a button, we recommend checking out MyFonts, which has both paid for and free fonts. See below for a direct link to MyFonts, or scroll down for our full list of the best free fonts.
If you're sure how to use your font once you've got it, see our post on how to add fonts in Photoshop. We also have lists of the best free retro fonts and free script fonts, while our guide to font design offers tips for how to create your own. We also have advice on font pairings and on how to use font terminology accurately in our piece on font vs typeface.
The best free fonts: Serif fonts
01. Young Serif
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Young Serif from NoirBlancRouge
Available in a single, medium weight, Young Serif consists of 348 glyphs, supporting many different languages. It offers heavy old-style letterforms with bracketed serifs, taking its initial inspiration from fonts like Plantin Infant or ITC Italian Old Style. Some of the letters have interesting axis tilts – see the lowercase E, and the lowercase b and f have generous rounded curves. This free font was created by Bastien Sozeau and originally distributed by the creative studio Uplaod. It's open source, licensed under the SIL Open Font License, which allows the fonts to be used, modified and redistributed freely as long as they're not sold themselves.
02. Cormorant
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Cormorant from Google Fonts
Developed by Christian Thalmann of Catharsis Fonts, Cormorant is one of the most elegantly formal of free fonts. It's inspired by the 16th-century typefaces of Claude Garamont, but it's by no means derivative. Indeed, most glyphs have been drawn from scratch, and strike a lovely balance between formality and expressiveness. This open source display font comprises 45 font files spanning nine visual styles and five weights.
03. Alegreya
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Alegreya from Google Fonts
There aren't so many great free fonts created for specific purposes, but here's a strong exception. Alegreya is an award-winning typeface by Argentinian designer Juan Pablo del Peral crafted with book design in mind. With a dynamic and varied rhythm aimed at facilitating the reading of long texts, it provides a fresh and approachable take on the calligraphic style.
04. Restora
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Restora from pixelsurplus.com
In our experience, the best free fonts take a classic style and give it a twist, and here's a great example. Designed by Nasir Udin, Restora offers a masterful combination of bright and friendly letterforms and old-style embellishment. This versatile font is suitable for book covers, editorial text, branding and more. The free version includes Restora Extra Light & Restora Thin Italic.
05. Emberly
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Emberly from Rajesh Rajput on Gumroad
Emberly is another free font that feels both modern and classic. Inspired by the Didone style, this display font was created by Rajesh Rajput. It's also available as a variable font, and would be a great option for a wide range of design projects, including logos, headlines, magazine covers and posters.
06. Rude
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Rude from pixelsurplus.com
The best fonts feel both familiar and original, and this beautifully handcrafted serif achieves that. Created by Masha Chuprova, Rude is ideal for logos, titles, magazines, headlines, apparel, posters and more.
07. Grenze
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Grenze from Omnibus-Type
Inspired by Roman and blackletter font styles, Grenze offers serious visual punch without sacrificing readability. It was created by Renata Polastri and Omnibus-Type as a font for magazines, but it would work for a far wider range of design uses too.
08. Libertinus Serif
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Libertinus from Font Squirrel
Looking for the best free font to add a touch of class to your project? Libertinus is a classic-looking serif that comes in 14 styles. It's a fork of the Linux Libertine and Linux Biolinum fonts that address some of the bugs in those designs. It's available under the SIL Open Font Licence.
09. Free Saint George Stencil Font
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Saint George from Behance
Free Saint George Stencil Font is an experimental font by Vedran Vaskovic inspired by the Christian story of Saint George, and based on the classic font Georgia. It's one of the best free fonts to add a sense of energy and fun to your designs thanks to its wild and playful stencil shapes.
10. Colus
- Free for personal use
- Get Colus from fontfabric.com
Colus is a free display font inspired by carved letter inscriptions in stone and wood. It has a classical, almost noble appearance, which makes it great for creating imposing headlines, for adding a touch of class to logos or for introducing sophistication to poster designs.
11. Amagro
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Amagro from Font Squirrel
Amagro is an all caps serif typeface from Fabio Servolo. It has strong angular serifs that lend themselves to imposing headlines. A classy ampersand and neat easy-to-read numerics make it ideal for designs that need to get noticed.
