Free blackletter fonts

The dense, angular scripts of northern European manuscripts and early printing.

About blackletter typefaces

How to recognise it

  • Dense vertical strokes with very little white between them.
  • Angular breaks where a curve would be, made by a broad pen held steeply.
  • Elaborate capitals that are nearly illegible on their own.
  • A page colour that is much darker than any modern text face.

Blackletter or calligraphy?

Both are written forms. Calligraphy in this vocabulary means the flowing, connected scripts; blackletter means the angular northern European hands used for printing until the twentieth century.

Calligraphy fonts →

Where it works

Mastheads, certificates, beer and spirits labels, metal and gothic subculture, historical work.

Where it does not

Anything set in capitals, and anything longer than a line. Blackletter capitals were never meant to be read in a row.

4 fonts

Pirata One

Rodrigo Fuenzalida, Nicolas Massi

Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

Display · 1 weight · OFL · Türkçe

Grenze Gotisch

Omnibus-Type

Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

Display · Variable · 9 weights · OFL · Türkçe

Questions

What is a blackletter font?
The dense, angular scripts of northern European manuscripts and early printing. Dense vertical strokes with very little white between them.
When should I use a blackletter typeface?
Mastheads, certificates, beer and spirits labels, metal and gothic subculture, historical work. Where it does not work: anything set in capitals, and anything longer than a line. Blackletter capitals were never meant to be read in a row.
What is the difference between blackletter and calligraphy fonts?
Both are written forms. Calligraphy in this vocabulary means the flowing, connected scripts; blackletter means the angular northern European hands used for printing until the twentieth century.
Are these blackletter fonts free for commercial use?
Yes. All 4 of them are published under licences that permit commercial use — the SIL Open Font License, the Apache License 2.0, the Ubuntu Font Licence or a release into the public domain — with no fee and no credit required. Every download on this site includes the licence file inside the zip.