80 Beautiful Typefaces For Professional Design

You don’t like to scroll? Be prepared. (We warned you.)

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.com¹ and Fontshop.com².

Classic Typefaces Link

Classics of typography in a brief overview. You will find even more traditional typefaces on the site 100 Best Fonts³, including history, development and related information.

1. Helvetica Link

2. Helvetica Neue Link

3. Univers Link

4. Frutiger Link

5. Avenir Link

6. Myriad Pro Link

7. Neuzeit Link

8. Syntax Link

9. Proxima Nova Link

10. Proxima Sans Link

11. Glasgow Link

12. Charlotte Sans Link

13. Precious Sans Link

14. Gill Sans Link

15. Lisboa Link

16. Franklin Gothic Link

17. Futura Link

18. EF TV Nord 1 Link

19. FF Scala Link

20. Rockwell Link

21. Eurostile Link

22. Warnock Link

23. FF DIN Link

24. FF Meta Link

25. Officina Link

26. FF Dax Link

27. DF Dynasty Link

28. Akzidenz-Grotesk Link

29. AG Book Link

30. Precious Serif Link

Further Typefaces Link

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.

34. Ronnia Link

Typetogether

35. Stella Link

Feliciano Type Foundry⁷

36. Le Monde Courrier Link

Vitaly Friedman

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. He runs responsive Web design workshops, online workshops and loves solving complex UX, front-end and performance problems in large companies. Get in touch.

219 Comments

1

zlich
August 8, 2007 2:19 am

good one!!! – as usual :)

0
2

Juan Manuel Lemus
August 8, 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
- 3
  
  Juan
  June 1, 2010 7:09 pm
  
  not really majority of these fonts are postscripts and open type. Not for use for the web.
  
  -8
4

P. Peterson
August 8, 2007 2:29 am

Wow, this is amazing. Absolutely Smashing!!!

2
5

meizopan
August 8, 2007 2:46 am

cool, font always be major factor to achieve great webdesign

1
6

Adit
August 8, 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

Florian
August 8, 2007 2:56 am

nice overview. your list includes some very nice fonts which i havn’t seen before. but i’ll miss direct links ;)

0
8

Nick
August 8, 2007 4:00 am

Great list. You captured many of my favorites. The primary ones I missed were Transit, News Gothic and Minion although I wouldn’t necessarily expect them to be present anyway.

0
9

tripleG
August 8, 2007 4:04 am

depot is so good….its on twice!

0
10

KarlH
August 8, 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…

2
11

Samuel
August 8, 2007 5:08 am

Gorgeous and simple, they way to go.

0
12

add
August 8, 2007 5:36 am

is any of those free?

torrent link? :))

0
13

onesevenone
August 8, 2007 5:47 am

Thank you for scrolling! :) I love this list!
I’m sure it’ll speed up my next choice!

0
14

Matty
August 8, 2007 6:07 am

Awesome list! I love the way you guys have screenshots of the font in action, some designs look very classy. nice work. :D

0
15

Jeremy David
August 8, 2007 6:23 am

Genius.

I’ve come to love your blog more than any other.

Keep up the brilliant work. I hesitated, and chose not to throw in the word smashing, ha ha. But I was going to.

0
16

Dumitru Tira
August 8, 2007 7:09 am

Awesome post, I definitively would like some more post about typography. Good job guys.

0
17

Myo Kyaw Htun
August 8, 2007 7:39 am

You Guys ROCK!!!

0
18

Ash Haque
August 8, 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
19

chip
August 8, 2007 8:26 am

Excellent as usual. There are some fantastic typefaces here.

0
20

Jules Siegel
August 8, 2007 9:09 am

This is a completely arbitrary list. I’m a professional typographer. I would never use any of them with the possible exception of Warnock. Helvetica, Univers and their variations are hopelessly overused, tired and BORING. The other faces you show are mostly quirky at best, inept at worst. This is easily the most amateurish collection of “best” typefaces I’ve seen in a long time.

-2
- 21
  
  5kunk
  March 14, 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…
  
  10
- 22
  
  Jason
  September 1, 2010 3:19 am
  
  The only reason a font would be ‘tired’ or ‘boring’ is the context that you are using it in. Helvetica is kicking by nicely and has remained a crowd favourite based on its ability to adapt to its surroundings. It is not an aging fad, like most ‘edgy’ or ‘cool’ fonts, it is as good as you use it. That goes for pretty much all fonts, except maybe Comic Sans.
  
