119 Responses to “The Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time”

1. Kolbe Maison on Mar 4, 2009 said:

   And yet you only need 10, if you know how to use them.

2. Athena Emily on Mar 4, 2009 said:

   oo.Thanks!
   Very interesting list.
   I am surprised that Century Gothic isn’t on it though

3. Justin on Mar 4, 2009 said:

   What, no comic sans

   Also surprised Century Gothic isn’t on there.

4. Abbas (@designsheffield) on Mar 5, 2009 said:

   Century Gothic is bad font, you really need to start using Avant Garde or Avian.

   I have the PDF of this list, visually brilliant, but it’s only available in German unfortunately.

   Gotham is slowly becoming my favourite.

5. Mohsin on Mar 5, 2009 said:

   Excellent stuff!

   And thanks for the link Jacob.

6. Luke's Beard on Mar 5, 2009 said:

   I love this post

7. Psiplex on Mar 5, 2009 said:

   Thanks for putting this together. Always good to see how fonts emerge, adapt, change or dissolve away from the social and design stratum.

   One Love

8. Zachary Schweitzer on Mar 5, 2009 said:

   Thanks so much for including the designer and especially the year the font was created - always good to put the historical context around a font, and amazing that #2 on the list is based on a design that’s almost 500 years old.

9. Nix on Mar 5, 2009 said:

   No Trebuchet? </3

10. Nix on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    Okay, I was a bit hasty there.

    “Free fonts or operating system fonts were not considered, nor were fonts integral to standard software (i.e. Arial, Verdana, etc.).”

    I think Trebuchet falls in there. As does Century Gothic, I presume.

11. Bob Marchman on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    great list, except one thing: no Centaur. Screw Trebuchet. no Centaur. Can’t please us all, eh?

12. Clay McIlrath on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    Great list, there are some fonts in the top 33 I’ve never heard of which is surprising. Also surprising that Avant Garde and Avenir aren’t in the top. Kinda sad really.

    Great list mate, I’m gonna have to collect the ones I don’t have!

13. Clay McIlrath on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    Correction, Avant Garde is in the top.. good to see. Still.. some of these are somewhat unsettling.. Zapfino in the top 33.. OUCH

14. Cristhian Bedon on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    Thats alot of fonts to have, but like the first guy said (Kolbe) 10 fonts would be all you might need. Maybe 20 max.

15. Logo Design Guru on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    I have to agree that that is a good list. I love the fancy fonts like the ones that are often used for weddings and such. they look so nice and professional.

16. Devlin (@devlindonnelly) on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    Yeah, Kabel made the list, one of my favorites. They should do a best system fonts. It might be a short list though. But if they did that article they’d have to set the entire article in Papyrus and Comic Sans. That sounds so bad it would almost be good. ALMOST.
    Great post as usual Jacob.

17. Robin Johansen on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    Great list, really great, allthough not many surprises.

    However, I wish that pdf could be translated into English - if I just knew German, had it a year in school and all I can do is count to ten:)

18. Fabio Sasso on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    Filosofia and Mrs Eaves deserved a better position, they are simply amazing fonts.

    Thanks a lot for this great list.

19. Cedric Nocon on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    excellent article! i personally feel bad that I misuse Officina, Meta, Eurostile, and Lucida a lot.

20. benson on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    I guess my slight issue with this list is that some of the top typefaces are also criticized for being the most over used, and very “un-designer”-esque. It’s somewhat of an oxymoron listing helvetica as the top font of all time, and in a similar link listing it as the most over used, and in a similar link identifying it as a font that “pseudo” designers use b/c they don’t know better. It baffles me that so many will praise this font, yet an equal amount of people will bash it. It’s the same case with other faces as well.

    pettiness aside, it’s a solid list; thanks for posting it.

21. Thai Dang vu on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    No any of M$ cleartype fonts (like segoe, calibri, consolas …)? I’m looking for a nice monospaced font to use in Intellij Idea in Linux (Jaunty). Consolas looks good in Windows, but worse than Bitstream Vera Sans Mono in Jaunty.

22. Photo sharing on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    I’ve used eurostile for years!

23. Steve SEO UK on Mar 5, 2009 said:

    I started work in the Print industry when we used the term “hot metal”. I was a Compositor picking up metal letters from a Case and setting them into lines of type in a Typestick. Most memorable typefaces at that time were Helvetica, Times, Gill, Plantin and Palace Script.

    By the time I had completed my 6 year Apprenticeship, I could recognise and name just about every typeface in existance at that time. We had to, it was one of the important and necessary qualifications of the job.

    All the best, from a not too old a person,
    Steve.

24. Rodrigo Teixeira on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    Great compilation, one more time.

25. Timothy on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    Glad to see Helvetica in spot #1

26. Laslo L on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    Where is Georgia?

27. RyanC on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    Where is Times New Roman and Arial? I can’t find #1 on my PC anywhere?

