80 Beautiful Typefaces For Professional Design

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Every now and again designers stumble upon the very same problem: the choice of a unique and beautiful typeface which manages to fulfill three basic tasks. Support the corporate identity, enrich the visual appearance and is compatible with the overall design. However, usually there are simply too many options you can consider, which is why you need time to find the option you are most comfortable with. Although the choice usually depends on clients’ requirements, it is necessary to have some pretty starting points for your font decision.

So which typefaces are “bulletproof”? What fonts can be used effectively in almost every Corporate Design? And what are the options for unique, but still incredibly beautiful typefaces?

We have answers. Over the last few days we’ve browsed through dozens of type foundries, read dozens of designers’ articles about typography, analyzed font rankings and visited bookmarked font-related suggestions. So this post has ‘em all. Well, OK, at least many of them.

Let’s take a look at over 80 gorgeous typefaces for professional design, based upon suggestions from designers and web-developers all over the world. Most screenshots are taken from the foundries and provided specimens – particularly on Veer.com and Fontshop.com.

Classic Typefaces

Classics of typography in a brief overview. You will find even more traditional typefaces on the site 100 Best Fonts, including history, development and related information.

1. Helvetica

Screenshot

2. Helvetica Neue

Screenshot

3. Univers

Screenshot

4. Frutiger

Screenshot

5. Avenir

Screenshot

Screenshot

6. Myriad Pro

Screenshot

7. Neuzeit

Screenshot

8. Syntax

Screenshot

9. Proxima Nova

Screenshot

10. Proxima Sans

Screenshot

11. Glasgow

Screenshot

12. Charlotte Sans

Screenshot

13. Precious Sans

Precious Sans

Precious Sans

14. Gill Sans

Screenshot

15. Lisboa

Screenshot

16. Franklin Gothic

Screenshot

17. Futura

Screenshot

18. EF TV Nord 1

Screenshot

19. FF Scala

Screenshot

20. Rockwell

Screenshot

21. Eurostile

Screenshot

22. Warnock

Screenshot

23. FF DIN

FF DIN

24. FF Meta

FF Meta

FF Meta

25. Officina

Screenshot

26. FF Dax

Screenshot

27. DF Dynasty

Screenshot

28. Akzidenz-Grotesk

Screenshot

Screenshot

29. AG Book

Screenshot

Screenshot

30. Precious Serif

Precious Serif

Further Typefaces

The fonts listed below aren’t so well-known. Thus you can use them for unique corporate identity or user interfaces which are supposed to have a “fresh” look.

31. Locator

Locator

ProcessTypeFoundry

32. Seravek

Seravek

ProcessTypeFoundry

33. FF Kievit

FF Kievit

FF Kievit

Source

34. Ronnia

Ronnia

Typetogether

35. Stella

Stella

Feliciano Type Foundry

36. Le Monde Courrier

Screenshot

Le Monde Courrier, € 167.4 for 2 PCs

37. Parisine PTF

Screenshot

Parisine PTF, € 210 for 8 PCs

38. Freight

Freight Sans

Source

39. Guardian

Guardian

Christian Schwartzl

40. Anomoly

Anomoly

41. PMN Caecilia

PMN Caecilia

PMN Caecilia

42. Leitura

Leitura

Source / DSType

43. The Mix

The Mix

Source

44. Stalemate

Stalemate

Stalemate

45. Neo Sans

Neo Sans

Source

46. Felbridge

Felbridge

Felbridge, £29.00 per font

47. Trade Gothic

Trade Gothic

48. Karmina

Karmina

Typetogether

49. FF Milo

FF Milo

FF Milo

Source: Typographica.org

50. Auto

Auto

Source

51. Soho

Soho

Source

52. Kepler

Kepler

Source

53. Depot

Depot

Chris Dickinson

54. Relato Sans

Relato Sans

Source

55. Priva Pro

Priva Pro

DSType

56. Relato Serif

Relato Serif

Source

57. Alber

Alber

Chris Dickinson

58. Palatino Sans & Informal

Palatino Sans Informal

Source

59. Fedra Sans

Fedra Sans

Source

60. Olga

Olga

Source

61. Depot

Depot

Chris Dickinson

62. Priva Pro

Priva Pro

DSType

63. Whitman

Whitman

Source

64. Productus

Productus

Source

65. Tempelhof

Tempelhof

Günter Schwarzmaier

66. Amira

Amira

Source

67. Krart

Krart

Source

68. Tang

Tang

Source

69. Dederon Sans

Dederon Sans

Source

70. Samuels Family

Samuels Family

(Images: MyFonts Newsletter)

