In this post, we are going to collect suitable fonts for headlines. That is to say, that they are powerful, impactful, and fit large or very large, for example in news titles and reports, as well as for all types of labels and headings (headlines, summaries, blocks, epigraphs, headers, labels, labels H on web pages … any title in short).
I will include here only those fonts that, in addition to being totally free, have all the special characters, such as the letter Ñ and vowels with accents (I will try to make the ç also present, etc). In short, ready to download and use by anyone who reads this article. In fact, many of these fonts I have used myself personally in the layout of real publications.
Note: To see some examples of things made by me you can visit my website Maquetador Online. Editorial design and layout are my greatest specialty, with many years of experience already, so I have thought of this article to serve as a “quick reference” list when working, and also for other designers / as, naturally.
Previous general considerations.
First of all, a comment that for the titles it is convenient that the letters have a shaft (main vertical stroke) that is thick and therefore very visible, but at the same time not very wide in total, so that the maximum possible characters enter per line. This is so because they often have to be used in very tight spaces, such as single-column news. It is something very common in the press and also in magazines. Therefore, the ideal is that we use narrow or condensed type fonts.
Besides that, the truth is that they look very good … They are used a lot even with plenty of space, which does not surprise me. So condensed is always a good option.
In web pages, this is also important, since the sidebar or sidebar is usually quite narrow, and it is a site where there are always many headings, sections, etc.
Finally, in the main headlines, with more space available, this condensed character is no longer so necessary. It will be enough if the letters are very thick and impressive. We can also look for Display type fonts (they are the most striking and decorated, designed for posters, logos, etc.).
With or without auction? When to use it.
Next, we will have to think if we use a font with a serif (finish) or without it. The letters with the auction are much more classic, therefore suitable for “serious” style publications (newspapers and weeklies, “salmon” economic press, legal reports…). They are also good for looking for an “elegant” or “chic” air, like that of fashion and lifestyle magazines, especially in their italic variants (italics, undoubtedly the most appropriate for this genre).
In the titles of publications “fashion”, fashion, etc., fine horn letters also tend to look good – here the rule of always looking for a lot of thickness is broken. The elegant Bauer Bodoni Italic font (see below), similar to calligraphic writing, would be a good example.
The sans serif meanwhile, ie letters without auction or “dry stick”, are the most modern opposite. In fact, we could say that they are more generic and versatile, valid in all kinds of contexts, including titles. Although they will almost always give a more “casual” touch than the finished lyrics.
Sans serif letters are also very suitable for sports publications and signs in general, especially in their italic variants. Thus, if fonts with an italicized finish were good for a fashion magazine or website, the same is true for the sports genre but without the finish; sans serif, italics work well. Especially if they are thick and impressive (if they are also condensed even better).
Example of the use of thick typeface without finishing in Italic variant for sports labels.
Good. Without further ado, let’s get on with it. I will start with the dry stick letters and from there I will go on to the finished ones. It is possible that some variants of these fonts are paid, but in any case, all the ones that you put here will always have at least some free version, which is useful. Be careful with the license of use (I will try to allow them to use it even for commercial purposes).
List of unfinished fonts (dry stick) good for titles and large labels.
Bebas and Bebas Neue
- ►Go to the Bebas font download website
- ►Go to the Bebas Neue font download website
- Details : Probably the best typeface for summaries, crayons and titles or column headings, sidebars in web pages, etc …, given its pronounced Narrow character (it is very narrow, long phrases and words fit better, and at the same time it has a thick line and legible). At least Bebas Neue does include the Ñ, accents and other special characters in Spanish. If you can’t find it on FontSquirrel for some reason , try Dafonts.com . It is a “must have” for any designer, almost mandatory installation, I would say. Natural substitute –and free- for Impact .
Gnuolane
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details : The regular version of this font family is free. It has all the special characters of Spanish. Dry stick not extremely thick (but very legible), quite narrow . Otherwise similar to Bebas . A good alternative.
