Do you need a modern font for your website, print project, or online campaign? Then you’ve come to the right place. This is my list of the top 10 Google fonts for 2021 with the font pairings.
All fonts on this list are Free and Open Source, meaning you can use the fonts freely in your products & projects – print or digital, commercial or otherwise. However, you can’t sell the fonts on their own (See Licenses Below).
Julieta Ulanovsky was inspired to create this typeface by the old posters in Buenos Aires’ Montserrat neighbourhood—a region recognized for its urban design during the first half of the twentieth century.
License: Open Font License (You can use this font freely in your products & projects – print or digital, commercial or otherwise. However, you can’t sell the fonts on their own).
Popular Font Pairings: Roboto, Open Sans, Raleway, Oswald & Lato
In the years since these actors stepped onto the world stage, geometric sans serif typefaces have been popular design tools. Poppins is a new addition to this long tradition. With support for the Devanagari and Latin writing systems, it is an internationalist take on the genre.
License: Open Font License (You can use this font freely in your products & projects – print or digital, commercial or otherwise. However, you can’t sell the fonts on their own).
Popular Font Pairings: Roboto, Open Sans, Lora, Source Sans Pro & Lato
Roboto has a dual nature. The forms are largely geometric and have a mechanical skeleton. Its friendly curves and open design also make the font appealing. Roboto doesn’t compromise and allows letters to be positioned in their natural width.
License: Apache License, Version 2.0 (You can use this font freely in your products & projects – print or digital, commercial or otherwise. However, you can’t sell the fonts on their own).
Popular Font Pairings: Open Sans, Lato & Noto Sans JP.
Open Sans was designed with an upright stress, open forms and a neutral, yet friendly appearance. It was optimized for print, web, and mobile interfaces, and has excellent legibility characteristics in its letterforms.
License: Apache License, Version 2.0 (You can use this font freely in your products & projects – print or digital, commercial or otherwise. However, you can’t sell the fonts on their own).
Popular Font Pairings: Roboto, Lato, Poppins & Montserrat.
The semi-rounded details of the letters give Lato a feeling of warmth, while the strong structure provides stability and seriousness. “Male and female, serious but friendly. With the feeling of the Summer,” says Łukasz.
License: Open Font License (You can use this font freely in your products & projects – print or digital, commercial or otherwise. However, you can’t sell the fonts on their own).
Popular Font Pairings: Roboto, Lato, Open Sans & Source Sans Pro.
The Ubuntu Font Family are a set of matching new libre/open fonts in development during 2010-2011. The development is being funded by Canonical Ltd on behalf of the wider Free Software community and the Ubuntu project.
License: Ubuntu Font License (You can use this font freely in your products & projects – print or digital, commercial or otherwise. However, you can’t sell the fonts on their own).
Popular Font Pairings: Roboto, Oxygen, Fira Sans & Open Sans.
The Oxygen typeface family was created as part of the KDE Project, a libre desktop for the GNU+Linux operating system. The design is optimized for the FreeType font rendering system and is compatible across all graphical user interfaces, desktops, and mobile devices.
License: Open Font License (You can use this font freely in your products & projects – print or digital, commercial or otherwise. However, you can’t sell the fonts on their own).
Popular Font Pairings: Roboto, Ubuntu, Fira Sans & Cantarell.
Oswald is a reworking of the classic style historically represented by the ‘Alternate Gothic’ sans serif typefaces. The characters of Oswald were initially re-drawn and revised in order to better fit the pixels of standard digital screens.
License: Open Font License (You can use this font freely in your products & projects – print or digital, commercial or otherwise. However, you can’t sell the fonts on their own).
Popular Font Pairings: Open Sans, Roboto, Lato, Montserrat & Source Sans Pro.
Raleway is an elegant sans-serif typeface family. Initially designed by Matt McInerney as a single thin weight, it was expanded into a 9 weight family by Pablo Impallari and Rodrigo Fuenzalida in 2012 and iKerned by Igino Marini. A thorough review and italic were added in 2016.
License: Open Font License (You can use this font freely in your products & projects – print or digital, commercial or otherwise. However, you can’t sell the fonts on their own).
Popular Font Pairings: Open Sans, Roboto, Lato, Montserrat & Oswald.
This project commemorates the 300th anniversary of the invention of the civil type by Peter the Great in 1708- 1710. The Russian Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications provided financial support.
License: Open Font License (You can use this font freely in your products & projects – print or digital, commercial or otherwise. However, you can’t sell the fonts on their own).
Popular Font Pairings: Open Sans, Roboto, Lato, Montserrat & Raleway.