  1
23

10668844
August 8, 2007 9:37 am

Thank you, I’ve been needing this for awhile. Much appreciated.

0
24

frank tolentino
August 8, 2007 9:45 am

good posting! this well help others who are not “a professional typographer” to pick and use different styles in their next letter, project,web, logo, etc.

choosing a good typseface is essential for corporate branding.

chossing the right fonts for the project, always makes a big impact. Just make sure it is consistent.
:)

0
25

Eeeeh
August 8, 2007 9:49 am

Haha, actually, I just re-read post #21:
“Helvetica, Univers and their variations are hopelessly overused, tired and BORING”
Disregard the “I do agree with Jules … ” comment, those fonts, and the others in the list that I actually would consider classics (though most I would not) I think are very versatile, and “overuse” is irrelevant to achieving one’s goals in a layout. I at first thought those were included in his “oaky” fonts … must’ve been dizzy from looking through so many fonts … or perhaps the Depot double post through me off : )

0
26

ratigan
August 8, 2007 9:49 am

no freebies?
no fun

0
27

kid mercury
August 8, 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
- 28
  
  jaja
  January 30, 2010 9:33 pm
  
  ew
  
  4
29

Lachlan
August 8, 2007 10:02 am

Good to see Univers made the list. Quite fond of that font. As well as the Corpid collection (sadly it didn’t make the list). I think I’ve used it a little too religiously at times.

Either way, a great list. I’m going to go out and see if I can find Flex now. :D

0
30

phoneonvibrate
August 8, 2007 10:20 am

I’m a publishing professional and have worked as a type director for a madison avenue ad agency. I never heard of 90 percent of these faces. My bad? Most of them look like like knock-offs of long-time standards.

0
31

Abhijit Nadgouda
August 8, 2007 10:59 am

A good list. However, I will add one more need for choosing a typeface – its readability across all platforms. It is a critical one for the web where the variety in client environments is maximum.

0
32

Rik
August 8, 2007 11:16 am

Man, they are all cool but i love “FF Sanuk”. Might have to purchase that one. Great list.

0
33

UnitB
August 8, 2007 4:17 am

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

3
34

AD
August 8, 2007 11:21 am

Wow – great resource! We chose our logo’s font from your list here.

0
35

Frances
August 8, 2007 11:50 am

Wow, nice job! I spend lots of time playing with fonts daily. This is a great resource!

0
36

Steven Snell
August 8, 2007 11:55 am

Great stuff! This will be a handy resource when designing a new site.

0
37

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
August 8, 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.

1
38

torrentguy
August 8, 2007 5:28 am

The only thing missing is the torrent address to download them all…

2
39

rj
August 8, 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
40

Daz
August 8, 2007 12:54 pm

Shmick list, ta.

Baar Sophia is a nice sans serif, I use it on business cards.

0
41

Arun
August 8, 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
42

SirPrize
August 8, 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
43

latejedora
August 8, 2007 2:42 pm

I really love those font size/font face combos!!!
Great!

0
44

Information Central
August 8, 2007 8:37 am

Um, why bother with this when the entries don’t link to downloadable font files?

And, some of the so-called foundries are bunk. For example, the ones for Olga lead to essentially non-functional Web sites that don’t offer the font either.

-1
45

Darren
August 8, 2007 3:46 pm

Wow. Brilliant article. Thats definitely a keeper. Loads of fonts their that will look amazing. Thank you.

0
46

Danny Foo
August 8, 2007 3:50 pm

This is definetely going into my Typeface bookmarks.

Great reference typefaces for ideas and source. :)

Thanks.

0
47

Will
August 8, 2007 9:18 am

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

2
48

WobblyCyril
August 8, 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
- 49
  
  vectorluvr
  March 11, 2010 8:37 pm
  
  surely you jest
  
  0
50

stefano picco
August 8, 2007 4:31 pm

very good work :)

0
51

Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
August 8, 2007 4:38 pm

You can find over 50 professional high-quality free fonts in our section “Free Fonts”.

0
52

Eeeeh
August 8, 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?

2
53

Lachlan
August 8, 2007 4:56 pm

@WobblyCyril

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

1
54

Ramil Alcibar
August 8, 2007 5:15 pm

Thanks again for the list. I personally prefer the Glasgow font ;)

0
55

Ali Reid
August 8, 2007 6:02 pm

thanks for this – love it!

0

2 3…5

↑ Back to top