That is the ultimate question when it comes to typography. And, unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. It all depends on the specific project you’re working on and what kind of message you’re trying to communicate.

However, we can narrow it down to a few general categories.

Here are 11 popular typography styles to consider for your next project.

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1. Serif

Serif fonts are the ones with the little feet (serifs) on the end of each letter. They are classic and elegant, and they have been around for centuries. Think of Times New Roman or Garamond – these are both serif fonts.

Serif fonts are generally seen as being more formal and traditional than other types of fonts. They are often used for headlines, logos, and other high-impact pieces.

2. Sans Serif

Sans serif fonts are the exact opposite of serif fonts. They have no little feet on the end of the letters, hence the name “sans serif.”

Sans serif fonts are generally seen as being more modern and clean than serif fonts. They are often used for body copy, menus, and other pieces where readability is key.

3. Script

Script fonts are designed to look like they were written by hand. They are usually very flowing and cursive, and they can be difficult to read if they are used for large blocks of text.

Script fonts are best used for small pieces, such as headlines or logos. They can also be used for body copy, but only if the design is very simple and easy to read. A good example would be the Adelia Font.

4. Display

Display fonts are any type of font that is designed to be used at large sizes. They are often very bold and eye-catching, and they can be difficult to read at smaller sizes.

Display fonts are best used for headlines, logos, and other short pieces of text. They should not be used for body copy or any other type of long-form text. A good example that shows how bold these fonts can be is Arbutus.

5. Decorative

Decorative fonts are just what they sound like – they are designed to be used for decorative purposes only. They are often very ornate and can be difficult to read.

Decorative fonts should only be used sparingly, if at all. They can be used for headlines or logos, but they should never be used for body copy. They are a lot of fun though. Just check out the Space Time font.

6. Blackletter

Blackletter fonts are a type of serif font that is designed to look like it was written in the Middle Ages. They are very ornate and can be difficult to read. It also goes by the name of gothic script or Old English.

Cloister Black is a great example of a blackletter font that encapsulates this old-fashioned style.

7. Handwritten

Handwritten fonts are designed to look like they were written by hand. They can be either serif or sans serif, but they usually have a more organic feel than other types of fonts.

Handwritten fonts are best used for small pieces, such as headlines or logos. The Autography Font illustrates this typography style well.

8. Slab Serif

Slab serif fonts are a type of serif font that is designed to be used at large sizes. They are often very bold and eye-catching, and they can be difficult to read at smaller sizes.

Slab serif fonts are ideal for headlines, logos, and titles. They should not be used for body copy or any other type of long-form text though as the line weight is too thick for the confined spaces of paragraphs. The Rosette Font has a chunky look that serves as a good example of a slab serif.

9. Geometric

Geometric fonts are designed to be very clean and simple. They often have straight lines and angles and rely on a geometric construction to achieve their letter shapes.

This kind of font is best used for headlines or logos, or any other spot where just a few words are needed. They can also be used for body copy, but only if the design is very simple, large, and easy to read.

10. Grotesque

Grotesque fonts are a type of sans serif font that is designed to be used at large sizes. Historically, they’re known for looking a bit awkward and unusual.

It is advisable to only use grotesque fonts for headlines, logos, and other brief pieces of text. They are not meant to be used for paragraphs or long stretches of text. Work Sans is a great example of a neo-grotesque style.

11. Humanistic

Humanistic fonts are sans serif fonts as well that are designed to look very natural and organic. They often have curved lines and softened edges.

Humanistic fonts are most successful when used for titles, headlines, or logos. They can also be readable if used sparingly in body copy with a simple design layout. You can look to the Centaur Font as a good example of this classic font style.

Let Typography Style Options Inspire You

There you have it! These are the 11 most common types of fonts that you’ll see used in graphic design. As you can see, each one has its own unique purpose and should be used accordingly.

When it comes to choosing the right font for your project, it’s important to think about the overall style you’re going for. Do you want something clean and modern? Or are you going for a more vintage or retro feel?

Once you have a general idea of the style you’re after, you can start browsing through different font options until you find one that fits your vision. Good luck!

Wouldn’t it be lovely if you could capture this sentiment in your designs as well? From the subdued color palette to the sound of crunching leaves, autumn serves as a delightful source of inspiration that you can readily harness in your design work.

