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.
My current favourite typefaces
Blog post: ‘My favourite typefaces (April 2024)’
tl;dr: I talk about my favourite typefaces and share links from where you can buy or download them
Sans serif
Used frequently in documents, presentations, and graphics: Whitney (Wikipedia), Whitney Narrow, Fact (MyFonts), Ideal Sans, Avenir Next LT (Microsoft, Wikipedia), Source Sans 3 (GitHub, Wikipedia)
Used infrequently for specific purposes (eg headings, graphics, presentations) and for specific applications (eg Verdana for email): Verdana (Microsoft, Wikipedia), Public Sans (GitHub, Wikipedia), Fira Sans (GitHub, Wikipedia), Neue Haas Unica (Wikipedia), DIN Next (Wikipedia), Inter (Story, GitHub, Wikipedia), Inter Tight
Used when needed for specific purposes (eg presentations, graphics): Neue Haas Grotesk (Microsoft, MyFonts, Wikipedia), Jost* (Wikipedia), Gill Sans Nova (Microsoft, Wikipedia), Cooper Hewitt, URW Dock, Libre Franklin (Wikipedia), Trade Gothic Next (Wikipedia)
Serif
Used frequently in documents, presentations, and graphics: Mercury, Source Serif 4 (Wikipedia, GitHub), Charter (ITC Charter), TT Jenevers (MyFonts), Stempel Garamond LT (Wikipedia)
Used infrequently for specific purposes (eg printed documents): Crimson Pro (GitHub), Vollkorn (Story), Sabon Next LT (Microsoft, Wikipedia)
Used when needed for specific purposes (eg presentations, graphics): Malabar, Alegreya, PT Astra Serif, Gentium Plus
Monospace
Monospace used for coding (JetBrains Mono), note taking (Berkeley Mono), writing, and graphics: JetBrains Mono (GitHub), Berkeley Mono, Drafting* Mono, Fira Mono (GitHub, Wikipedia), Source Code Pro (GitHub), Cascadia Code (Wikipedia, Microsoft)
Slab serif
Slab serif used mostly for headings and graphics: Sentinel, Bitter (GitHub), Zilla Slab (Wikipedia, GitHub), Klinic Slab, Tisa Offc Serif (Microsoft, MyFonts)
Reading
Typefaces used for reading on devices (eg Bookerly on Kindle), websites (eg Whitney on NewsBlur), and apps (eg Vollkorn in Aquile Reader): Literata (Wikipedia, GitHub), Bookerly (Wikipedia), Whitney, Vollkorn (Story)
Websites
Typefaces used on websites (eg Chaparral and Myriad Condensed on this website): Chaparral, Myriad (Wikipedia), Myriad Condensed, Noto Serif (Wikipedia, Story, GitHub), Noto Sans (Wikipedia, Story, GitHub), Merriweather (GitHub), Oswald
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
Free or bundled typefaces
SERIF
Charter: Public Sans (or Libre Franklin); Neue Haas Unica; Inter
Vollkorn: Vollkorn; Inter; Roboto; Neue Haas Unica
SANS SERIF
Avenir Next LT: Zilla Slab; Sentinel; Avenir Next LT
Paid typefaces
SERIF
TT Jenevers: TT Jenevers Extra Bold; Fact; Helvetica
SANS SERIF
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)
I don’t like Times New Roman so, whenever I need to use a formal, neutral serif typeface, I use Source Serif 4 (free) or Mercury (paid) instead
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)
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 heavily inspired by Franklin Gothic – are Whitney Narrow and Source Sans 3
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:
Arial (neutral, formal text): Roboto, Inter are free; Avenir is free on Windows; Whitney is paid
Calibri (default text): Source Sans 3 is free; Whitney Narrow is paid
Garamond (creative text): Stempel Garamond is paid
Georgia (web text): Merriweather, Charter are free; Mercury is paid
Helvetica (neutral text and signage): Roboto, Inter are free; Fact is paid
Tahoma (formal text): Fira Sans, Source Sans 3 are free; DIN Next is paid
Times New Roman (formal text): Source Serif 4, PT Astra Serif are free and good of everyday users; Newsreader family is free and good for typography enthusiasts; Equity is paid and good for professionals
Trebuchet (creative text): Fira Sans, Source Sans 3 are free; Whitney Narrow, Ideal Sans are paid
Verdana (web text): Open Sans, General Sans are free (though I don’t use Open Sans much anymore)
Other writing about typography
What you didn’t know about Verdana: You can use Verdana, Tahoma, and Nina together as a de facto family
Picking a typeface for writing code: I picked JetBrains Mono