Here is a great selection of free fonts in vintage or retro styles. The aim of a retro design is to transport the audience to the past, so it's important to choose typography that reflects the era that you're representing. There are hundreds of free typeface collections available online, ranging from the hip and happening to the cheap and cheesy. We've selected our favourite ones so you don't have to spend time searching - here are some awesome zero-cost designs...
So, let's look at some Noir - Retro Fonts
Berlin was created by Brazilian graphic designer and illustrator Antonio Rodrigues Jr. "Berlin is a group of display fonts, inspired by the classic geometric typefaces from early last century," he explains. So far Rodrigues Jr has created four versions - Berlin, Berlina, Slaberlin and Uberlin - all of which are available in regular, bold and x-bold.
FORMAT: TTF
02. Sabo
Sabo, by graphic designer Philippe Moesch, is a striking pixel-style font. Available in two styles - inline and filled - Sabo is great for any retro arcade-themed design.
FORMAT: OTF
03. Zorus Serif
Created by Canadian designer Jérémie Dupuis, Zorus Serif's antique glyphs have a distinctly gallic feel to them, and we think it'd be a perfect fit for a print project that needs a quirky, old-fashioned look. It's available in standard and italic versions.
FORMAT: TTF, OTF
05. Akura Popo
Akura Popo from Twicolabs Design. The team comment on the typeface on Behance: "Akura Popo is a vintage and classic condensed serif font with a bold, strong and tough-looking style. It's best suited for logos, headlines, letterheads and sport-themed designs."
FORMAT: TTF, OTF
06. Glasoor
Created by type designer Sergiy Tkachenko, Glasoor is an experimental font with a playful retro design that's perfect for posters, logos and more.
FORMAT: TTF, OTF
07. Streetwear
A bold and stylish retro-inspired script font, Streetwear is suitable for logos, posters, branding, packaging and much more. Available from Artimasa, the team comments on Behance: "Streetwear looks like 1960s and 70s fashion and sport-related typeface, unique and fun at the same time." Streetwear is free for both personal and commercial use.
FORMAT: OTF
08. Zebrazil
Zebrazil was created by Burmese graphic designer Zarni. This deliciously retro font features lovely thin letterforms married to bold serifs, and is one of many created by Zarni, who generously offers his design as a free download.
FORMAT: TTF
09. Unique
Unique was created by designer Anna Pocius aka Artmaker. She describes her design on Behance as 'a display hybrid typeface, which is a little bit flashy, retro but still contemporary font designed specially for headings and logotypes'.
FORMAT: TTF
10. Vincent
Vincent was desinged by graphic and product designer for NBC Universal Ben Suarez. Created at the end of last year, this vintage-inspired design was Suarez's first fully functioning typeface.
"Vincent was intended to be used as a title font," explains Suarez.
"Vincent was intended to be used as a title font," explains Suarez.
It was named after his grandfather, "who drove a 76' Chrysler Cordoba and smoked out of an old wooden pipe", Suarez adds. And it's totally free for personal projects!
FORMAT: TTF
11. Canter
Designed by New Yor based creative Christopher J Lee, Canter is an all caps, condensed typeface available in six different weights. It was designed as a display type for titles, headlines, and posters and will work well with any retro execution.
FORMAT: TTF
12. Alt Retro
Alt Retro Typeface is a free five-weight typeface that channels all the art deco inspiration you can muster. Perfect for eye-catching creations, Alt Retro is a playful font that will serve as a brilliant experimental offering. The intricate design makes it a stand out retro font.
FORMAT: TTF
13. Rispa
This retro typeface was inspired by designer Konrad Bednarski's new hometown. The free test version is available to download for free, with
a corrected and extended version with more weights soon to be available. Like this font? You can also get Rispa Regular T-shirts, prints, tote bags, pillows and much more from Society6.
a corrected and extended version with more weights soon to be available. Like this font? You can also get Rispa Regular T-shirts, prints, tote bags, pillows and much more from Society6.
FORMAT: TTF
14. Betty Noir
This typeface was developed Blambot, a company 'proudly provide comic fonts and lettering'. You have to pay for many of its brilliant designs, but the team generously offer Betty Noir free for use in personal projects. One of our favourite free retro fonts, it's definitely worth checking out.
FORMAT: TTF
15. White Rabbit
Inspired by eras gone by, this is one of the coolest free retro fonts we've seen in a long while. Developed by Alice Creative, this typeface is available free for personal use, with donations to the author, as always, greatfully received.
FORMAT: TTF
16. Andes
Looking for retro fonts to use in your personal project? Then you can download this baby for free. The gorgeous vintage-style font comes with two styles, with letters featuring both a curved design (as seen above) and more basic approach.