Antonio
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: Good Narrow or Condensed typeface, therefore useful for narrow sites (columns, sidebar on web pages, etc). It has wide character spacing, which I quite like. Provides modern air. Otherwise free and of excellent quality, with support for all languages (it has accents and special characters of all kinds). It includes 3 variants: fine, regular and thick, which increases its usefulness.
League Gothic
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: Another excellent Bebas style typeface, with thick and powerful sans serif for big headlines. According to the source’s website (link above), these are very old letters, created by the typographer Morris Fuller Benton for the American Type Founders Company in no less than 1903. Despite this, it has special Spanish characters. and it looks absolutely modern.
Old Sans Black
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: Thick and legible, with all symbols and characters, similar to Arial. It has good thickness and works well in headings, subtitles and headings.
Fira Sans
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: Excellent 100% professional typeface, with many variants ranging from very thin to very thick, Heavy, and even Ultra (the latter will be the best for titles). Fira Sans is the font created for the foundation Mozilla ( Firefox, etc …), so that it is free, with a license type Apache / SIL Open Font (similar to the GNU on Linux ). Without finishing and humanistic type, it is a good substitute for Calibri, as well as for any sans serif typeface such as Arial, Helvetica, etc.
Alte Haas Grotesk
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: A very interesting font, as it seems a bit “worn”. This “worn” look at the edges gives it a special nuance, suitable for publications looking for an underground or avant-garde air. Ideal therefore for alternative fanzines. For the rest, it is a grotesque letter, so without finishing or serif, of the same family as the gothic (in Europe they were called grotesque and in America gothic in the same style). They are letters that appeared at the end of the 19th century and developed with the artistic avant-gardes of the early 20th century, totally breaking with the previous baroque and classicism (embodied in complex calligraphic and filigree finishes). This particular typeface somewhat revives that avant-garde artistic and minimalist spirit, with that worn look.
Insolent
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: Very good font for headlines. Very thick and dry stick, impressive. It is also a modern letter. Italics could work very well in publications about cars, motorcycling, etc … (motor in general).
Komika Title
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: As can be seen, these are very good quality hand-style capital letters, specifically designed for large labels ( display font ). With a casual style, they are reminiscent of the letters often used in comics, although with much more quality and design than Comic Sans, naturally. Good therefore for youthful and even urban themes, with a lot of vitality. 100% free even for commercial purposes, and with several variants. In short, a must-have.
Comfortaa
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: Completely round, modern and very nice to see. I have used this free font in a template that I have for sale on my website ( Sports for All magazine template ). As can be seen in the previous link, this font works well in magazines, and I find it very suitable for sports, among many other topics (health, healthy life … positive things). Includes all special characters.
Not here
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: Very round and thick, with some ornaments based on circles and with a free version. Definitely ideal for water-related topics (water sports… maybe even soft drink advertising and also logos).
Lato
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: This typeface family is great for everything: headlines (thicker variants), general text and even for logos. It is free and 100% professional, a true “must have” for any designer, the work of the Polish Łukasz Dziedzic (Lato means “Summer” in his language). Thank you very much for allowing us to use it freely. It is totally generic, it will look good in any type of publication. If there is a problem with your page, look for it directly in FontSquirrel.
Liberation Sans, serif, and Mono
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: Liberation Sans is the free and free alternative to Arial (GNU type license). Therefore ideal as a substitute for it. It also has a variant of type Monospaced (with all the letters of fixed width, type “typewriter” or “old computer”, alternative of Courier ), and another with serif (alternative of Times New Roman ), thus a family of fonts to take into account.
Arimo
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: Another excellent alternative for Arial and in general for any sans serif font. Modern and available, as it is distributed with an Apache license (similar to GNU, and therefore free to use).
List of serif or serif fonts good for titles and large labels.