Today, we offer up several suggestions for fonts to use that shout “fall” from the rooftops. Whether you want something that reminds you of autumn leaves, a harvest meal, or Halloween festivities, we’ve found a healthy selection of fonts to fuel your design work for months to come.

Note: Be sure to read the licensing for each font before using it in a project.

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LSLeaves Font

This font brings the beauty of autumn leaves to your screen. It’s perfect for designing anything from logos and headers to invitations and greeting cards. It features 76 characters and 42 glyphs. Likewise, the delicate way leaves and vines sane their way around each letter truly makes this font stand out.

Autumn by weknow

The Autumn font by weknow is a great option for bringing a bit of a spooky touch to your designs this fall. Each character is made up of twisted branches and twigs, giving it all the feeling of creeping vines and things that go bump in the night.

Autumn Gifts

This font is perfect for designing holiday-themed items like gift tags, wrapping paper, and even invitations. The Autumn Gifts font features characters that are made up of pencil sketch-style drawings of fall-related items like cornhusks, pumpkins, and acorns.

Autumn Leaves

The Autumn Leaves is another decorative font that easily captures attention while simultaneously capturing the spirit of the fall season. It features interesting ligatures, bold lines, as well as embedded filigrees within each letter.

Autumn Ceria Font

This font is inspired by traditional hand-lettering techniques and gives off a warm, rustic feeling. The Autumn Ceria Font includes upper and lower case letters, numbers, and punctuation marks with fun leaf designs to use throughout your designs. You can use it for everything from product packaging to headers and titles.

Autumn Harvest

The Autumn Harvest Font is a great choice for designs related to food, cooking, or entertaining. It includes a lovely corn accent on each character, making it a great choice for harvest party invitations and other seasonal designs.

Scary Vampire Font

This font is perfect for all your Halloween-themed designs. The spooky letters are perfect for creating invitations, flyers, and even website headers. If you’re looking to add a touch of fright to your fall designs, this is the font for you. The appearance of blood dripping from each letter is what really sells the theme here.

MF Fall Pumpkins Font

Celebrate the season with Fall Pumpkins font. This cute, festive font is perfect for adding a touch of autumn to all your projects. Create monogram designs, seasonal banners, sublimation prints and so much more.

Sweet Maple

This font is perfect for all your autumn-themed designs. The letters are bubbly and engaging and are surrounded by appropriately sweet maple leaf embellishments.

Punkins Font

This fun and festive font is perfect for all your Halloween and autumn designs. Though it doesn’t feature actual letter designs, it does feature a variety of Halloween-themed designs instead like pumpkins, black cats, and jack o’lanterns, making it a great choice for everything from Halloween party invitations to blog posts.

Which Fall-Inspired Font Will You Use?

Whether you want something cute and festive or spooky and creepy, there’s a font on this list that’s perfect for your autumn-inspired designs. Be sure to read the licensing for each font before using it in a project and enjoy getting creative with your fall designs!

You may also like to take a look at our other font collections for more to choose from as well.

Now to make it even faster for you to create an astonishing design, we’ve compiled a huge collection of FREE modern fonts! More choices means more fun! Use these modern fonts for creative typography designs, business logos, website designs – you pick! There are plenty of free professional modern fonts to choose from!

Feel free to play with these free fonts and find the best match for your design!

Note: Before we start – be sure to check license information on these popular fonts, they may be free but some of them require reference or may not be used for commercial projects for free, although most of them are.

Sansation Typeface Modern Font (Free)

Fertigo Pro Typeface (Free)

Beautiful, modern font and it’s still unbelievable it is free! Now Fertigo Pro version is released with extended language support and more.

10 Google Font Combinations for Inspiration (curated by Qode Magazine)

Bank Nue Display Font (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Megalopolis Extra Typeface (Free)

Revamped version of the 2004 one. Now in OT with extended language support and OpenType features with alternates, ligatures, different styles of figures, etc.

Walkway Free Typeface (Free)

For some reason this is one of my favorite modern fonts here. Love the elegant shapes, simplicity, and how clean this font looks.

Nadia Serif Typeface (Free)

TM Stanley (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Modeno Font (Free)

M+ OUTLINE Typeface (Free)

Really beautiful font with many variations – thin, light, regular, medium, black, heavy – be sure to check this free premium font.

