Top 40 Must-Have Fonts For Graphics Designers (2024)

The process of working on unique and exciting designs can be overwhelming, whether you are a business, a working professional, or a graphic design student. You might have to worry about different elements in your design project especially if it has typography in it. Good typography with an eye-catching font can do a lot for the graphic design layout aesthetics, whether you’re designing a brand logo or a poster with a long sentence.

Fonts can play a major role, and using the right font can make a difference in your design without costing much. Fonts play around the attributes of emotions, feelings, or information that you’re trying to convey in the design. As a matter of fact, you can find a lot of free fonts all over the internet. You can pick either a serif or sans-serif font for your poster, use display fonts to highlight your web design and script fonts for designing simple book covers. There are tons of fonts to choose from, making it a bit tricky for designers to find the perfect one. To inspire your graphic design creativity, here are 80 best fonts for you to explore.

The Popular Sans Serif fonts

Sans serif font gained popularity at the start of the 18th century and still, many brands prefer this typeface for their logo designs, web design, captions, etc. Sans serif typography does not have the “serif” feature but looks more geometric compared to the neutral font family of serifs. Serif typefaces are repeatedly used by newspapers and magazines for headlines and long texts. Sans serif is preferred by most brands for its readability, clarity, and clean modern look. Most brands customize the typeface for their branding purposes, making the fonts unique and beautiful. There are many popular sans-serif fonts available that can make your graphic design creative elegant and classy if you’re planning to design a brand logo, brochure, or poster.

Let’s kick off the list with free font in the sans serif typography.

1. Newake

Newake is a free sans-serif typeface with a not-so-fancy twist. It has a very clear geometrically readable typeface. It looks like the original sans-serif font but with slightly rounded corners. Newake is perfect for creating standout titles, logo designs, packaging, and more. It’s free for personal use and you can also buy the regular commercial version

• Download Newake fromdafontfree.io

(Soruce : Google Images)

2. Futura

Futura is an early modern font created by Paul Renner in Sans serif typeface. It’s inspired by the clean lines of Bauhaus design. Many graphic designers love it for its geometric style. It comes in different weights, making it elegant for any design project. Big brands like FedEx and Volkswagen use it for logos, and it’s also popular in magazine designs and movie posters.

• Download Futura fromAdobe fonts

(Soruce : Google Images)

3. Aileron

Aileron is a neo-grotesque sans serif typeface font, designed by Sora Sagano. Aileron looks somewhere between Univers and Helvetica. It adds visual comfort to the design, with well-balanced letters. It has high readability, and it’s available in 16 weights from black to ultralight. Aileron font is free for personal and commercial use.

• Download Aileron from TipoType.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

4. Gilroy

Need a clean and contemporary font for your graphic design? Gilroy font is the one for you. The polished appearance of the font with a geometric touch is neat and easy to read. This typeface design comes with 20 different weights and styles.
Print design, signage, corporate branding, and editorial design are areas where Gilroy font is commonly used.

• Download Gilroy fromdafontfree.io.

(Soruce : Google Images)

5. Helvetica Neue

Graphic designers can’t ignore the most remarkable font on this planet, ‘Helvetica Neue.’ Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger created this font in 1957, drawing inspiration from the Akzidenz Grotesk typeface. The word “Helvetica” comes from ‘Helvetia,’ a Latin term for Switzerland. Helvetica typeface gained significance when tons of brands used this font for their logo designs. A few of them are BMW, Microsoft, Panasonic, Jeep, and more.

• Download Helvetica Neue from freefontfamily.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

6. Univers

Univers is the first mega font family, designed by Swiss typography designer Adrian Frutiger. The Univers font family covers 21 different font weights and styles. With high readability, the Univers Typeface is the most legible, versatile, and adaptable font. It is easily used in a variety of design projects, ultimately becoming the first choice for graphic designers.

• Download Univers from dafontfamily.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

7. Lato

“Lato” means summer in Polish, and it’s a very modern and chic font. The typeface was designed by Polish designer Łukasz Dziedzic. It’s simple and straightforward, and the semi-rounded details on the letters are pleasing. The clarity of the font makes it legible and is preferred by type designers for websites, logos, and body texts.

• Download Lato fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

8. Nexa

A widely preferred typeface among designers, Nexa is designed by Svetoslav Simov. The letterforms have a slight geometric touch, using simple lines to enhance their legibility. It is a popular choice for brands, posters, and branding materials. For sleek designs, it comes with flexible weights and styles.

• Download Nexa fromdafont.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

9. Archive Grotesk

This font is a minimalistic sans-serif typeface that features a simple and clean design. It is a free font that adds elegance to magazine headlines, poster designs, brand marketing, and more. In terms of legibility, this typeface has balanced and subtle curves that make it easy to read and notice the content.