28. CGB on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    Copperplate at 60!?! What kind of list is this? There is only 1 font you need, copperplategothicbold.com

29. Aetoric Design on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    Also confused about the lack of Georgia. Probably my favorite website font. So classy.

30. JimK on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    It would be interesting to see how this list would change if you factored in the font “sales” that come with every operating system. Comic Sans, Times New Roman and Courier would have definitely made the list.

31. gersk on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    Bodoni 1970?
    The right date is 1790, of course.

32. Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    Thank you all for your comments and you’re welcome.

    Laslo, RyanC, Aetoric,
    “It is also worth noting that this evaluation consisted exclusively of licensed or commercial fonts only. Free fonts or operating system fonts were not considered, nor were fonts integral to standard software (i.e. Arial, Verdana, etc.). Font variations, which over the centuries have been individually interpreted by various Foundries, were uniquely evaluated as a class and the best variant was entered into the main judging process.”

33. Caralyn Krail on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    It’s interesting to see where each font falls in order, would not have expected a couple listed in the top 10.. but there they were!
    Jacob, great job on listing the years of when the font was created.. and the name of the person who was responsible for the font.

34. Corey Thompson on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    Yeah, I don’t agree with this list.

35. Thomas on Mar 6, 2009 said:

    Great list !

36. Vincent Le Pes on Mar 7, 2009 said:

    I like helvetica, but if you have ever looked at your site on a Win/PC, is it hard to read. Helvetica looks terrible as body text, the letters come out all different sizes and the top line looks like a rolling wave. If you are interested, email me and I will show you a screenshot. A lot of popular blogs are hard for us Win/PC users to read and it seems that since Helvetica looks so good on a Mac or through Safari that most designers don’t realize it.

37. Vincent Le Pes on Mar 7, 2009 said:

    I thought I would share what I meant: http://twitpic.com/1vqp4

    I wish more prominent designers would spread the word that helvetica should not be used for body text

38. graphicartist2k5 on Mar 7, 2009 said:

    This list is HIGHLY debateable. Why? Because there are a TON of fonts out there that are made for specific things, such as design elements in any given graphic design, such as Bokonon and Final Lap, but I don’t hear anyone saying anything about those fonts. This list is EXTREMELY subjective, because it all has to do with what you’re using the typeface for. If it’s for use as copy for the body of a page layout, then yeah, Helvetica, Arial, and so on are good fonts to use, but if you want to use a font as a design element, then you’d need a font that has the right look, if you know what I mean.

39. Simon Page on Mar 7, 2009 said:

    This is a great list that they have compiled and for commercial fonts I think it has a large number of ones I would of choosen as well as a few new ones to investigate.

    I did one of my daily “typography is everything” series based on the top 4:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/5.....333022851/

40. Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 7, 2009 said:

    Vincent,
    I have viewed my site on many, many computers and have never seen that problem of which you have told me about. Is it only on your computer that this happens?

    And helvetica works for body text in my opinion, very easy to read and great looking!

    GraphicArtist,
    I do realise that something like this is highly debatable, and it’s not going to please all but none the less, it is still a valuable resource.

    Simon,
    Thanks for your link to your typography series, quite interesting.

41. Andrew Kelsall (@AndrewKelsall) on Mar 8, 2009 said:

    Thanks for the list Jacob. Just added to Delicious…

42. BenSky on Mar 8, 2009 said:

    Thanks for the list, definate classics! Another one of my fav’s: Aperto.

43. Matt Fouty (@mattfouty) on Mar 9, 2009 said:

    Jacob,

    I love this post. I still struggle with fonts and this list will help.

44. Anthony Hortin (@maddisondesigns) on Mar 9, 2009 said:

    Hi Jacob,
    Great list. Thanks. I’d be interested in knowing if you have any personal favourites? Keep up the great articles. Cheers!

45. Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 9, 2009 said:

    Anthony,
    Well this website is set in Helvetica so that is one hint, but I also love Gill Sans, Bodoni & Rockwell as my personal favs.

46. Paul (@paulher) on Mar 10, 2009 said:

    nice list Jacob. Most of them are some of my favorite also, like Helvetica, Rockwell, Myriad, and Futura to name a few. Keep it up!

47. chirag on Mar 13, 2009 said:

    Hi, Jacob

    Thank you so much for for the list…..

48. kiran on Mar 15, 2009 said:

    I always prefer and linke Century Gothic & Halvitica.Nice collection.

49. Bernie Ebue on Mar 16, 2009 said:

    I’m liking the list Jacob, keep up the good work.

50. Dave on Mar 16, 2009 said:

    Futura where are you?

51. Dave on Mar 16, 2009 said:

    #5….Didn’t even see it there, damn….

    Futura for the win.

52. Scott on Mar 17, 2009 said:

    For anyone complaining about the lack of Arial: Arial is just a copy of Helvetica!

    http://www.ms-studio.com/articles.html

    Helvetica all the way!

