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15 Beautiful High-Quality Free Fonts

By Smashing Editorial, November 24th, 2008 in Fonts | 144 Comments | Forum

Every now and again we take a look around, select “fresh” high-quality free fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually the time you should be investing in your current projects. We search for them and we find them, so you don’t have to.

In this selection we’re glad to present you Aller Sans, Mayberry Pro SemiBold, Quicksand, Agrafa Hairline, Sketch Rockwell, Megalopolis Extra and a couple of other high-quality free fonts. Please read the license agreements carefully before using the fonts — the license can change from time to time.

Free Fonts Of March features Myndraine, Museo Sans as well as handwritten and grungy fonts.
40 Excellent Free Fonts For Professional Design
You can find over 80 more free fonts in our section Fonts.

15 Beautiful High-Quality Free Fonts

Aller Sans [ Specimen | License | Download ]
Dalton Maag design team designed a beautiful sans-serif Aller Sans, sponsored by Danish publishing company Aller (hence the name). The typeface was designed as part of the Danish School of Media and Journalisms new CI and is now available for free use and download (via).

Mayberry Pro SemiBold (registration is required)
AscenderFonts released the font Mayberry Pro Semi Bold available for free download. This font belongs to the Mayberry Pro family. This family is a humanist sans serif designed by Steve Matteson to provide optimal legibility on screen in applications ranging from User Interfaces to web pages. The registration is required to download the font.

Rally Character Set [ Specimen | Previews | Download ]
Lukyan Turetsky released a character set of rally symbols. The font contains standard signs of control in rally, infographics rally icons, blanks for the design of logos and other graphics, symbols for signs legends (transcript) and other symbols and marks. OpenType, available for free download.

Quicksand
Quicksand is a brilliant sans-serif font designed by Andrew Paglinawan and available for free download.

Agrafa Hairline (registration is required)
“Agrafa is a technical but versatile display face that works well in both large and small sizes. Most of the glyphs are made from one continuous line and shows the constraints of bending a paperclip/wire.” Designed by Mugur Mihai. [ via ]

Conglomerfont
Conglomerfont is a free font created by Jay Hilgert (BittBox) and the design community from all over the world. Jay asked people to send individual letters to his inbox, and I coagulated the submissions into a single font, hence the name, Conglomerfont.

Sketch Rockwell
A sketchy hand-drawn script font, designed by Lukas Bischoff, available for free download for PC and Mac OS X. Free for personal use only.

Megalopolis Extra [ Specimen | EULA License ]
Revamped version of the 2004 one. Now in OT with extended language support and OpenType features with alternates, ligatures, different styles of figures, etc. You can use it freely for all your personal and commercial work. [ via ]

Sansation
A modern sans-serif, designed by Bernd Montag and available for free download and usage. PC / Mac OS X.

Exljbris fonts update
Jos Buivenga has recently updated his free fonts, partly available for free download. The improved Fertigo Pro, Anivers, Museo and Museo Sans have been recently re-released and are now available for free download.

Birra Stout (registration is required)
Birra arose from years of compulsive doodling in pen and ink, and conjures the whimsy and syncopated contrast of novelty handlettering in the early 20th century. Birra Stout is a free font, made available by Darden Studio.

Miso [ Preview ]
MISO is an architectural lettering font completed in 2006 by Mårten Nettelbladt. It’s available in three weights (light, regular, bold) in TrueType format for Windows.

Advent
Andreas K. improved his typeface and made a new version availabe for free personal, non-commercial usage only.

Last Click

High Heels Typeface
This was a fun project overall because I got the chance to explore a diverse and massive collection of High-heeled shoes, which was the main inspiration for the typeface that I have created. Not available for download.

Sources and Resources

20 Beautiful Free Serif Fonts
21 Awesome Free Fonts
A beautiful selection of freely available fonts.
30 Most Curious And Interesting Dingbats

Published in Fonts, November 24th, 2008
Tags: downloads, Fonts, free, typefaces

1.

Justin Floyd (November 24th, 2008, 6:08 am)

Excellent series. There is some beautiful work here.
2.

Andy (November 24th, 2008, 6:12 am)

Juicy Love em. Thanks
3.

Courtny (November 24th, 2008, 6:15 am)

Awesome!
4.

Curt Simon Harlinghausen (November 24th, 2008, 6:24 am)

Just genius. I love fonts and typography.
It is just a lonely child in that business.
5.

CreamScoop.com (November 24th, 2008, 6:24 am)

Really good selection, thanks for sharing!
6.

Colin (November 24th, 2008, 6:26 am)

Love MISO!!! Hopefully, I can find an excuse to use it in my work in near future.
7.

zero0x (November 24th, 2008, 6:44 am)

WONDERFUL

thanks :)
8.