• Download Archive Grotesk frombehance.net

(Soruce : Google Images)

10. Animosa

A modern sans-serif typeface with a variety of weights, styles, and characters, Animosa is a font for designers that can add a bit of sophistication to your design, maintaining elegance in the letterforms. It comes in five weights, includes 93 languages, and 508 glyphs.

• Download Animosa frombehance.net

(Soruce : Google Images)

11. Public sans

Public Sans is a typeface essentially created for digital platforms, ensuring high clarity and readability on screens. Graphic designers can make use of Public Sans for poster design, web documents, and brand promotions. It is free for everyone to use and modify, making it a go-to choice for many designers.

• Download Public Sans from fonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

12. Salt

Salt is a neat typeface that can easily grab the attention of readers. If you notice the letters, it creates a unique style with a ‘low center of gravity’. You can download it for free from Pixel Surplus.

• Download Salt frompixelsurplus.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

13. Atami

For aesthetically pleasing logotypes, Atami is a good choice. It’s a modern typeface that comes in two different weights and three different styles. For web designers, Atami is suitable for creating headlines, watermarks, taglines, and more.

• Download Atami frombehance.net

(Soruce : Google Images)

14. Comfortaa

Comfortaa is one of the best free fonts, where the typeface is distinguished by the rounded geometric type design. Comfortaa is intended for large headlines, logos, and book covers. You can download the free version from Google Fonts.

• Download Comfortaa fromfont.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

15. Chivo

A grotesque typeface Chivo can be used for versatile projects, like big headlines, page furniture, and more. The confidence in the lettering style makes it a definite choice among graphic designers.

• Download Chivo fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

16. HK Grotesk

This font is a multipurpose typeface and is free for everyone. It is inspired by classic grotesques. The features of this typeface have similarities with Trade Gothic font, Univers, and Gill Sans Typeface. It is suitable for poster and logo designs.

• Download the font from1001fonts.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

17. Alcubierre

A geometric sans serif typeface, Alcubierre is a clean and minimal typeface. It was designed by Matt Ellis. It is a great choice for apparel designs, headers, logos, and various other creatives.

• Download Alcubierre fromdafontfree.io

(Soruce : Google Images)

18. Red Hat

Taking inspiration from American type sans-serifs, Red Hat is a great font choice for designers. The display font style features low contrast and tight spacing. It’s an open-source font available for everyone to use and download.

• Download Red Hat fromGitHub

(Soruce : Google Images)

19. Montserrat

Montserrat typeface was inspired by the posters, paints, and signs seen in the Montserrat neighborhood in Buenos Aires. It was created by Julieta Ulanovsky. The typeface is suitable for web copy, taglines, and titles.

• Download Montserrat fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

20. Gotham

Gotham typeface is the most widely used font in the last decade. The font’s design has the capability to persuade readers into believing it’s authentic and true. Many brands have utilized this popular font in their design work to market their logos, titles, and website content, including Spotify, Discovery, Taco Bell, and DC Comics, to name a few.

• Download Gotham fromfreefontsfamily.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

The Best Serif Fonts

The Serif typeface is a popular font family with a traditional significance. Throughout history, it is notable for maintaining a classic design that is generally very easy to read. It is said that the serif extension(small tails at the end) on letter strokes guides the eyes to recognize the text faster. They are often used in printing or publication designs like book covers, newspapers, and more because it’s easier to grasp the body text, with this typeface.

21. Bodoni

Bodoni is one of the popular fonts in graphic design. It was designed by Italian type designer Giambattista Bodoni in the late 18th century. With a serif typeface, Bodoni conveys luxury and timeless appeal. It is preferred by most printed fashion magazines, where graphic designers use this font for the brand’s headers and titles.

• Download Bodoni fromfreefontsfamily.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

22. Slabo

Slabo font was designed by John Hudson. The typeface featured a modern twist on classic serif font. Slabo is specifically designed for online web content, posters, and more. The font’s letterforms are sturdy and bold, making the typeface ideal for body text on a big screen. This font ensures that readers can easily read long-form content.

• Download Slabo fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

23. Playfair Display

Playfair display font is heavily inspired by the work of John Baskerville and the Enlightenment movement. It’s a free display font, that reflects the shift from broad nib quills to pointed steel pens. The letters feature beautiful serifs and can be used for headers, and titles. It can be paired with Times New Roman or Georgia font to stylistically enhance the body of the text.

• Download Playfair Display fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

24. Crimson

Crimson Text is a sophisticated font, specifically made for book designs and production. Following the tradition of old typefaces, the goal of Crimson Text font is readability. You can use it for designing pamphlets, brochures, newspapers, and more. You can easily pair this with Futura or Helvetica to make your design stand out.

• Download Crimson fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

25. Libre Baskerville

Libre Baskerville is a web font intentionally designed for long-form text. Inspired by the American type foundry made Baskerville font in 1941, it’s always on the list of the best typefaces for long text. The typeface features less contrast, taller height, and wider counters making it easier for the readers to absorb the content on the screen.

