This is my own selection of the best free typefaces published in 2021, grouped by category. The list will grow until December 31, 2021.
Text typefaces: - Zodiak (Jérémie Hornus, Gaetan Baehr, Jean-Baptiste Morizot, Alisa Nowak, and Théo Guillard at Fontshare). A 24-style text family with Century-like newspaper roots and sturdy bracketed slab serifs. Originally called Claire (2020).
- Calmadita (by Sic Typus Creatus Est, a group of five Mexican type designers).
- Atkinson Hyperlegible (Applied Design Works, Braille Institute).
- Newsreader (Hugues Gentile, Production Type). Made in 2020, but showcased at Production Type in 2021, this is an extensive optically corrected family (Caption, Text, Display) for reading on screens.
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Sans typefaces: |
Rounded sans typefaces: |
Type systems: - RedHat (Pentagram and Jeremy Mickel). Open source variable Display, Text and Mono subfamilies.
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Art deco typefaces: - Moniqa (Rajesh Rajput). In 162 styles, including variable fonts.
- Italico (Antonio Filigno).
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Hipster typefaces: |
Script typefaces: |
Calligraphic typefaces: - Pencerio (Manushi Parikh). A monolinear hairline Spencerian script.
- Ballet VF (Maximiliano Sproviero, with Eduardo Tunni and the Omnibus team). A variable Spencerian penmanship font with optical sizing from 16pt to 72pt.
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Brush typefaces: |
Sketched, Layered or Poster typefaces: |
Blackletter typefaces: |
Dingbats and ornaments: - Sébastien (Vanessa Zuñiga). Patterns and color fonts based on the 17th centry tilings of Jean Truchet.
- Botana (Masyafi Studio).
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Programming fonts: - M Plus Code Latin and M Plus 1 Code (Coji Morishita).
- Drafting Mono (Owen Earl). A typewriter-like font but in which slabs are added not just to the lower case i and l as was the practice in the past. In eight styles.
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Garalde typefaces: |
Display typefaces: |
Slab serif typefaces: |
Copperplate: |
Wood type revivals: |
Letterpress emulation: |
Didone typefaces: |
Fashion mag typefaces: |
Revivals: - New Computer Modern (Antonis Tsolomitis). A revival and major extension of Knuth's Computer Modern fonts for typesetting mathematical texts, 2019-2021.
- Stripes (Steve Harrison). A revival and extension of Tony Wenman's Stripes (1972-1973).
- Aboensis (Tommi Syrjänen). A very carefully researched revival of 15th century alphabets used in Codex Aboensis (1430s) and The Black Book of Abo Cathedral (late 15th century).
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Stencil typefaces: |
Variable fonts: - Ballet VF (Maximiliano Sproviero, with Eduardo Tunni and the Omnibus team). A variable Spencerian penmanship font with optical sizing from 16pt to 72pt.
- Truculenta (Ivan Castro, Eva Sanz and the Omnibus team). An enormous vernacular sans family with optical size, weight and width axes.
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Multilingual typefaces: | Wonderful, adorable, refreshing typefaces: |