Baskerville is excellent for body text in a wide variety of printed materials.įree Alternative: Libre Baskerville Bembo Although relatively new, it’s widely used and is suitable for body text and headings.Ĭreated by John Baskerville in 1757, Baskerville differed from its serif contemporaries by having greater contrast between the letterform’s thick and thin strokes, sharper serifs, and characters that are more regular and circular rounded strokes. While it can be used for body text, Avant Garde works best for headings and logos.įree Alternative: TeX Gyre Adventor Avenirĭesigned in 1988 by Adrian Frutiger, Avenir (“future” in French) is a geometric sans-serif typeface. Avant Gardeĭesigned by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase for Avant Garde magazine, this geometric sans-serif font family stands out and has a 1970s retro vibe to it.
ESSENTIAL PREMIUM FONTS FREE
Note: GNU Free Font is composed of three different typefaces (mono, sans-serif, serif), each with four basic styles (regular, italic, bold, italic-bold). It’s a very versatile font, that can be used in body text and headlines. Berthold AG type foundry, Akzidenz Grotesk (originally “Accidenz-Grotesk”) was the first widely used sans serif typeface, and influenced many later typefaces such as Helvetica, Univers, and others. Akzidenz GroteskĬreated in 1898 by the H.
If you find a free alternative that more closely matches its commercial counterpart, let me know. Another common situation was having to choose between two alternates that closely match the commercial version but each differs in slightly different ways. For example, one alternate font may match its commercial counterpart almost exactly, but has very few styles and another alternate may have many styles but doesn’t match as well. However, I have had to make numerous judgement calls when selecting which alternative to use. I have personally reviewed and selected what I feel are the best alternative fonts for the listed commercial versions. All the alternate fonts listed below are free for commercial use, with a link to a font repository’s page for that font.
ESSENTIAL PREMIUM FONTS PROFESSIONAL
I have compiled a list of the 30 most essential (in my professional judgement) fonts that should be an essential part of any designer’s toolbox as well as their best free alternative counterparts. Designers can have a mix of both, depending on the situation and what the budget allows. It should also be mentioned that free versus commercial fonts isn’t an either/or choice. If a free alternative looks 95% the same as its commercial counterpart, then a free alternative is certainly worth considering One doesn’t need a genuine Rolex when a quality Invicta can look 95% the same at 1% of the Rolex’s price. Some alternative fonts can get very close to the commercial font being imitated, so don’t let what I’ve said above about differences deter you.
More subtle differences can be line thickness, ligatures, x-height, descenders, leading, etc.
Usually the differences are small and almost unnoticeable such as an alternative’s lower-case i and j having square dots instead of round dots, upper-case Q having a different tail, letters having slightly different curves, serifs not being quite as sharply tapered, etc. There will ALWAYS be differences between an original commercial font and its alternative. But be forewarned: Just because a free alternative and its commercial version look practically the same, that does not mean they’re 100% identical (if the fonts were identical, then that would be copyright infringement). One option to consider is using free alternatives to popular commercial fonts. Given an average price of $30 per style and a minimum of four basic styles (typically regular, italic, bold, bold-italic), one is looking at $120 for a basic set of styles for a single typeface family (Note: One can often get a package deal when buying a bundle of font styles, so that’s one way to lower costs). However, buying commercial fonts from the major font foundries such as Adobe, Linotype, Bitstream, etc. Over the years, some fonts have proven to be such classics that any wise designer always makes them part of their essential font collection.
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