I’m a typography nerd and here is where I collate my typographic preferences, recommendations, ideas, and thoughts.

You can find longer versions of everything below in the ‘typography’ tag on my personal blog.

Video explainers

My current favourite typefaces

Blog post: ‘My favourite typefaces (December 2025)’ + ‘How I think about typefaces’ (for an explanation of the categories)

tl;dr: I list my favourite typefaces and share links from where you can buy or download them

Last updated: 27 Dec 2025 (the list on this page is always the most up-to-date)

 

Favourite serif typefaces

 

Favourite sans serif typefaces

 

Favourite slab serif typefaces

 

Favourite monospace typefaces

My current typeface wish list (realistic)

Blog post: ‘My favourite typefaces (December 2025)’ + ‘How I think about typefaces’ (for an explanation of the categories)

tl;dr: I list the realistically affordable typefaces that I intend to buy next

Cool type pairings on the web – ongoing series

Blog post series: ‘Cool type pairings’

tl;dr: Ongoing blog post series in which I showcase and talk about the cool typeface pairings I find on the web

My favourite typeface pairings

Blog post: ‘My favourite typeface pairings’

tl;dr: I talk about my favourite body text typefaces and the heading typefaces I pair those with

Typeface alternatives I recommend

Times New Roman

Blog posts: ‘Times New Roman alternatives – follow-up’ and ‘Times New Roman alternatives’

  • To most people I recommend PT Astra Serif, which is a great, free, drop-in replacement.

  • To professionals I recommend Equity, which is an fantastic, paid, drop-in replacement.

  • To typography enthusiasts and website developers I recommend the Newsreader family since it has optical sizes (Display, Text, Caption).

  • If you’re after a neutral, formal, serif typeface that doesn’t look like Times New Roman though, try Source Serif 4 (free) or Mercury (paid) instead. Those are the two I use.

Arial and Helvetica

Blog post: ‘Arial and Helvetica alternatives’

Frutiger

Blog post: ‘Frutiger alternatives’

  • I adore Frutiger, but most people can’t justify buying one of its popular versions (ie Neue Frutiger and Frutiger Next).

  • To most people I recommend Fact (paid) – this is what I use.

  • Another great alternative is Myriad (paid).

  • My favourite free alternative is Figtree.

Franklin Gothic

Blog post: ‘Franklin Gothic alternatives’

  • The Franklin Gothic ‘family’ is actually three typefaces: Franklin Gothic, Alternate Gothic, and News Gothic.

  • The modern versions of Franklin Gothic and News Gothic are all quite expensive.

  • If you want drop-in replacements I recommend Libre Franklin instead of Franklin Gothic, Oswald instead of Alternate Gothic, and Public Sans instead of News Gothic – all of which are free.

  • Trade Gothic Next and Benton Sans are great paid alternatives.

  • My preferred alternatives – which are inspired by Franklin Gothic but don’t look exactly like it – are Nebula Sans (free), Whitney Narrow (paid), and Source Sans 3 (free). (Note that Nebula Sans is a version of Source Sans 3 that’s been modified to look more like Whitney.)

Avenir

Blog post: ‘Avenir alternatives’

  • The Regular weight of the Avenir font that comes preinstalled with Windows and macOS is thin. And while this thinness looks elegant, it reduces the readability of this typeface when you use it as body text on screens, especially if the font size is relatively small.

  • You could purchase a licence to all of Avenir Next and use the Medium weight for your body text instead, but the Basic Family Pack licence costs over AU$500. (macOS users already have this weight pre-installed.)

  • So instead I use an alternative typeface, and the two that work best for me are Hint (paid, but reasonably priced) and Figtree (free).

  • Other paid typefaces to consider are Sailec and Neuzit Office (though I haven’t tried Neuzit Office myself).

  • Other free typefaces to could consider are Montserrat and Poppins.

My typographic journey

Blog post: ‘Journey to my favourite typefaces’

tl;dr: I show my journey from default typefaces to the typefaces I use now

These are my preferred free and paid alternatives to default operating system, word processor, and web typefaces:

Other writing about typography