101 essential free fonts for web designers

Every designer knows that free fonts are a godsend when working on a project, but truly valuable free fonts can be tough to find.

With this list we’ve endeavoured to bring you as many full font families as possible; fonts that are genuinely free (not just one style or weight free), a balance of fonts that work well for body text as well as display, and a full collection of fonts that are pleasing to the eye.

Everyone can find something new and useful among these amazing free fonts.

Fonts love chunk

We’re kicking off our list with fonts that have some serious weight to throw around!

ChunkFive is a classic, but there are some other heavy contenders in this batch as well. Check out Troika for an edgier, paper-cutting inspired display font.

Bemio

Chunk

Troika

Abril Fatface

Governor

Vast Shadow

Komika Title

PassionOne

Born

Poetsen

Tall and slender

If you’re trying to fit a lot of text into a small area, these narrow fonts can help you get the job done.

Bebas Neue and League Gothic will be familiar names to some, but check out Valencia and Simplifica for new and interesting variations on the theme.

Bebas Neue

League Gothic

Oswald

Langdon

Ostrich Sans

Simplifica

Valencia

Mohave

Yanone Kaffeesatz

Happy families

Nothing makes a perfect pairing quite like fonts with sans and serif versions, so in this section we’ve found some of the best free couples out there – and a trio, too!

Names like Merriweather and Merriweather Sans might be familiar to many, but check out Mission Gothic/Mission Script or the Permian trio for a fresh update.

Quaver

Merriweather

Merriweather Sans

Afta Sans

Afta Serif

Mission Gothic

Mission Script

Permian Sans

Permian Serif

Permian Slab

Curves are in

We love scripts for so many things, and the faces we’ve gathered below celebrate the best and most diverse free script typefaces available.

Dancing Script is a longtime favorite for many, but be sure to check out fresh faces like Yellowtail and Grand Hotel.

Condiment

Cylburn

Dancing Script OT

Euphoria Script

Grand Hotel

Kaushan Script

Lavanderia

Nautilus Pompilius

Sonsie One

Yellowtail

Show-offs

Great-looking display fonts can be tough to come by; as the most popular category of free fonts, one has to sift through a haystack of options just to find the few needles worth keeping.

We’ve made that process a little simpler by gathering up some of the best free display and experimental typefaces out there.

Adam

Amaranth

Bree Serif

Barkentina

Boogaloo

Cinzel

Glamor

High Tide

Lovelo

Odin Rounded

Oil Can

Playfair Display

Slabs with style

A necessity for any designer’s collection, the slab serif remains one of our favorite styles.

From the traditionally appealing Aleo to the architecturally inspired Korneuburg, this assortment of slab serifs is sure to delight any designer.

Aleo

Crete Round

Flagship 1997

Gaspar

Klinic Slab

Korneuburg Slab

Nixie One

Rokkitt

Trocchi

Pretty and playful

This group of fonts embodies the whimsical side of design, not quite display fonts, not entirely traditional, but each in its own way fun and unique.

Check out Bellota and Overlock for more delicate designs, or Rawengulk and Exo 2.0 for sans-serifs with an angular style.

ABeeZee

Bellota

Delicious

Dosis

Edmondsans

Exo 2.0

Fontin Sans

Hallo Sans

Junction

Overlock

Raleway

Rawengulk

Titillium

Tuffy

Seriffic

Standard serif fonts tend to be easily dismissed, so with this collection, we aim to revive the classification and remind ourselves that fonts which are excellent for body copy or headlines need not be boring.

Check out the gorgeous Playfair Display or lovely ligatures of Valentina and then repeat this mantra: “I’m never going back to Times New Roman.”

Bitter

Fénix Std.

Goudy Bookletter 1911

Heuristica

Judson

Libre Baskerville

Linden Hill

Poly

Seshat

Valentina

Volkhov

Sansational

For those of you with a preference for sans-serif fonts, we have collected our favorites below.

Versatile and easy on the eyes, check out Neris, which looks fantastic at any size, Fira Sans, from the good people at Mozilla, or Encode Sans, the newest project from the folks at Impallari Type.

Aileron

Arsenal

Asap

Cabin

Encode Sans

Fengardo Neue

Fira Sans

Gudea

Linux Biolinum

Muli

Neris

Oxygen

Quattrocento Sans

Rambla

Rosario

Signika

Melody Weister

Melody is a freelance writer and social media specialist from Montclair, NJ. Visit her website at www.interrobangthat.com or follow her on Twitter (@whatmelodywrote).