FORMAT: TTF
17. Sesame
An old-school-style of retro fonts, Sesame wouldn't look out of place on any vintage poster design. Developed by designerDieter Steffmann, the font comes with a full set of uppercase letters, numbers and selection of special characters.
FORMAT: TTF
18. Arwen
Arwen is not just the name of a Lord of the Rings character. It's also one of the most beautiful retro fonts we've found - and it's totally free to download. Created by Keystrokes, the typeface includes a full set of uppercase characters for you to incorporate into your designs.
FORMAT: TTF
19. Highlands
This cool retro typeface was created by web and UI designerTyler Galpin, a runner-up for Young Designer of the Year in this year's .net Awards. He describes the font as "a charming slab-serif that draws inspiration from National Park posters of old". It's been available as a download on Lost Type Co-op, with any donations to its creator gratefully received.
FORMAT: TTF
20. Bazar
Designer Olinda Martins developed this vintage-style font from a selection of commercial signage in and around the city of Porto. Collecting several samples, Martins reinterpreted them into this stylish design, which she generously offers as a free download for all to enjoy!
FORMAT: TTF
21. Quid Pro Quo
Quid Pro Quo is an old-fashioned handwritten script created by designer David Kerkhoff. The typeface comes complete with a full set of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and a selection of special characters. Free for personal use only, with the option to donate to the author should you wish.
FORMAT: TTF
22. Pricedown
Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts is the man behind this bold, game show-inspired font. Larabie comments on his creation: "Pricedown is based on a late-Sixties font called "Pinto Flare"; famous for its use in the titles for the TV program "The Price is Right"." The font is free for personal use only, but donations to the author are much appreciated.
FORMAT: TTF
23. Pompadour Numerals
This stylish, retro set of numerals and punctuation was developed by designer Andy Mangold. Offered online by Lost Type Co-Op, the design is described as "a chunky, display numeral sets inspired by the 1950s Rockabilly Hairdo. The numbers, which each fit perfectly inside of a square, are best used in large sizes." Available as a free download, with any donations to the author gratefully received.
FORMAT: TTF
24. Riesling
Transport your designs back to the 1920s with this beautiful Riesling font, created by Bright Ideas. The elegant typeface includes a full set of upper and lowercase letters, numbers 0-9 and special characters.
FORMAT: TTF
25. Carnivalee Freakshow
This cool Carnivalee Freakshow would fit in perfectly to any Western-inspired design. Created by Christopher Hansen, this popular font has amassed over 1m downloads since its release. Free for personal use only.
FORMAT: TTF
26. Top Speed
This cool retro font has more than a hint of 1950s Chevrolet to it; you can virtually smell the rubber and gasoline. Designed byJason Vanderhill, Top Speed comes in these three different variations. To link letters, simply use the underscore key. Free for personal use.
FORMAT: TTF
27. Echo Deco
Perfect for a retro-style music poster, typeface Echo Deco was created by GreyWolf Webworks. Free for personal use only, this font comes complete with a full set of uppercase letters, numbers and special characters.
FORMAT: TTF
28. Deftone Stylus
This beautiful script, retro-style font is another by Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts. Larabie comments on his typeface, "Deftone Stylus is a structured, industrial script from the late 20th century. It was rebuilt in 2011 and now features custom letter pairs to make words flow."
FORMAT: TTF
29. Bellerose
This elegant typeface Bellerose is a popular choice, having been downloaded almost 1.5m times since its release. The sophisticated design was created by James M. Harris, includes a full set of upper and lower case letters and numbers and is free for personal use only.
FORMAT: TTF
30. Airstream
This is just one of many retro fonts designed by Nick's Fonts but Airstream just pipped it as our favourite. The designer has over 100 designs to choose from, which collectively have been downloaded over 13m times. Free for personal use.
FORMAT: TTF
31. Parisish
This elegant font by type designer George Williams has the feel of old Paris about it. One of 57 fonts created by the designer, this is one of his most popular, having received over 200,000 downloads. This font is also free for both personal and commercial uses.
FORMAT: TTF
32. Kilogram
This Kilogram font was created by KalleGraphics and based on Nick Curtis' font Anagram. The bold design includes a full set of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters. Free for personal use.
FORMAT: OTF
33. Budmo
This flashy marquee font wouldn't look out of place on posters at the Moulin Rouge. Another creation from Ray Larabie ofTypodermic Fonts, this set includes four font files, all different variations of the same design. Free for personal use
Didn't see anything that grabbed you by the throat and throttled you for a while?
Check out this list of fonts, there's probably something there for you.