Jason (November 24th, 2008, 6:44 am)

Wow, thanks !
9.

Nick Pagano (November 24th, 2008, 6:45 am)

Awesome list! There were a couple I have never seen before, so I for sure gotta get download’in :)

And, Thanks for mentioning one of my posts under “Sources and Resources.” :)
10.

Andris (November 24th, 2008, 6:59 am)

Some of them are very nice. thanx for the list.
11.

BORABORA (November 24th, 2008, 7:48 am)

Amazing… I would like to see more typographic posts!
Great work!
Regards
12.

Sara (November 24th, 2008, 8:04 am)

I’m glad to see some typography on here! Nice post.
13.

Siah (November 24th, 2008, 8:19 am)

am i the only one that’s not able to see the images? they’re not showing up..
14.

steve (November 24th, 2008, 8:35 am)

cool! you can never have too many fonts, thanks!
15.

Cristian (November 24th, 2008, 8:41 am)

Amazing, thank you for the great work,
16.

Benjamin (November 24th, 2008, 9:48 am)

Quicksand looks great. Thanks Smashing!
17.

Thomas (November 24th, 2008, 10:32 am)

@Siah
Same problem for me, I can’t see the images, nor in the article “50 Beautiful Winter Wonderland Photos”
18.

Adam (November 24th, 2008, 11:04 am)

Somehow I feel like I’ve seen many of these before on this site…
19.

Adam (November 24th, 2008, 11:05 am)

Still no images?
20.

Siah (November 24th, 2008, 11:42 am)

@ Thomas
yep no images in the previous post either.
Are we blacklisted??? ;-/
lol
21.

Siah (November 24th, 2008, 11:45 am)

I just checked again, and none of the images in any previous posts are showing up.. the site graphics (ads, logo, etc) are fine though..
::sigh:: no Smashing for my manic Monday
22.

Siah (November 24th, 2008, 12:09 pm)

it works now…
23.

Gopal Raju (November 24th, 2008, 12:24 pm)

Awesome! They are really useful.

Gopal,
Link [www.productivedreams.com]
24.

Jarryd (November 24th, 2008, 4:38 pm)

Awesome compilation of fonts there, I’m really like the Advent one.
25.

gr8pixel (November 24th, 2008, 5:55 pm)

great collection! thanks SM
26.

Rakesh.S (November 24th, 2008, 7:39 pm)

Good listing
27.

Freelance (November 24th, 2008, 8:24 pm)

Thanks a lot for good stuff
28.

gaurav (November 24th, 2008, 8:30 pm)

heels are nice .. high heels ;)
29.

sohil (November 24th, 2008, 9:10 pm)

Nice collection.
any one have sketch flavor fonts collection ?
30.

agustin (November 24th, 2008, 11:05 pm)

Noob question: how do I get those ligatures and alternates on Megalopolis Extra?
31.

_Sven (November 25th, 2008, 4:14 am)

A nice series. Thanks for the Aller Sans, Mayberry and the beautiful Sensation!
32.

stu collett (November 25th, 2008, 6:58 am)

Great list guys,

Love the QuickSand, it reminds me a bit of DIM.
33.

Haitham (November 25th, 2008, 7:57 am)

how is the last one free????? free to look at?!
34.

Nita (November 25th, 2008, 9:16 pm)

Awesome list! Thanks a lot :-)
35.

Klaus (November 26th, 2008, 3:27 am)

Regarding the “Aller” font, can someone summarize the license? To me, I do not understand it at all. Will it be non-free after 2010? May I use it after 2010, e.g. in PDFs published in the Internet?
36.

Jhay (November 26th, 2008, 6:11 am)

Great great!! Thanks
37.

Vygantas (December 5th, 2008, 7:46 am)

AWESOME
38.

Elena (December 6th, 2008, 9:09 am)

lovely!
39.

Peter (December 6th, 2008, 2:31 pm)

Smashing Magazine has become my favorite design blog. Thanks for the wonderful resources!
40.

bbkej (December 9th, 2008, 10:10 am)

so beautiful…
41.

Marcus (December 12th, 2008, 6:44 am)

this is great “preciate” these keep em coming mwan
42.

peter (December 15th, 2008, 12:04 pm)

I am confused also - is the aller free to use? The license it implies it is only for the Danish School of Media and Journalisms. Plus I’m with Klaus - is there a limit on when it can be used? Can anyone clarify?
43.

Tainan Lopes (December 24th, 2008, 1:03 pm)

Perfect!

Thanks Smashing Magazine and Merry Xtimas
44.

