Fonts are a key part of any graphic design project; because they convey information, they must be clear and easy to read. Choosing a well-designed, coherent and beautiful font is a sign of professionalism, skill and care for your project. Of the plethora of fonts available online, some can be downloaded for free. Certain type designers, mostly for promotional purposes, provide their fonts free of charge (usually for personal use: for example, printing your own business cards would be absolutely fine).
And some of them are absolutely brilliant.
Here are ten fonts that, in our opinion, are among the best available on the web today.
1. Museo Slab
Museo Slab is already a classic: free in only one of its ‘weights’, it’s a well-designed font and great for titles. Slab serif, or Egyptian, typefaces are characterised by the addition of small serifs, lines that join one letter to the next.
2. Fabrica
Fabrica is a font that specifically caters to mobile users, designed to look its best on smartphones and tablets. For this reason, it’s also fantastic for very small text.
3. Glamor
Glamor is a font that can make any design look chic, elegant and modern. The glossy, fashion-mag effect comes from the curls added to some of the letters and the contrast between the thick and thin lines in each character (reminiscent of the first modern serif font, Bodoni, designed in the eighteenth century).
4. Lavanderia
Inspired by launderette signs in San Francisco, this font is perfect for titles and projects requiring a vintage effect.
5. Monthoers
Monthoers is a font that replicates the features of hand-printed letters, perfect for adding a hipster feel to your designs.
It was created by an Indonesian designer.
6. Airbag
Airbag is a really trendy font, a slab serif (see above) with beautiful shadows. It’s free, but the designer asks for a tweet in exchange.
7. Lobster
Lobster is a modern font script, useful for titles and headings and perfect both in printed form and on the web. It’s a classic of the free font world, inspired by the hand lettering seen on old trucks in films set in the heart of America.
(To download the free version of this font, type ‘0’ in the ‘Donation’ box.)
8. Fabfelt
Fabfelt is another really well-designed script, suitable both for projects with a vintage flavour and more modern styles.
9. Linux Libertine
Linux Libertine stems from a public-domain Open Source font project. It is a great alternative to the overused Times New Roman, perfect for long texts (books and brochures) and attractive publications, including large format.
It’s available in a wide range of weights, including regular, italic and bold, and features over 2000 glyphs, with Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew letters.
All in all, there’s no reason not to download it!
10. Klinic Slab
Slab serif fonts immediately appear modern and 21st-century in their design, and Klinic is no exception. Since the onset of digital font design, the old Egyptian or slab serif fonts have enjoyed the most success. Klinic is perfect both for titles and for regular text, offering taste and refinement in both cases.
(To download the free version of this font, type ‘0’ in the ‘Donation’ box.)
All that remains now is to add these wonderful fonts to your projects and see what effect they have!