But while we’ve tried to be as objective as possible, the following list is ultimately subjective. Quite honestly, we could have added 200 more incredible and inspiring fonts, but we really had to whittle it down to 50, and that was a challenge in itself. In doing so, we’ve managed to include a decent spread of indie foundries and designers, too. One of the biggest trends in fonts for 2020 was carved, sculptural serifs which looked as if they had been chiselled from stone. While we’ve now reached sculptural saturation point, the serif trend isn’t going anywhere. If you love the look of sculptural serifs but are on the hunt for something a little more trend-leading, let me introduce you to the rustic serif.
Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, this formidable sans serif began its journey in 19th-century Germany. After a naming change in 1960, it became the hallmark Helvetica—a nod to Switzerland’s Latin name, Confoederatio Helvetica. Those little details that most people barely notice, yet they have an enormous influence over how we interpret written information. Fonts set the tone from the sans serif clarity of highway signs to the flourished letters on wedding invitations. It’s this kind of inspiration that Wednesday Krus, design director at ThoughtMatter, expects to see more of next year. „In 2022, there will be more space for black and trans stories to be told,“ she predicts.
Best Stencil Fonts
Much like band logos scrawled in high school notebooks, Papyrus boasts an ardent fan club, keeping this script in vogue decade after decade. Despite fading from popularity after Baskerville’s death, revivals shepherded this font into the digital age, where its delicate intricacies enchant anew. Century Gothic proves that straightforwardness does not equal boringness.
- Migra is inspired by the features of migratory birds and is designed to add sparkle and grace to your designs.
- While the right images can certainly help, if the font doesn’t support the theme of your project, it may be doomed to fail.
- With roots extending back to 1896, Helvetica spans over a century across the evolving typography landscape.
Inspired by the design scene in Montreal, it’s already been used by many local brands, notably the most recent rebranding of the city’s football club. The font has 14 weights (seven uprights and seven italics) and a slightly tighter kerning, including Cyrillic support. After font trends in 2020 and 2021 prioritised eccentricity, the best fonts of 2022 will have a quieter but no less impactful mood. Legibility, clarity, and an open, honest personality will help consumers to feel welcomed and comforted by brands, particularly ones they might not have encountered in the crowded digital market before.
Free Font Lists
The original Times font was designed for use for the Times Magazine by Stanley Morison and the Monotype Corporation, and its latest look has been adopted in 1972. It’s safe to say that what Didone fonts were for the 18th, this font is for the 20th century. It is an Opentype font (OTF), which means that it’s free to use and open for redesigning. Dala Prisma is a development of the stencil typeface Dala Floda, replacing the latter’s solid forms with a series of stripes which vary in width, leading to an eye-catching optical effect. The variation between thick and thin is exaggerated with multiple lines, which increase in number as the typefaces become bolder.
Likewise, Mestiza Sans is a fantastic complementary family that deserves a place here as well. Variable fonts are here to mix things up and provide creatives even more options to communicate ideas as if the designer toolbox weren’t already excessively complex. These typefaces offer fresh experiences and significantly improved communication methods by extending multiple styles within a single file. Here’s what we consider to be the best handwriting fonts for graphic designers. Roast is a friendly typeface characterised by a sense of summery fun. That makes it a great choice for display projects, including packaging, posters and branding.
The biggest trends in graphic design for 2022, as predicted by leading creatives
We’ve traversed over five centuries of typographic innovation, exploring the most extensively used fonts across digital and print platforms. Trajan’s letterforms derive from Roman square capitals chiselled into ancient monuments. Twombly transformed these once-static letters for headlines and short inscriptions by digitalising their qualities into a text font.
Below is a preview of the top 33 fonts and beneath this image you can find the full list of the 100 best fonts. When I am choosing a font, there are a certain handful that are always top of mind. I listed them all out and came up with this list featuring 38 of my favourite fonts for design. Some fonts will include a display version in which the original design has been embellished or exaggerated for use at a larger size. Montserrat’s backstory is deeply rooted in construction and architecture. It was inspired by the Buenos Aires neighborhood of the same name, its buildings and posters that adorned the city in the 20th century.
Times New Roman
It includes numerous OpenType features such as old-style numbers, fractions, case sensitive alternates, localised forms, stylistic sets. Recommended for branding, posters, headlines, display, presentation materials, websites and logotypes, Axiforma is a paid-for font and should not be confused with the similarly named Axiforma Free Font. The third version of the popular geometric sans serif, TT Norms Pro, was designed by Ivan Gladkikh, TypeType Team and Pavel Emelyanov. It’s intended for a wide range of applications and works well both in large text arrays or headlines and on the web. It’s available in 67 styles, including 33 upright, 33 italics, and one variable font with three axes of variability.
Designer Firmin Didot started working on it in 1784, for the needs of their print shop, which was the official printshop for the King’s documents. With the help of his brother Pierre, they designed and cut the letters for this linotype font, and it was on the cover of Voltaire’s La Henriade. Since then, it has been reworked and redesigned multiple times, one of which from famous type designer Adrian Frutiger. Migra is inspired by the features of migratory birds and is designed to add sparkle and grace to your designs. Featuring slightly condensed proportions and sharp and spiky serifs, it was designed by Valerio Monopoli. This font comes in 16 styles with 568 glyphs each, including italics.
Miniature by Off Type
With its first typeface designed in the 16th century, Garamond is a font family that steadily grew ever since. Originally created by type design and engraving master Claude Garamond, it found its widest use in the 20th century, in redesigns like Apple Garamond and Monotype Garamond, widely used in Microsoft how to pick fonts for website products. Span is a modern glyphic type family with sweeping serifs and sculptural forms. Exuberant yet dignified, it’s been designed primarily for luxurious headlines and titles. The font’s strong vertical stress is softened by elegant organic curves, while its compact height accentuates deep serifs.
Westiva is a serif font family with an elegant and classy look focused on natural and beautiful curves. Designed by Bayu Noor Witarsa, it’s recommended for projects such as luxury brand logos, journals, business cards, titles, products, social media posts and web. Rooted in the tradition of the 18th-19th century French typefaces, NewParis is distinguished by high contrast between thick and thin strokes. However, it is not a direct revival but a contemporary interpretation of the genre, designed to meet the requirements of today. The Blackletter typeface, created by Sergey Mironov’s staff, is a contemporary gothic design that reads well in larger font sizes. Blackletter is the ideal font for branding, posters, banners, and any other situation where you might want to utilize a larger font because it gives anything you use it for a traditional gothic vibe.
This font includes uppercase and lowercase alphabets, numbers, punctuation and Latin diacritics. Named after the act of providing unwelcome advice at a card game (no, we didn’t know either), Kibitz is a high-contrast display serif. Its combination of exaggerated, angular details and subtle chamfers adds up to a sophisticated design.