Best Free Fonts for Logos
A logo is the hardest job a typeface can be given. It has to be recognisable at the size of a browser tab and on the side of a van, it is usually set in one weight and a handful of letters, and whoever owns it will want to register it as a trademark.
Every face below is under a licence that allows exactly that — the licence covers the font file, not the artwork you make with it. What separates them is character: each is here because its letters say something specific before anybody has read the word.
The 10, and why each is here
Montserrat
Wide capitals and a tall x-height taken from Buenos Aires shop signs, so it was built to read from across a street. It is everywhere, which is a reason to adjust a letter or two rather than set it straight.
- Sans-serif
- 9 weights, variable
- Türkçe ✓
- Latin web font 130 KB
Syne
For a mark that should look like nothing else: its heavy weights grow wider and flare until they read as a different design. Pick one end of the axis and commit to it.
- Display
- 5 weights, variable
- Türkçe ✓
- Latin web font 43 KB
Playfair Display
Hairline serifs and a hard swing from thick to thin — the shorthand for fashion, food and anything that wants to look expensive. Keep it for the full mark and use a simpler monogram at small sizes.
- Serif
- 6 weights, variable
- Türkçe ✓
- Latin web font 63 KB
Bricolage Grotesque
A grotesque with its seams left showing: the narrow widths go slightly wonky on purpose. Personality without a costume, with weight, width and optical-size axes to tune a wordmark exactly.
- Sans-serif
- 7 weights, variable
- Türkçe ✓
- Web font 200 KB
Fraunces
Warm, soft 1970s serifs with a WONK axis that switches the off-kilter letters on and off. Good for food, publishing and anything that should feel friendly rather than corporate.
- Display
- 9 weights, variable
- Türkçe ✓
- Web font 230 KB
Righteous
Deco capitals from 1920s poster lettering, rebuilt on a grid so they stay even at small sizes — and, unlike most deco revivals, with a full lowercase.
- Display
- 1 weight
- Türkçe ✓
- Latin web font 12 KB
Cinzel
First-century Roman inscriptional capitals with the chisel eased off. Institutional authority for law, heritage and wine. There is no true lowercase, which a logo rarely misses.
- Display
- 6 weights, variable
- Türkçe ✓
- Web font 47 KB
Pacifico
A 1950s surf-lettering script drawn as one even, round-ended stroke, which is why it survives at small sizes where a thick-and-thin script breaks up.
- Handwriting
- 1 weight
- Türkçe ✓
- Latin web font 56 KB
Space Grotesk
Passes for a plain geometric until you look: flattened terminals, a squared-off bowl on the a, numerals that feel machined. For a technology mark that wants a little character.
- Sans-serif
- 5 weights, variable
- Türkçe ✓
- Latin web font 39 KB
Archivo Black
One very heavy weight with the counters kept open at poster size. For a mark that has to be seen from across a room, in more alphabets than most heavy sans faces reach.
- Display
- 1 weight
- Türkçe ✓
- Web font 30 KB
What to avoid
A script whose hairlines vanish below twenty pixels is a poor logo if the mark will ever sit in a browser tab or on a social avatar, however good it looks on the business card. And a family with nine weights is not a better logo font than one with a single strong weight — you will use one of them.
Questions
- Can I trademark a logo made with a free font?
- Yes, with the fonts on this page. Their licences cover the font software, not the artwork you make with it, so a logo set in one of them is yours and can be registered like any other. What you cannot do is claim rights over the typeface itself or sell the font file.
- Can I change the letters of a free font for my logo?
- Yes. Converting the word to outlines and redrawing a letter or two is normal practice, and the licence does not restrict the artwork you make. The licence’s naming rules only apply if you release a modified font file.
- What makes a font good for a logo?
- Distinct letters in the specific word you are setting, one weight that holds up both large and at the size of an app icon, and capitals with character. Test it with your real name rather than a sample sentence.