Kohm (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Fontin Sans Typeface (Free)

Diavlo Typeface (Free)

Diavlo is a free font that contains 5 weights: Light, Book, SemiBold Medium, Bold and Black. Read and look more into this one in this PDF document.

Museo Typeface (Free)

This OpenType font family comes in five weights and offers support for CE languages and even Esperanto. Besides ligatures, contextual alternatives, stylistic alternates, fractions and proportional/tabular figures MUSEO also has a ‘case’ feature for case sensitive forms.

Baker Street Rough (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Gentium Typeface Simple Font (Free)

Delicious Typeface Font (Free)

This free, modern font has been my favorite for some time – it has beautiful details and every character has a unique shape too.

Junction Typeface Free Font (Free)

Inspired by humanist sans serif typefaces, such as Meta, Myriad, and Scala, Junction is where the best qualities of serif and sans serif typefaces come together. It has the hand-drawn and human qualities of a serif, and still retains the clarity and efficiency of a sans serif font. It combines the best of both worlds.

CartoGothic Std Typeface Free Font (Free)

Lawless Font (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Anivers Typefac Contemporary Font (Free)

This OpenType font family comes in regular, italic, bold, and small caps and has some nice OpenType features. Besides ligatures, contextual alternatives, fractions, oldstyle/tabular numerals, Anivers also has a ‘case’ feature for case sensitive forms and tabular numerals … so Anivers can crunch numbers with ease.

Medio Typeface Simple Font (Free)

This unique free font will be great for artistic poster or wallpaper designs.

Glowist (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Birra Stout Typeface Bold Font (Free)

Rezland Typeface Unique Font (Free)

This free font will be amazing for textual logo designs.

OFTEN Typeface (Free)

If you are looking for a tech font, this will do nicely.

Parlour (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Engel Light Font (Free)

Contra Modern Font

Knox (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Nilland Typeface (Free)

This free font will do well for tech logo designs.

Calluna Font Typeface (Free)

Calluna supports a very wide range of languages and is a very complete OpenType typeface. Each font counts 723 glyphs so it’s a cool and thorough letter font. You can find detailed info on the character set and the OpenType features in the Calluna PDF specimen.

Arkibal Serif (with Envato Elements Subscription)

QuickSand Typeface Free Font (Free)

This is a free and elegant sans serif typeface.

Splandor (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Mentone Font Typeface (Free)

This unique font is available in various formats and will definitely look nice in your next design.

Vegur Typeface (Free)

Jackham (Plus Bonus) (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Swansea Typeface Simple Font (Free)

GeoSans Light Font Typeface (Free)

I enjoy this modern font because of it’s thin and elegant font lines displaying text in a fashionable, yet simple way.

RNS Camelia (with Envato Elements Subscription)

COM4t Nuvu Regular Typeface (Free)

Looking for artistic fonts? Look no further!

Steiner Typeface Tech Font (Free)

Chunk Modern Typeface Font (Free)

Chunk is an ultra-bold slab serif typeface that is reminiscent of old American Western woodcuts, broadsides, and newspaper headlines. Used mainly for display, the fat block lettering is unreserved yet refined for contemporary use.

Aller Sans Typeface (Free)

It’s a pretty cool Sans Serif font, great for modern typography designs.

Troupe Font (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Juvelo Typeface Artistic Font (Free)

Self explaining image below, but I enjoy this font because of its unique glance and serifs.

Goudy Bookletter 1911 Serif Typeface (Free)

Burford Rustic Book Bold (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Temporarium Typeface (Free)

It’s an interesting font and could be used for artistic designs and text displays.

Bellerose Typeface Free Font (Free)

The Douglas Collections (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Ambrosia Demo Typeface New Font (Free)

Here’s a demo version of a font called Ambrosia. It has all letters, numbers and a few symbols.

Surrounding Free Bold Font (Free)

Circled Typeface (Free)

Very cool and sharp font, it got my interest right away! Use this free font to add beautiful lettering to your designs. I am sure if you use this simple type on brochures or business cards for emphasis, it would look amazing.

Nevis Free Font (Free)

This strong, angular typeface is ideal for headings. It features 96 of the most commonly used glyphs (characters).

