Free stencil fonts

Letters broken by gaps, as if cut from a plate and sprayed through.

About stencil typefaces

How to recognise it

  • Breaks in the strokes where a bridge would hold the plate together.
  • Counters left open — the middle of an O is connected to the outside.
  • Usually heavy weights, because a thin stroke cannot survive being cut.
  • An industrial or military association that comes with the form.

Stencil or slab serif?

Plenty of stencil faces are slabs with gaps cut into them; the tag describes the cut rather than the serif. Look for the breaks, not the serifs.

Slab serif fonts →

Where it works

Posters, packaging, industrial and military themes, and branding that wants to look utilitarian.

Where it does not

Small sizes, where the breaks close up and the letters turn into blobs. Test at the real size before committing.

5 fonts

Black Ops One

James Grieshaber, Eben Sorkin

Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

Display · 1 weight · OFL · Türkçe

Questions

What is a stencil font?
Letters broken by gaps, as if cut from a plate and sprayed through. Breaks in the strokes where a bridge would hold the plate together.
When should I use a stencil typeface?
Posters, packaging, industrial and military themes, and branding that wants to look utilitarian. Where it does not work: small sizes, where the breaks close up and the letters turn into blobs. Test at the real size before committing.
What is the difference between stencil and slab serif fonts?
Plenty of stencil faces are slabs with gaps cut into them; the tag describes the cut rather than the serif. Look for the breaks, not the serifs.
Are these stencil fonts free for commercial use?
Yes. All 5 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.