71. Untitled

Untitled

Source

72. Greta Text

Greta Text

Source

73. FF Sanuk

FF Sanuk

74. Houschka

Houschka

75. Scene

Scene

Source

76. Amplitude

Amplitude

Source

77. Insider

Insider

Characters.nl

78. Preface

Preface

79. Flex

Flex

Source

80. Halvorsen

Halvorsen

Source

81. Xtra Sans

Xtra Sans

Source

Foretaste for one of our next posts:
The Future of Typography

82. Obliqua (in development)

Obliqua

Source

83. Muestra Urbana (in development)

Muestra Urbana

Source

83. Wingardium

Wingardium

Source

84. Tauran Regular

Tauran Regular

Source

85. Mello Sans

Mello Sans

Source

Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. Vitaly is writer, speaker, author and editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine, an online magazine dedicated to designers and developers.

  1. 201

    erdem

    August 1st, 2011 4:22 am

    this is a great collection of inspiration!!!
    stay creative and thanks a lot for sharing :-)

    0
  2. 202

    fullmoose

    September 2nd, 2011 6:16 am

    WOW…all of these typefaces are c00l…very c00l.

    0
  3. 203

    DMoldova

    October 18th, 2011 4:39 pm

    VERY NICE !!!!!!!!!!
    THX man ;)

    0
  4. 204

    faycal

    January 6th, 2012 5:20 am

    Great Collection!!!

    0

  1. 1

    5kunk

    March 14th, 2010 11:53 pm

    Really Jules, rock out with your cock out and show us what you got. You can’t leave a comment like that and not back it up with even one example from your private stash…

    +8
  2. 2

    SirPrize

    August 8th, 2007 2:06 pm

    Torrents? Links to Free fonts? Come on if your a Designer, you SHOULD want to pay other Designers for their work. Leechers like you guys hurt the professional aspect of design – you should go drop shadow something instead.

    +6
  3. 3

    Juan Manuel Lemus

    August 8th, 2007 2:20 am

    The fonts is one of the most important part of every web design. This collection is very precious. Good, very good. I was’nt watched some font styles.

    +5
  4. 4

    jaja

    January 30th, 2010 9:33 pm

    ew

    +4
  5. 5

    P. Peterson

    August 8th, 2007 2:29 am

    Wow, this is amazing. Absolutely Smashing!!!

    +3
  6. 6

    Adit

    August 8th, 2007 2:55 am

    Great list guys. I think you covered most all of the great ones I know of.

    I have to say my favorite is Myriad Pro though.

    +3
  7. 7

    Will

    August 8th, 2007 9:18 am

    So link us to your blog, where your collection is tough guy.

    +3
  8. 8

    JT

    August 14th, 2007 10:35 am

    Post a torrent??

    Designers made these fonts. Designers need to be payed in order to keep making things like this. When everyone downloads torrents of fonts, nobody is being payed to make them.

    See the problem there? It’s disrespect.

    +3
  9. 9

    Jeff French

    December 6th, 2007 12:49 am

    Does anyone else think that there could be a much better (i.e. affordable) font pricing system? It seems to me that if more professional fonts were priced so that individuals could more reasonably afford them, foundries and designers might stand to profit a bit more than they currently do when it is a rare individual (or even design house) that buys its fonts…

    Thoughts?

    +3
  10. 10

    Mark Oates

    March 4th, 2009 6:03 am

    As a poor designer, I have to rely on free fonts. These all look so sexy. It’s like looking at some kind of font-porn!

    +3
  11. 11

    Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz

    August 8th, 2007 5:08 am

    2KarlH: there is no specific ranking order in this post. Instead we’ve just listed typefaces you might use in corporate design.

    +2
  12. 12

    rj

    August 8th, 2007 12:40 pm

    Hmm. I don’t see my favorite on here….Trajan Pro
    I have found a few new good ones however.

    +2
  13. 13

    G

    August 9th, 2007 2:05 am

    Gotham didn’t make the cut? neither did benton?
    How is that even possible?

    +2
  14. 14

    Berthold

    April 30th, 2010 1:10 am

    Nothing wrong with presenting a bunch of typefaces, but without any context it’s still hard to know what to do with each one and how to combine them.

    I recently bought 1000 fonts by Martin, Dodd and Davis and was pretty dissapointed when so little info or examples was available on each font (the few examples that are there are for Helvetica and other commonly known and used fonts…) as to make deciding for or against it almost impossible without a deep typographic knowledge . If I had that already, I’d probably also know the typefaces I’d want for certain situation by heart. The ordering via alphabet in that book isn’t logical either, I would’ve loved them sorted by time period, or suggested use or even by x-height, anything but alphabetically. Oh and Display fonts are presented in paragraphs as well, which doesen’t make the least bit of sense to me. Sorry for the rant.