Zephyr Font (Free)

Advent Pro Typeface Font (Free)

Excellent and very popular unique font with many, many different variations to play with.

SerifBeta Typeface (Free)

This is a beta version of this font, but still seems very complete for me – included in the set are Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic for optical sizes 72, 12 and 6. Size 72 also includes italic swash characters and Black weights.

Evolution True Type Font (Free)

Note that you have to give credit if you use this font and you must contact the author before using it in commercial projects!

Sliced AB Font Typeface (Free)

Technical Forest v2 Typeface (Free)

Only for non-commercial use.

Alte Haas Grotesk Modern Font Typeface (Free)

Comfortaa Font Typeface (Free)

Comfortaa is a simple, good looking, true type font with an amazingly large number of characters and symbols. You can see them all in the preview. It is absolutely free, both for personal and commercial use.

MOD™ Modern Font (Free)

MOD is applicable for any type of graphic design – web, print, motion graphics etc and perfect for t-shirts and other items like logos, pictograms, with its 215 character set.

Whiteboard Modern Font Typeface (Free)

Whiteboard Modern is a hand-drawn face resembling the flowing motion and freedom of writing in an open space, such as a dry-erase board.

Neighbourhood Type Interesting Font (Free)

Love this modern font! Now if you cannot create cool letter designs with this, I don’t know how you will do it!

Soraya Font by JustMyType (Free)

On JustMyType site you can find several more very unique and interesting letters. Half serif, half sans serif. Capital letters A-Z, available only in Illustrator AI format.

Kenzo Free Typeface Font (Free)

Benito Clean Italic Font (Free)

Unfortunately this cool font is no longer available for free.

Yeseva One Elegant Free Font (Free)

Matchup Light Free Fun Font (Free)

Otsu Slab Mediuma Quirky Font (Free)

PIXACAISM Free Neon Font (Free)

Airbag Trendy Font (Free)

Ponsi Rounded Slab Font (Free)

This is a cool letter font sparking with elegance!

KG A Little Swag Quirky Font (Free)

What’s My Age Again Quirky Font (Free)

Quirky Nots Free Font (Free)

Rich McNabb Modern Font (Free)

Kelson Sans Font (Free)

Summit Contemporary Font (Free)

Bamq Typeface Amazing Font (Free)

Moderna Unicase Medium Font (Free)

Corbert Regular Classy Font (Free)

Xclv.Neon Pro Tech Font (Free)

Foro Rounded Light Modern Font (Free)

Corbert Italic Simple Font (Free)

Langdon Bold Font (Free)

Brisko Sans Bold Italic Font (Free)

Muchacho (Free)

Brisko Sans Bold Tech Font (Free)

Modular free Typeface GADO Luxury Font (Free)

PALO ALTO Luxury Font (Free)

Dragon Force Technology Font (Free)

Fopi Rush Artistic Font (Free)

Dickson’s Tales (Free)

Bisurk Font (Free)

Bacana (Free)

Liquor Typeface (Free)

Cyntho Slab Pro Regular (Free)

Cyntho Slab Pro Italic Free Font (Free)

Lev Serif by TypeFaith*Fonts (Free)

Digitalino (Free)

Myra free font (Free)

Oami Quirky Font (Free)

Quark Free Font (Free)

Capita Light (Free)

Aleo free font (Free)

Intrique Script (Free)

CHRONIC Typeface Font (Free)

Altrashed-Rough (Free)

Bouh Type (Free)

Dense (Free)

South Rose (Free)

Sanchez Slab Regular (Free)

Sanchez Slab Italic (Free)

Heister Type (Free)

Dos Amazigh Font (Free)

ARSENAL (Free)

Nudo Free Font (Free)

Sequi (Free)

Les Etoiles Elegant font (Free)

Chomage (Free)

Chomp Free Font (Free)

BRIG (Free)

Grandma’s Garden Artistic Font (Free)

Belladone (Free)

Versa Free Modern Font (Free)

Discreet Font (Free)

Free fonts Namskout & Namskin (Free)

Agilis (Free)

Sabado (Free)

SANOTRA TYPEFACE (Free)

Corduroy Slab (Free)

Hair Problems Free Font (Free)

Track free Modern font (Free)