• Download Libre Baskerville from fonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

26. Woodland

Woodland is a charming font with a curvy serif typeface. It has strong and squared strokes that highlight the quirkiness of the font. You can notice the rounded serif of lowercase ‘e’. It is suitable for headers, posters, and advertisem*nts.

• Download Woodland frombehance.net

(Soruce : Google Images)

27. Aleo

Aleo font features balanced letters, with sleek and semi-rounded details. Aleo typeface is preferred for your web content or print designs. It often has a high legible rate.

• Download Aleo fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

28. Lora

Lora font comes with four styles, initially developed for web content. It was designed for type foundry Cyreal in 2011. The typeface features roots in calligraphy and well-balanced brushed edges with a contemporary appeal. Lora is among the best fonts for print projects as well.

• Download Lora fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

28. Rockwell

Rockwell font’s original name was Litho Antique, but then the last version ‘Rockwell’ was released in by monotype in 1934. The Rockwell typeface features a geometrical slab serif with straight lines, sharp angles, and circles. It is not suitable for body copy but can be used on advertising designs as big titles, and magazine prints.

• Download Rockwell fromdafontfamily.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

29. Restora

Restora has a Roman serif style typeface, with a vintage and classy feel. You can use Restora for branding purposes or simply for book design. The versatility this font offers helps designers use it for multiple projects.

• Download Restora frombehance.net

(Soruce : Google Images)

30. Cormorant

Cormorant font consists of 45 font files and gives you a perfect tone of expressiveness. The font is partially inspired by the 16th-century typefaces of Claude Garamont. You can easily use this typeface for designing applications, brochures, and more.

• Download Cormorant fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

31. Rude

Rude is a perfect choice for striking slogans and statements. The font is designed by Masha Chuprova. The font is a handcrafted serif, with a complex touch of humanistic and grotesque typographic shapes.

• Download Rude from behance.net

(Soruce : Google Images)

32. Merriweather

Merriweather font was designed by Sorkin Type, to be readable at petite sizes. The font features sturdy serifs, condensed letterforms, open forms, and diagonal stress.

• Download Merriweather fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

33. Didot

Didot has been considered the most fashionable serif font for almost 200 years. This font was redesigned by typography designer Adrian Frutiger, while the original Didot typeface was designed by the French printing and type-producing Didot family. It remains a highly popular font within the design community, due to its high-contrast strokes, vertical stress, and flat serifs. These features give the font an attractive and luxurious appearance, suitable for titles and Headers, while it is not suitable for long texts.

• Download Didot fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

34. Young Serif

Young serif was created by Bastien Sozeau. It consists of old-style letterforms partially inspired by Platinum infant fonts and ITC Italian Old Style. The font has an interesting serif curve, or axis tilts, while others have generally rounded curves. The font consists of heavy weights and 348 glyphs.

• Download Young Serif fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

35. Amargo

Amargo features angular strong serifs, making it an excellent choice for creating big imposing headers or titles. In terms of legibility, this font has well-crafted uppercase letterforms and numerals.

• Download Amargo from dafont.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

36. Editorial New

A font exclusively designed for long-form copy and suitable for titles as well. Editorial New has a narrow serif that gives out a 90’s editorial vibe. The family is available in eight weights and matching italics.

• Download Editorial New from behance.net

(Soruce : Google Images)

37. Harmony

Harmony is a classic new font from Artem Nevsky. It is a beautiful signature script font that features stylish well-balanced serifs. It looks professional in any context and is suitable for web design, posters, invitation cards, and more.

• Download Harmony fromdafont.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

38. Bitter

Bitter is a free contemporary slab serif font, specifically designed for comfortable reading on screens. It was designed by Sol Mathas.

• Download Bitter fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

39. Butler

Butler font is inspired by both the Bodoni and Dath Floda families. It is designed by Fabian De Smet with the aim of adding a modern touch to the classic typeface by working on the curves.

• Download Butler fromdafont.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

40. Poly

Poly is always on the list of best font choices for the web and features medium-contrast letterforms. It offers better legibility than other web typefaces. The clarity is achieved through short ascenders and vertical emphasis.

• Download Poly fromfonts.google.com

(Soruce : Google Images)

To wrap Up

There is a wide variety of fonts available for graphic designers to enhance their creative projects. Finding the right one can be a task. Typically, designers tend to stick to basic styles while working on a creative. Remember, the typography of the design is a small part of the overall design you are working on. However, choosing the right font can elevate your design to the next level.

There are other font categories for you to explore as well. Keep the objective of your design in mind before selecting the font that you think suits you best. Ensure that the letterforms are easy to read and understand. So, don’t hesitate to try out different fonts and have fun with your design.