Jost
Owen EarlSphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Sans-serif · Variable · 9 weights · OFL · Türkçe
Free Futura alternatives
Paul Renner, Bauer, 1927 — the geometric sans that every geometric sans since has been measured against.
Why people look for a Futura alternative
Futura is still under commercial licence nearly a century after it was drawn, and the versions in circulation differ enough that two designers can both have Futura and get different line breaks. Anyone building a brand on it is buying a family, buying it again for the web, and then discovering that the geometric look they wanted is available openly in several forms.
What a Futura substitute has to get right
The single-storey a and the pointed apex on the A are the recognition, and the ascenders have to run well above the cap height. A double-storey a in a geometric sans is a different typeface no matter how circular the o is.
The 2 in this archive
Listed only where the substitution would survive a designer looking at both — a flattering near-match is worse than a short list.
League Spartan
Matt Bailey, Tyler FinckSphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Sans-serif · Variable · 9 weights · OFL · Türkçe
Futura and its free alternatives, at a glance
- How you get it
- Bought from a foundry under a commercial licence
- Pass it on, embed it or self-host it
- Only as the licence you bought allows
- On a website
- Usually a separate web licence on top
Futura
| Property | Jost | League Spartan |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | OFL-1.1 — free, commercial use allowed | OFL-1.1 — free, commercial use allowed |
| Weights | 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 | 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 |
| Variable | Yes | Yes |
| Italic | Yes | No |
| Türkçe | Yes | Yes |
| Other alphabets | Cyrillic | Vietnamese |
| Glyphs | 535 | 635 |
| Web font | 43 KB Latin cut | 32 KB Latin cut |
Questions
- What is the best free alternative to Futura?
- Jost — it is the closest match in this archive, and the page above says which shapes the substitution turns on. 2 faces are listed in total, and which of them is right depends on the size you are setting and the mood you want; set your own words in each before choosing.
- Are these Futura alternatives free for commercial use?
- Yes. Every font on this site is under a licence that permits commercial use with no fee and no attribution requirement, mostly the SIL Open Font License. That covers paid client work, products you sell, self-hosting on a website, and embedding in an application. The licence file is inside every download.
- Can I use a Futura alternative in a logo?
- Yes. An open font licence covers the font software rather than the shapes you set with it, so a logo made with one of these can be trademarked like any other. What you cannot do is claim rights over the typeface itself.
- Will a Futura substitute keep my layout the same?
- Only if it is metrically compatible — drawn so every character occupies the same width as the original, which makes a document reflow identically. Very few faces are, and where one is, this site says so on its page. Everything else will look similar and set differently, so a layout built to the original's widths needs checking rather than assuming.