Smitten Over U (Free)

Valkyrie (Free)

LINUX BIOLINUM (Free)

Global Medium (Free)

Global Medium Italic (Free)

Global Medium Stencil (Free)

Speakeasy (Free)

Lovelo Simple font (Free)

Canter Typeface (Free)

Hapna Mono (Free)

Truelove (Free)

LeHand Font (Free)

«zwodrei» (Free)

Born (Free)

PROMESH (Free)

Uralita Bold (Free)

Tomahawk Font (Free)

RELIC TYPEFACE (Free)

XXII Centar Sans (Free)

BARON (Free)

Vidaloka (Free)

ROUNDA (Free)

Brassie Regular Font (Free)

Scribbage (Free)

Maw Free (Free)

AC Filmstrip Classy font (Free)

Biko Regular (Free)

Valk Display (Free)

Dia Free Unique Font (Free)

London Cool Letter Font (Free)

STELA UT (Free)

VETKA (Free)

MERRIWEATHER SANS Font

Hiruko Pro (FREE) (Free)

Look Up Artistic Font (Free)

Saniretro Modern Typeface (Free)

Higher Modern Tech Font (Free)

SEAGLE FREE FONT (Free)

Villa Quirky font (Free)

Laika FREE Tech Font (Free)

Mexicano Chili Sauce Fun Free Font (Free)

BoB Fun Font (Free)

Gabriela Elegant Font (Free)

Orange Juice (Free)

Attentica Free Technology Font (Free)

Distractor free Cool Typeface Font (Free)

Engine Artistic font (Free)

Brain Flower (Free)

Braxton font (Free)

Marta Modern font (Free)

Iron Typeface Tech Font (Free)

Idealist Sans Font (Free)

Supra Thin Compressed Font (Free)

Urban Circus Deco Tech Font (Free)

Equip Light Modern Font (Free)

Clinica Pro Regular Font (Free)

Babetta Neon Tube Sharp Font (Free)

Supra Extra Light Mezzo Italic (Free)

PEYO Regular Modern Typeface (Free)

Ore Crusher: Interesting Modern Font (Free)

Track&Field Artistic & Modern Font (Free)

Paihuen Mapuche Free Artistic Font (Free)

Editor’s Note: This article was previously published in January 2019, and has been updated to include new information.

To help you get started on your next design, we’ve compiled a list of 18 fonts here that fit the bill. Many of these are free modern fonts that you can get started with using immediately. Enjoy!

Rothko Modern Art Deco Display Font

This lovely font embraces the art deco style on the 1920s while still looking entirely modern and of today.

Arapey

Arapey is a straightforward-looking font that can be used for any number of purposes. It’s sophisticated and simple.

KINFOLK – Modern Serif Font

The Kinfolk font is described as a modern serif selection. It offers a traditional look with a feel choice design elements that make it stand out from the pack.

Modern Leaves

Here’s another lovely choice. Modern Leaves features letter styles with irregular heights that make it ideally suited for titles, headeres, and graphics.

Sundays – Modern Serif Font

The Sundays font is delightfully simple and that’s precisely why it’s so appealing. Get your point across without overwhelming viewers.

Butler

Butler is a chunky font that’s perfect for titles and graphics. It allows you to demand attention and be bold while maintaining a modern appeal.

Rylan – Modern Serif w/ Free Extras

Rylan is another lovely choice for a serif font. It features elements of more classic fonts yet embraces unique angles for specific letters that make it stand out.

Moderna

The aptly named Moderna font looks almost futuristic but not alienating. The letters are rounded but still entirely legible.

Heather Oliver – A Modern Script

If you’re looking for something a bit fancier, the Heather Oliver font delivers. This script font is modern and versatile.

Modern Fantasy

The Modern Fantasy font offers a whimsical look that can be applied to many different types of projects. From website headers to marketing materials, this one can serve you well.

Permian Serif

The Permian Serif font is simple, straightforward, and classic. But, it’s not stodgy and manages to offer a modern spin on a traditional style.

The Chic & Unique Modern Font Bundle

This font bundle can be applied to a wide number of situations and offers several fonts that fit the modern moniker.

Mr Eaves

The Mr Eaves font offers a combination of styles that work well together. This sans serif font is slightly bubbly but still clean and readable, making it useful for many projects.