    If I could just ask for one favour: please please never use the words “fresh” and “design” in conjunction again, unless there is some sort of fruit or bread involved. I get goosebumps whenever I hear or read these in a briefing. Nobody has ever asked for a stale design. It’s the most useless descriptor I could think of, moreso even than “modern” and “young”, which can actually be realised in a design.

    +2
  15. 15

    Jurrit van der Ploeg

    January 20th, 2011 5:38 am

    I would put Akzidenz Grotesk a little bit higher. It is a great font which can be used in many different ways. But I really like the list, although there are not many serif-fonts. But if you look at the design that is most attractive at the moment, that is logical.

    +2
  16. 16

    meizopan

    August 8th, 2007 2:46 am

    cool, font always be major factor to achieve great webdesign

    +1
  17. 17

    UnitB

    August 8th, 2007 4:17 am

    Very special list. So, does one of us posters win the whole collection? PLEASE?!

    +1
  18. 18

    KarlH

    August 8th, 2007 5:03 am

    Well…there is not said in which order you have put this fonts together. There are no comments, no details…

    Sorry, but how is this helpfull?
    Thats the problem about such ranking lists…

    +1
  19. 19

    Ash Haque

    August 8th, 2007 7:52 am

    Excellent list, another font that I use quite regularly is Audimat (free!)

    http://fontleech.com/09/26/2006/audimat-smeltery/

    +1
  20. 20

    Eeeeh

    August 8th, 2007 9:41 am

    Personally, I think this list is quite a bit (trying to avoid saying “waaay” … but, waaay) too long, and there really isn’t enough variation, in my very humble opinion. I do usually quite appreciate the lists smashing puts up, but this one falls a bit short for me for several reasons. I do agree with Jules on most of his points … though, there are a few more I might use if I were feeling “quirky” :) … perhaps he just got sick of sorting through so many fonts.

    Bottom line for me, 80 typefaces is alot, and I don’t feel I would have a full palette if I were limited to the selection here.

    Also, people looking for a torrent site or free downloads … really? Good design costs money … that’s what keeps us in business, right?

    +1
  21. 21

    kid mercury

    August 8th, 2007 9:52 am

    no trebuchet ms? surely you jest. trebuchet ms is my all time favorite font, the best of the bunch no doubt.

    +1
  22. 22

    Arun

    August 8th, 2007 1:36 pm

    Great work! You guys are great. Now how about a list of free fonts (available) resembling the above ones…just a thought ;)
    Thanks a million anyway.

    +1
  23. 23

    WobblyCyril

    August 8th, 2007 4:26 pm

    Nice list for sure, but wait a minute, NO COMIC SANS, surely some mistake, how can the greatest fount in the typosphere be ommitted…….?

    +1
  24. 24

    Lachlan

    August 8th, 2007 4:56 pm

    @WobblyCyril

    A font as versatile and fantastic as Comic Sans would outshine everything on the list :)

    +1
  25. 25

    liz

    August 8th, 2007 7:29 pm

    Delicious List! I must caution . . . a font does not a logo make.
    I work with a logo made with Futura. A lovely font.
    Yet our logo …. in all lowers…. is…. weak. (shhhh.) I didn’t say it!
    The list you have provided is, however, a wonderful starting point! Just don’t finish there.

    +1
  26. 26

    Philip Meissner

    August 9th, 2007 1:19 am

    Great list, but missing some big names.

    Gotham
    Neutraface
    and for fun an Affair

    +1
  27. 27

    Amarjeet Singh Rai

    August 9th, 2007 3:50 am

    Can you please publish this as a PDF.

    Thanks.

    +1
  28. 28

    Parker

    August 9th, 2007 4:25 am

    @Ramzi – if you value your time you will gladly pay for a high-quality, well designed font rather than use some free “professional” font you downloaded off the web, since you will more than likely spend 2-3x as long manually adjusting the kerning in your type. I’m frequently shocked at how often I see bad typography marring otherwise good designs, even on projects with the kind of financial backing that would justify a higher attention to detail. It may seem trivial to some, but it is one small detail that separates the amateurs from the professionals.

    +1
  29. 29

    jecrt

    September 15th, 2007 8:03 am

    wow – not sure about that list. Some I’d agrees with HelveticaNeue, Futura, etc – but others are kinda reaching. Myriad, for instance? It’s the default. What happened to the classic serif fonts? Garamond, Goudy, Giovanni. Or what Lubalin Graph – you listed Rockwell in lieu of Lubalin Graph? It’s easily the more superior slab serif.

    Not impressed.

    +1
  30. 30

    WEBARMY

    September 14th, 2007 4:29 am

    Hey great list you got there. Thank God you named the title Typefaces and not font list. It annoys me when designers don’t know the difference between a typeface and a font.

    +1

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