12. Poly
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Poly from Font Squirrel
Poly is a medium-contrast serif font for web use. It was designed by Nicolás Silva to offer better legibility than other web serifs, even at smaller point sizes. It achieves this through a vertical emphasis, using short ascenders and a very high x-height for greater clarity.
13. Bitter
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Bitter from huertatipografica.com
Sans-serif fonts tend to work better for screen use, but this free slab serif typeface has been designed specifically to provide a comfortable reading experience on screens. Bitter was designed by Sol Matas. It's available through Argentinian type collaborative Huerta Tipográfica.
14. Playfair Display
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Playfair Display from Font Squirrel
Designed by Claus Eggers Sørensen, this free display font takes inspiration from the 18th century Enlightenment and the work of John Baskerville. Its high-contrast letterforms have delicate hairlines, reflecting the rise of pointed steel pens, which took over from broad nib quills during the period. Functionally and stylistically it can be accompanied by Georgia for body text.
15. Lora
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Lora from Font Squirrel
Lora was originally designed for type foundry Cyreal in 2011, with a Cyrillic extension added in 2013. Brushed curves contrast with driving serifs for a well-balanced, contemporary feel. Although technically optimised for use on the web, it's one of the best fonts for print projects too. It comes in four styles.
16. Butler
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- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Butler from Fabian De Smet
Inspired by both Dala Floda and the Bodoni family, Butler is a popular free font designed by Fabian De Smet. His aim was to add some modernism by working on the curves of classical serif fonts and adding an extra stencil family. He suggests Butler would work well for "posters, very big titles, books and fancy stuff".
17. Crimson Text
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Crimson Text from Font Squirrel
Not many free fonts are created specifically for book production, but here's a great exception, inspired by old-time, Garamond-esque book typefaces. Crimson Text is the work of German-born, Toronto-based designer Sebastian Kosch, who says he was influenced by the work of Jan Tschichold, Robert Slimbach and Jonathan Hoefler. It's a favourite free font of Taylor Palmer, a senior UX designer based in Utah, USA. "Crimson is a sophisticated serif that makes a nice alternative to traditional Garamond-esque typefaces," he says. "It also has a very expressive italic, which pairs nicely with strong, geometric sans-serifs like Futura or Avenir."
18. Aleo
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Aleo from Graphic Pear
Aleo has semi-rounded details and a sleek structure, creating a strong sense of personality while maintaining balance with a good level of legibility. This family of free fonts was designed by Alessio Laiso, a designer at IBM Dublin, as the slab serif companion to Lato.
19. Libre Baskerville
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Libre Baskerville from Google Fonts
Libre Baskerville is a web font optimised for body text (typically 16px). It's based on the American Type Founder's Baskerville from 1941, but it has a taller x-height, wider counters and a little less contrast, allowing it to work well for reading on screen. This open source project is led by Impallari Type. Taylor Palmer also recommends its sister font, Libre Franklin, which is also free.
20. Slabo
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Slabo from Google Fonts
Designed by John Hudson, Slabo is a growing collection of size-specific free fonts for the web, fine-tuned precisely for use at those specific pixel sizes. The blocky feel of its ligatures gives a modern twist to the serif font, making Slabo perfect for online designs.
21. Merriweather
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Merriweather from Google Fonts
A hugely popular open-source serif font, Merriweather has its own project on GitHub. It was designed by Sorkin Type to be easy to read on screens. It features a very large x-height, slightly condensed letterforms, a mild diagonal stress, sturdy serifs and open forms.
22. Woodland
- Free for personal use
- Get Woodland from PangramPangram Foundry
This beautiful curvy serif typeface has six weights, and the bold and ultralight versions are offered for free for personal use. It features strong, squared serifs and wide terminals. Touches like the rounded crossbar in the lowercase E give a soft quirkiness to its personality. You'll need a licence if you want to use the other weights or if you want to use it in work for clients.
23. Streusel Kuchen
Serif fonts aren't all serious. Kellie Jane Studio injects a lot of fun into this cute serif font that creates a natural handwritten look. It's a nice addition for crafty projects or for the branding of homemade produce.
- Free for personal and commercial use
- Get Streusel Kuchen from fontbundles.net
Next page: Free sans-serif fonts
Current page: Serif fonts
Next Page Sans-serif fonts
Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. He is author of Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books. He was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine.
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Getting Graphic Design Fonts to Look Like Ads
Source: https://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design-tips/best-free-fonts-for-designers-1233380
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