Soria

Another option is the Soria font. This one is a serif offering that includes elements of script fonts as well and would add an air of elegance to any project you create.

Latin Modern Mono Font Family

The Latin Modern Mono font is highly reminiscent of typewriter fonts with a modern twist and flair.

Top Modern

Another option is the Top Modern font. This one is a serif font that has much of the appeal of traditional options without looking boring or redundant.

Modern 216

Modern 216 is a serif font with larger than-you’d-expect spacing, and a flatten of the letter heights that make it stand out as a modern choice.

Computer Modern Font Family

Last on our list is the Computer Modern Font Family. This selection is a sans serif choice that’s simple and modern, all while giving off a decidedly tech look.

Use These Modern Fonts in Your Next Project

There’s no reason to wait around before trying something new for your next design. This collection of free and premium modern fonts will elevate your work and convey confidence for your customers and clients. So, take a look and get started! Be sure to check out our other modern font collections too!

Regardless of whether you are looking for seasonal fonts, or just something different from the norm, the free and premium fonts for web use listed below will surely provide you with some unique and interesting options to use in your design projects.

Note: be sure to check license information on these popular fonts. They may be free but some of them require reference or may not be used for commercial projects for free, although most of them are.

Knewave (Free)

Miracella Script (with Envato Elements Subscription)

League Script (Free)

Fountain Type (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Pacifico (Free)

Hey Spring Brush Font (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Calafia (Pay What You Want For Personal Use)

Twenty Nine Font (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Sofia (Free)

Sannie Typeface (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Boomville (Pay What You Want For Personal Use)

Banshee Brush Script (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Amatic SC (Free)

Santoy (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Escafina (Pay What You Want For Personal Use)

Fairytales Script (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Waltograph (Free For Personal Use)

Hard Stones Family (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Cheri Font Family (Free For Personal Use)

Leah Gaviota (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Bender (Pay What You Want For Personal Use)

Sanös Extended Script Font (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Bigelow Rules (Free)

Cherry Cream Soda Font (Free)

Sidebook Script Font (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Chicle Font (Free)

Englebert (Free)

Fiesta Font Duo (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Henny Penny Font (Free)

Mystery Quest Font (Free)

Nalotta (with Envato Elements Subscription)

Ribeye Marrow Font (Free)

Enchanted Land (with Envato Elements Subscription)

In the Adobe font pairings below, you will find clean, legible web fonts that are actually being pulled in directly from Adobe fonts onto the page, the same as you would on a website. These are not images. So you can see exactly how they will display on a website. The titles of each of the Adobe font pairings are clickable links to the font pages themselves, for ease of access and bookmarking to use yourself.

We hope you enjoy these 14 best Adobe font pairings we’ve suggested, and find them useful in your upcoming projects.

Orpheus (Bold) + Proxima Nova

URW Din (Bold) + Neue Haas Grotesk (Light)

Lust + FF Tisa

Aktiv Grotesk (XBold) + Aktiv Grotesk Ext

Big Caslon (Black) + Neue Haas Grotesk (Light)

JAF Lapture (Bold) + Franklin Gothic URW (Light)

Brothers (Bold) + Interstate (Light)

Rift (Bold) + Acumin (Light)

Sofia (Semi Bold) + FF Tisa

Calluna (Bold) + Effra

Miller Display (Bold) + Calluna

Din Condensed + Basic Sans (Light)

Ambroise (ExtraBold) + JAF Domus

Fieldwork (Bold) + Source Sans

The inspiration for many art styles, grunge music and fashion is associated with harsh songs, ripped jeans, and distorted instrument sounds. It was an unorthodox genre far removed from cleaner brands of music.

Grunge typography is much the same, sharply divulging from traditional elegant serifs and clean sans-serifs to create a new unique style. These fonts tend to have a dirty, smudged, paint-brushed, or eroded look. They can be simple and legible or distorted and dramatic.

These fonts look great on rock music sites and graphics, but anyone can use them. If you want to add a little texture and variation to your project, or need to draw eyes to a part of your website, try one of these stand-out grunge fonts.

