45 Outstanding Free Vintage Fonts

In his famous 1908 essay, ‘Ornament and Crime,’ modern architect Adolf Loos wrote: “The evolution of culture marches with the elimination of ornament from useful objects.” This pronouncement banished many of the frilly, decorative fonts of centuries past from the realm of High Design. Fast forward to the present day: Web 3.0 is awash in enough sleek sans serif and classic roman typefaces to make designers long for the typographic indulgences of yesteryear.

Harness the power of the antique and make your graphics pop with one of these vintage-inspired fonts, which have returned to the spotlight both in print and online. From the Wild West and Victoriana to the Avant Garde and Calligraphy, there are plenty of styles to choose from. Fonts have been grouped informally, with contemporary interpretations alongside (almost) original prototypes. All are available free for personal use, but please make sure to read the license agreements carefully.

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Wood Type and Display Fonts

Carnivalee Freakshow

This distressed, wood-type-inspired font has the shabby charm of an old sideshow banner. Equal parts macabre and cheeky, it is appropriate for graphics ranging from the irreverent to the horrific.

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Font by Livin Hell on fontspace

Circus Ornate

Dieter Steffmann’s Circus Ornate captures the spirit of classic circus graphics, but still stands on its own as an ornamental, boisterous display font.

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Font by Dieter Steffmnann on fontspace

Coffee Tin (similar to the Rosewood font)

Inspired by fonts like Rosewood and Ponderosa, which are modeled after the display fonts of the late 18th century, Coffee Tin reinterprets old-fashioned advertising graphics with contemporary clarity.

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Font by Rick Mueller on fontspace

Dirty Ames

This is another beautiful distressed font that draws inspiration from 19th century display types. The Typeology foundry based this font and its name on an 1884 typeface by D.T. Ames.

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Font by Typeology on dafont

Ergono

License: Free for private and commercial use
Additional characters: Yes

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Font by Emin Gokceoglu on dafont

JF  Ringmaster

A vintage beauty by Jester Font Studio.

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Font by Jester Font Studio on dafont

Showboat

Shareware designer, David Rakowski, designed this font in 1991. 17 years later, its balance of monumentality and delicacy makes it a blast from the past that looks memorable in the present.

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Font by David Rakowski on fontspace

Tuscan

Rick Mueller’s Tuscan is one of his many vintage-inspired fonts, though its combination of sinuous contours and ample weight makes it memorable. This font has the flair of an antique display face without the fuss.

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Font by Rick Mueller on fontspace

Fusty Saddle

Inspired by Sideshow, from Harold’s Fonts, Fusty Saddle is a hand-drawn, Wild West-inspired font made digital. Bittbox not only provides you with a font but a definition: “fusty,” according to their site, means “old-fashioned in attitude and style.”

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Font by Brant Wilson on bittbox

Nashville

This digital adaptation of wood-type, with a Wild West twang, was designed by Matthew Austin Petty of Disturbed Type. Like a cowboy’s stubble, rough edges and scruffy surfaces make this font a more masculine antique.

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Font by Disturbed Type on fontspace

Space and Astronomy font

From the independent digital type foundry, Fountain, Second and Astronomy font combines traces of the past with dreams from the future. Underneath this font’s embellishments are mechanical footprints, adding a hint of steampunk.

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Font by J0hnnnie on fontspace

AngeGardien

The name of this font is derived from the French for “guardian angel,” and its capital letters are indeed guarded by winged figures. AngeGardien’s combination of daintiness and strength, shared with other great vintage typefaces, might be what makes it worthy of protection.

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Font by Michel Bujardet on dafont

Antique and Renaissance Fonts

Caslon Antique

Caslon Antique is what an original, 18th century Caslon type might look like now: a little worn around the edges, but no less steadfast. This interpretation of the classic Caslon serif adds age and wisdom to a text without sacrificing legibility.

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Font by Alan Carr on fontspace

Dominican

Another decayed antique face with loads of personality, Dominican is inspired by the time-battered beauty of antiquarian books.

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Font by Harold’s Fonts on dafont

Old Dog New Tricks

An unusual all-caps font, Old Dog New Tricks dips below the baseline to add interest to an otherwise classic serif. Its combination of Deco and antiquarian influence may make its pedigree murky, but remix culture dictates that the offspring of unexpected unions can create truly singular forms.

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Font by GregoryFonts on dafont

Lost in Future font

The “Lost in Future” font is a futuristic display font with a sharp and angular design. Each character appears to be constructed from geometric shapes, with bold lines and sharp angles giving the font a futuristic and tech-inspired appearance.

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Font by rayhan on fontspace

Blackletter and Calligraphic Fonts

Faith Collapsing

The shaky baseline and faded letters might make it seem disorderly, but this font is strong enough to support any layout that is incorrigible enough to merit it.

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Font by Nihilschiz on fontspace

Kraut Type-A-F**k

Based on the title typeface for P.T. Anderson’s 2007 film, this font demonstrates the effect that the Wild West can have on a traditional blackletter.

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Font by Mr.Fisk on dafont

Olde English

The Olde English typeface is an interesting example of how a typeface, despite its associations in one time and place, can easily become affiliated with another. Though its forms are inspired by medieval German blackletter types, Olde English is actually named for the Old English language—which was printed in Insular script.

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Font by Dieter Steffmann on dafont

Alte Schwabacher

The Schwabacher typeface got its name from the German village of Schwabach, and its appearance from manuscript calligraphy. Though it was used only occasionally in Germany after the 16th century, its legacy is central to the history of the printed book.