Communist
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: We start with the fonts with serifs or serifs. They are in the style of Times New Roman, and therefore serious and classic. This one, in particular, would be a good substitute for the well-known Times New Roman, due to its thickness and strength.
Nimbus Roman No9 L
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: This is the GNU alternative to Times New Roman (or Times for Mac ), therefore free to use, it is distributed with Linux. It is very similar, serious letters with serifs or serifs, ideal for headlines in the press and newspapers in general, and even for very diverse books and manuals. A must have typography.
Tinos
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: Another free alternative ( Apache license ) for Times New Roman, Georgia, and the like, designed by Steve Matteson. Bold variants can work well in titles and headings. In my opinion, the finials are less elegant than those of the Nimbus Roman 9L, so I prefer this font to this one.
Bitstream Vera Serif
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: Good typography with a finish, thicker even than the previous one. Shocking and serious, not without certain modernity. It will look good anywhere, it is for publications of all kinds (both classic and modern).
Playfair Display
- ►Go to the source download website
- ►Alternative link
- Details: Both this font and the next one are very good, both with excellent quality finishes. In their thicker variants ( Bold, Bold Italic, Black, and Black Italic ) they are good for titles. In this case, italics are appropriate for fashion magazines and the like, including the finer variants. A very elegant typeface, and a perfect free replacement for Bauer Bodoni.
Vollkorn
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: The “heavier” variants ( SemiBold and Bold ) are good for titles. In this case, despite having an auction, I find them somewhat casual, especially the italics.
Soria
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: An excellent quality font, with an elegant finish, ideal for documents with a humanistic and classical theme (literature, poetry, history, classical music… that kind of thing).
Tertre
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: This typeface has a punchline that I find very “sporty” and sporty, suitable for sports publications. If not in big headlines, maybe in secondary headings, summaries, headings, pre-titles, subtitles, and the like. Even for the header of the publication itself. It reminds me of the classic letters used by American universities, whose names are embroidered on banners and jackets, all very sporty.
Source Serif Pro
- ►Go to the source download website
- Details: As we saw in a previous article, this excellent font family can be used completely freely and for free, despite being from Adobe. It can be downloaded from the link above and also from a company-enabled page on GitHub. They have capped letters with a clean and even somewhat casual look, whose thicker variants will be excellent for titles in all kinds of publications. Ideal for communications and texts of an “official” and corporate type in general, as well as educational, textbooks …
Other good sources for headlines.
Finally, although very in passing, I will also mention some sources that are widely used at a professional level, but which are no longer free, at least to know them. This is the case of the Myriad family, currently very used by a long list of newspapers in their headlines. They are of course very good – actually designed for Adobe, and used as Apple’s corporate typeface since 2002. The downside is that of course, it is not a free font. They are letters without finishing, which we can substitute for Arial (although logically it will not be the same, and also Arial is not really free, so better Liberation Sans ).
The same goes for the modern geometric Futura and ITC Avant Garde Gothic. Both are great for headlines and are widely used (in fact Futura emerged as an alternative to Avant-Garde ), but they are not free. Fortunately, we can replace them with Century Gothic, since it is equally geometric and round (although it is not really free either, so the most widely circulated publications might even have to look for another alternative, for example, the aforementioned Comfortaa, or logically buy the full rights ).
Moving on to the letters with a finish, there is the case of Adobe Caslon, very used and good too. It is another Adobe font -as its name indicates-, that we can substitute with Times New Roman, Georgia, or one of the serif fonts that we have seen above (for example Source Serif Pro, which is also from Adobe and also free) .
With Bauer Bodoni, we have a very similar case. It has an elegant finish and is ideal for fashion magazines, in which in fact it usually appears in all its variants, thick, thin and italics. Go above to find a free substitute ( Playfair Display is perfect for this), or look among the “handwriting” style fonts collected here at La Grafiteca, those that are more script or calligraphic (list 1, list 2). Some good alternatives can be found.