Fierce by Itsmesimon

UnderWorld by hmeneses

Ugly Alligator by Cosmic Store

Bearpaw by Dennis Anderson

Smile and Wave by Chris Vile

Brush Up by PintassilgoPrints

Splandor Typeface by ilhamherry

New York by Saji Johnny Kundukulam

Conspiracy by Nerfect Type Laboratories

Grunge Tire by Just Type It

Crayon Hand by Letters & Numbers

Beyond Wonderland by Chris Hansen

Againts Typeface by Fortunes Co

Gunshot by Gleb Guralnyk

Eveleth by Yellow Design Studio

Unconventional, Interesting Fonts

If you’re tired of clean web design and want to put a spin on things, you should definitely consider grunge typography. The fonts are highly unique, and thus overuse can dull their message. But a grunge font in just the right place can attract attention and add a little interest to a bland webpage.

You don’t have to be making a rock website to use grunge fonts. You can find more subtle textured effects on all sorts of websites, especially ones that want to add a natural feel or tell the world that they’re unconventional.

Using a grunge font in just the right place can leave a big impact on visitors, so don’t be afraid to try one.

There are four main types of fonts you can use in web design, each with their own distinctive look. Not sure where to begin? We’ll give you a little typography guidance so you can design a website that perfectly conveys the mood you’re going for.

Serif

Serif fonts are the go-to for elegant and professional designs. These stylish typefaces are marked by the little dashes extending from the stroke of each letter. Serifs have long been used for extensive passages in print. They give websites an old-fashioned, sophisticated tone.

In general, serif fonts are suitable for almost any situation: headers, body text, small to large sizes, and short or long copy – they should only be avoided in very small sizes. Some also claim that serifs are less screen-legible.

• Old Style: Going back to the 1400s, these serifs are marked by low line contrast and diagonal stress.
• Transitional: Transitional styles bridge the gap between traditional and modern serifs. You begin to see more line contrast and stylistic additions.
• Didone: These modern serifs have dramatic line contrast, and are very commonly used in print pieces.
• Slab Serif: Wide, bold, and instantly eye-catching, slab serifs make great display fonts.

Sans-Serif

Throughout history sans-serifs were rejected in favor of their more elegant cousins, but the bold and legible typeface is now used to represent modernity, simplicity, and efficiency.

Sans-serif fonts lack the small strokes at the end of letters, and as a result are more legible on screens and at smaller sizes. These fonts are a jack of all trades, and look great at any size and in any length of text. Use them when you’re shooting for a modern or minimalist vibe.

• Grotesque: The earliest sans-serifs, these fonts are simple and bold, often with a square shape to them.
• Neo-Grotesque: Neo-Grotesques less resemble early serifs, with a more minimalistic style.
• Geometric: Composed of simple shapes like circles and squares, these have an appealing simplicity but are a little less legible in body type.
• Humanist: Inspired by calligraphy and old-style serifs, humanist fonts are unique with highly varied line widths.

Script

Script fonts are defined by their handwritten, cursive- or calligraphy-like style. They bring the elegance of serifs with a more authentic and beautiful design.

Unlike serifs, however, scripts aren’t made for legibility. They shouldn’t be used as body text or passages longer than a paragraph or two. They look great as headers, logos, or short quotes. If you need something a little more unique, try a script font.

Due to its unique nature, this typeface is hard to classify, but there are a few distinctive categories.

• Formal: Inspired by handwriting from the 1600s-1800s, formal scripts often have large, dramatic loops and antiquated styling, and appear to be drawn with a quill or pen.
• Casual: Casual scripts are just as beautiful but less formal, looking more like fancy modern handwriting. Often, they look as if drawn with brush strokes.

Decorative/Display

The last font type, and the hardest to pin down, is decorative/display typefaces. These fonts are the most unique and come in any kind of style you can think of, from graffiti to abstract to three-dimensional font types.

You may be able to get away with using a script font in a paragraph if you’re feeling adventurous, but decorative fonts belong only in single sentences and as header text. They’re designed for style, not legibility.

There’s also symbol fonts, which display letters as various ornaments like faces or objects. This can have some use as decoration.

Display and decorative fonts are optimized for use at very large sizes. Use them anywhere but your body text.

Create Better Font Palettes

Now that you know how to use every type of font, it’s time to put together a font palette for your design project. Most websites use two or three main typefaces, a header and body font.