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Font by Dieter Steffmann on fontspace

Fette Fraktur

Fraktur was used extensively in German printing up through the 20th century, and comes in many variations. Fette Fraktur is a heavy, relaxed version that manages to be legible to the Antiqua-trained eye without losing its distinctive appearance.

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Font by Digital Type Foundry on fontspace

FLW Script

This font was designed to induce nostalgia for the early years of baseball, when stadiums were still named after neighborhoods and people. In the spirit of vintage baseball jerseys, this script is as jaunty as it is rugged.

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Font by Digital Graphics Labs on fontspace

Wrexham Script

Wrexham Script is a more condensed and angular sports-inspired font with a vintage flair.

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Font by Roger White on fontspace

ALS Script

With the abundance of handwriting fonts available on the web, it can be easy to forget that the simple script typeface has its precedents in centuries of practiced and often professional penmanship. ALS Script, with its balance and elegance, is a font worthy of this heritage: its forms recall the official handwriting of the 18th and 19th centuries.

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Font by Digital Graphics Labs on fontspace

Adine Kirnberg

Despite Loos’ warnings against ornament, the decorative curlicues of Adine Kirnberg do not disrupt its readability or its effectiveness. This well-designed cursive, with its delicate hint of the antique, is not mere wedding-invitation fare.

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Font by Dieter Steffmann on fontspace

Aunchanted Xspace font

The “Aunchanted Xspace” font is a unique and futuristic display font with a space-themed design.

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Font by GemFonts on fontspace

Olho de Boi

According to designer Billy Argel, Olho de Boi is a font inspired by the first Brazilian postage stamp released on August 1, 1843. The idiosyncratic scratches and loops make this script seem to come straight out of old letters.

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Font by Billy Argel Fonts on fontspace

Treasure Map Deadhand

There may only be one International Talk Like A Pirate Day, but why not write like a pirate every other day? This font is aptly named: the pirate-inspired scrawl resembles the waterlogged italics of a lost treasure map.

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Font by GemFonts on fontspace

Nouveau and Deco Fonts

Fletcher Gothic

From Casady & Greene, Fletcher Gothic is an Art Nouveau font with clean lines and striking details: use it to bring turn-of the-century style to this century’s graphics.

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Font by Alan Carr on fontspace

Hadley

The curvilinear forms of this font recall the plant-like contours of Art Nouveau. Hadley brings an organic quality to text that allows it to refer to the past without losing its contemporary relevance.

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Font by Apostrophic Lab on fontspace

Secesja

If Alphonse Mucha had designed a font, Secesja might be it. Sinuous serifs and spiraling ornaments make the letterforms burst with life.

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Font by Barmee on fontspace

Trinigan

In the early 1900s, Charles Dana Gibson’s pen and ink drawings of corseted women with bouffant hairstyles came to be known as “Gibson Girls.” Trinigan, with its undulating arms and hourglass stems, revives this classic figure in typographic form.

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Font by FontGrube AH on dafont

Feasibly Single Line Font

The “Feasibly Single Line” font is a unique display font that appears to be created with a single, continuous line. This makes it an excellent choice for designs that require a simple, yet eye-catching typography.

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Font by Single Line Studio on fontspace

Michelle FLF

The geometric winding of this all-caps font almost resembles musical notation. Still, Michelle’s typographic potential is clearly not limited to ragtime and jazz.

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Font by Casady & Greene on fontspace

Bodoni Ultra

Though there are many modern revivals of Bodoni’s original typeface that align it more readily with Times New Roman than times past, Bodoni Ultra is a striking exception. The dramatic alternation between thick and thin strokes echoes Chauncey H. Griffith’s 1929 Bodoni Poster typeface, used widely in popular print media.

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Font by Casady & Greene on fontspace

Sesame

Jugend magazine, the publication that helped launch the German Art Nouveau movement (“Jugendstil”), was a trendsetter when it came to the graphic and decorative arts of the late 19th century. Sesame is a font in the spirit of a Jugend cover: lavish, distinctive, and eccentric.

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Font by Dieter Steffmann on dafont

Conga Line

Betty Boop meets Broadway in a Conga Line: the 1930s charm of this font comes from its blend of cartoonish bounce and cinematic monumentality.

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Font by Nick’s Fonts on fontspace

Tall Deco

Another architectural font, Tall Deco suggests the glass and ironwork of modern skyscrapers.

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Font by Thomas E. Harvey on fontspace

Modern and Avant Garde Fonts

Enigmatic

Enigmatic and Waukegan echo the softened rectangular shapes of Bell Gothic, a typeface commissioned by AT&T in the 1930s for use in telephone directories. Bell Gothic was and is a highly recognizable typeface that has been used for avant garde as well as popular graphics.

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Font by Darren Rigby on dafont

Waukegan

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Font by Luke Owens on fontspace

akaChen (in the spirit of Clarendon)

This font bears a marked resemblance to the Clarendon typeface, which was first designed in the mid-19th century and has been used frequently in display work.

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Font by akaType on fontspace

After

The “Feasibly Single Line” font is a unique display font that appears to be created with a single, continuous line. This makes it an excellent choice for designs that require a simple, yet eye-catching typography.

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Font by FreshTypeINK on fontspace

Agit Prop

A font in the spirit of Soviet Constructivism, Agit Prop is intended to convey the graphic essence of Bolshevist agitation and propaganda. Whether or not you agree with the politics behind the design, it’s difficult to deny this font’s stark and monumental beauty.

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Font by Sergey Kazakov on dafont

Further Resources

Photo by Mr Cup / Fabien Barral on Unsplash

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