Felipe Dário (December 25th, 2008, 11:24 am)

I love the Museo family, and Quicksand is lovely!

I would like to show off my new experimental handmade font, Link [www.dafont.com], available for freee download. I used Herb Lubalin’s ITC Avant Garde as basis for the work, done through stencil. Images and more info (in Portuguese) are available on Link [fonteartesanal.blogspot.com] and Link [fonteartesanal.blogspot.com]

Happy New Year, Smashing Team!
45.

Nathan Beck (December 30th, 2008, 3:36 am)

you’ve just saved my latest project, thank you!
46.

Luv (January 14th, 2009, 6:39 pm)

Rats
47.

montana (January 17th, 2009, 9:05 am)

hello,
so i am new to this web site and new to downloading fonts and such. could some one help me to understand where thie font is put on my computer so i can then use it? i have vista.
i want to make it simple so it can be opened from one place. the zip folder has a few things in it and, ok this is where i am so confused can any one help??????
48.

Connie (January 20th, 2009, 6:09 pm)

Great~!Thanks for sharing.
Love it~Especially Quicksand..
Thanks..smashing magazine~
49.

hansa (January 24th, 2009, 7:53 pm)

are there any beautiful monospaced fonts?
50.

cmdigital (January 25th, 2009, 10:18 am)

I was going to download the high heels font for my daughter.. but it doesn’t work??? It just goes to a jpg image.
51.

Mui (January 27th, 2009, 1:50 am)

nice font!!!!
52.

Gabriel Campaner (January 27th, 2009, 1:34 pm)

Ow, super thanks
53.

eldropper (January 27th, 2009, 3:18 pm)

Thank you so much. They are all beautiful indeed.
54.

matt hardwick (January 27th, 2009, 6:44 pm)

another Link [www.fontspace.com], as the current link seems to be to a suspended account.
55.

Zul Azman (January 27th, 2009, 10:13 pm)

NIce list! Thanks!
56.

ali gee (January 28th, 2009, 7:32 am)

great stuff many thanks
57.

tristan bethe (February 2nd, 2009, 8:52 am)

Great fonts, thanks for the list!
58.

DKumar M. (February 3rd, 2009, 4:31 am)

Nice fonts !!
59.

cherry (February 14th, 2009, 3:03 am)

thaxxxxxxxxxx so cool
60.

patter (February 23rd, 2009, 12:50 am)

สวยดีค่ะ
ขอบคุณที่สุด

Thank You
61.

ockley (March 10th, 2009, 1:57 am)

@42 and other. There is a discussion at Link [typophile.com] with Bruno Maag about the AULA license for Aller. Maybe that can help on the confusion.
62.

Rob Chant (March 11th, 2009, 5:19 pm)

It seems to be the fashion here just to write something along the likes of, “great, thaxxxxx so much!”, but I’m afraid I beg to differ.

Some of these fonts look quite useful. Some are neat and clean. I’m really missing the ‘beautiful’ part though.
63.

Rodolpho (March 12th, 2009, 3:13 am)

Five stars! Thanks
64.

Timothy (March 12th, 2009, 5:54 am)

Decent list. Some are great. Some not so much. Useful resources non the less. Thanks
65.

momo (April 9th, 2009, 1:44 am)

Thanks
66.

johnnyz525 (April 15th, 2009, 8:27 pm)

really helped me update my fonts….a few keepers….thanks
67.

Vernon Decossas (April 28th, 2009, 4:37 am)

Nice collection, thanks you
68.

joshua (April 28th, 2009, 6:25 pm)

Very helpful, thanks for your effort ;)
69.

Matt French (May 11th, 2009, 2:26 pm)

Thanks for the fonts, but I find I pass on at least half of them when I have to sign up to yet another website to add free fonts to a shopping cart just to download them.
70.

mike (May 12th, 2009, 2:01 am)

Sorry, but Conglomerfont is just ugly.
And what was the point of showing us the last one, with the high heels, then telling us that it isn’t available for download?
71.

erich Viedge (May 13th, 2009, 1:45 am)

This is genius — really it is! And your story of how you struggled with some of the shapes really inspired me. Thanks so much!
72.

mahi (May 14th, 2009, 11:17 pm)

thanx for this post
73.

asdfsdf (May 17th, 2009, 5:27 am)

asddsfsdlsdf;s
74.

asdfsdf (May 17th, 2009, 5:28 am)

sdffsadfds asdfdsa
75.

Vancouver photographer (May 19th, 2009, 12:52 am)

These are awesome! Thank you for the fonts!

Link [www.dsoleil.com]
76.

Module23 (May 24th, 2009, 2:21 pm)

Thanks for a great list of free fonts, very useful.

Cheers,

Link [www.module23.com]