Remember to use the rule of contrasts. You could use a script header font and match it with an elegant serif, or serif body text with an eye-catching sans-serif title. You could even try two of the same types of fonts, but pick a bolder display typeface and contrast it with a clean body font.

Your choices are unlimited, so experiment with various flavors of fonts and see what happens.

Luckily, you no longer need to spend hours combing through font sites trying to find similar typefaces. Several resources exist online that can help you quickly identify any font – or at the very least, find a similar one.

Let’s go over a few of the best font identifiers now.

WhatFont

Want to hover some text and instantly see what font it is? WhatFont does just that, naming almost any font on a website at the click of a button. It can also identify fonts that are served from Typekit or Google Fonts. Get it for Chrome, Firefox, or even as a bookmarklet.

The one problem with this is that it only works on webpages; if you need to identify fonts in an image or photograph, you’ll need to use one of the services below.

WhatTheFont!

With one of the largest collections of fonts at 130k, WhatTheFont allows you to compare the typeface in any image against the huge selection at MyFonts. Just drop in an image and adjust the crop box to the text you want to identify. You can even use images with multiple fonts and lines of text.

The search results show the text within the crop box so you can compare it directly, and just keep clicking “See more” to get more results.

You’ll only find commercial fonts however, so if you know that a font you’re looking for is free or want to find free similar fonts, this might not be the best tool.

Font Finder

Font Finder is an advanced tool that compares fonts against a library of 550k. It takes a bit more work to set up and has some limitations, as more than one line of text or more than one font in the same image can confuse it.

To make up for this, it comes with an image editor that allows you to increase contrast for dark images, crop out irrelevant portions, and reduce noise, among other tools. These allow you to get more accurate results than other font finders. You can also sort results by free or commercial.

Fontspring Matcherator

Upload or link to any image, crop the text you want to identify or rotate flipped images, and you’re on your way with this identifier. It automatically matches shapes and glyphs, but you can manually input glyphs as well. You’ll find free and premium fonts in the results, and just click to see the download page.

Identifont

If all else fails, or if you’re trying to identify a popular font, try Identifont. It asks you a series of questions about the typeface’s style, then gives you a few results and several similar fonts. It also lists info like the designer and where to buy it.

Find Any Font

Before these font identifiers were popularized, it was a time-consuming process to locate a font you were looking for.

Your best bet was asking the person who made the graphic or website. And if you found it in the real world, all you could do was search through font repositories or even books of fonts. And there was no guarantee that you would ever find it.

Thanks to these programs, that’s a thing of the past. Now, just take a screenshot or scan a font and get results in seconds. Even if you can’t locate the exact typeface, you can still try the similar fonts in the search results instead.

Try them out next time you stumble on a font you want to try. You’ll be surprised at how accurate these tools are.

If you want to remind people of summer, the sun, and the sea, try out one of these 22 warm fonts we’ve collected just for you. Fun, elegant, or creative, there’s a typeface here for your project.

Summer of 76 by Darumo Shop

Sailor Stripes by On the Mark Designs

Cassandra Personal Use by Billy Argel

Sea Legs by Britt Fabello

Summer Palms Font Collection by Mel Volkman

Mermaid Tails by Kitaleigh

Fire Font by Art Loft

Salazar by Konstantine Studio

Beach Please by Rsz Type Foundry

Forever Summer by Flycatcher Design

Rome by Jen Wagner Co

Lemon Jelly Personal Use by Billy Argel

Rainforest by Typodermic

Hunter by New Tropical Design

Forbidden Isle by Spring Break Jake

Havana Sunset Font Duo by Sam Parrett

Swung Note by PintassilgoPrints

Aquarius – A Tropical Font Family by IconsByKassy

Sveglia by Wacaksara co

Laguna Beach Font Duo by Jen Wagner Co

Bashira Brush Script by Maulana Creative

Summer Lemonade by Hart Foundry

Try a Vibrant Summer Font

Nothing says summer like a colorful, lively font. All of these fonts embrace the brightness and energy of summer with their unique designs, flowy cursives, and light-hearted feel.

Some are casual and decorated with a cartoony look, while others are clean and professional. But all of them are eye-catchingly beautiful and perfect for any summer project. Try some for yourself; you’ll love the spark these fonts can instantly bring into your design.