53. Callum Chapman (@callumchapman) on Mar 28, 2009 said:

    I love avant-garde and eurostile, thanks for this!

54. Poojith on Apr 3, 2009 said:

    I have to agree that is a good list. All are look so nice and professional.But where is Verdana and Arial?

55. Tarek on May 6, 2009 said:

    And which ones of those are supported by default by browsers (Firefox, Chrome, and IE)

56. Florida SEO on May 26, 2009 said:

    I find it hard to believe that Trajan … One of the most used fonts in cinema titles … is number 77 … Hows That?

57. Chitra Appasamy on Jun 12, 2009 said:

    I feel like the one designer/design student who isn’t a big fan of Helvetica…is that wrong? It’s overused by designers like Comic Sans is overused by schoolchildren, I’m frankly a bit bored of it.

    That said, it’s a brilliantly designed and versatile font, admitted.

58. Amanda on Jun 20, 2009 said:

    I guess my slight issue with this list is that some of the top typefaces are also criticized for being the most over used, and very “un-designer”-esque. It’s somewhat of an oxymoron listing helvetica as the top font of all time, and in a similar link listing it as the most over used, and in a similar link identifying it as a font that “pseudo” designers use b/c they don’t know better. It baffles me that so many will praise this font, yet an equal amount of people will bash it. It’s the same case with other faces as well.

    pettiness aside, it’s a solid list; thanks for posting it.

59. Amanda on Jun 20, 2009 said:

    All are gorgeous typefaces

    Check my wedding fonts collection…
    Wedding Fonts

    http://www.tradebit.com/filede.....s-download

60. rob on Jun 21, 2009 said:

    Nice list, other than cooper black, I hate it personally, though its ok used in the right situation but more often than not it isn’t, like the old Cooper Tire logo, just because the names are the same doesn’t mean it is the right choice.

61. FDA Lawyer (@fdalawyer) on Jul 15, 2009 said:

    This is an excellent post …
    I use HelveticaNeuveLt on Most of My Design Work

    I Love It…

    Thanks …

    

62. rik on Jul 16, 2009 said:

    33 best fonts!

63. Juan on Jul 23, 2009 said:

    Ultimately Helvetica is in the first place ´cause is the most used font in the whole world. Definitely is very practical and clear.

    Having thousands of fonts to work with, it´s so difficult to say which one is the best (not the most beautiful), but when works comes and comes and the clients ask for changes, is easy to understand why this font is the winner. The clients wants some clear texts and us wants less changes.

    We (the designers) have other fonts that we will use in our own projects and maybe with some “Art Lover” client.

    Good post.

64. Juan on Jul 23, 2009 said:

    Correcting the last part of the first paragraph of my comment. “The clients wants some clear texts and we want less changes.” Thank you.

65. Ashutosh on Jul 28, 2009 said:

    Hey where is monotype corsiva. That the most one of the pretty looking fonts.

66. Sujit (@DOINDIA) on Jul 31, 2009 said:

    Great list of FONTS, these are really good looking fonts for new trend websites!!! Thanks

67. Rak Design (@Rocketman999) on Aug 27, 2009 said:

    Great list! My all time fav has to be Rotis collection!

68. Douglas Bonneville (@dbonneville) on Sep 11, 2009 said:

    I just completed a survey based on a reasonably large sample of favorite fonts from blogs, websites, sales charts, and a lot independent discussion from blogs and forums. I tallied all the names and number of references from all these sources and came up with this combined result:

    http://bonfx.com/19-top-fonts-.....d-the-web/

    All the fonts I found are, of course, on the big German list. But it was cool to see that of the top 10 font for both lists, 7 fonts overlap, but my data was purely based on the opinion of the self-reporting font-loving designers who took the time to post.

    I would gather that people for whom Comic Sans is their font of choice, they were to embarrassed to admit it online

69. Sokobanja (@sokobanja) on Sep 27, 2009 said:

    I love the fancy fonts like the ones that are often used for weddings and such. they look so nice and professional.

70. Lenok on Nov 4, 2009 said:

    Why free fonts were not included? Just because it was not possible to estimate sales figures?

1. 49 Trackback(s)

2. Mar 5, 2009: floor44 - links for 2009-03-04
3. Mar 5, 2009: links for 2009-03-04 « Donghai Ma
4. Mar 5, 2009: links for 2009-03-05 | This Inspires Me
5. Mar 5, 2009: Las 100 mejores fuentes de la historia | rienzie - Internet, tecnología, informática y curiosidades
6. Mar 6, 2009: Top 100 Fonts of All Time (from Nick Vadala) « DFJ Section 002
7. Mar 6, 2009: InkArcade - Free Webmaster Resources
8. Mar 6, 2009: ¿Las 100 mejores fuentes de la historia?  | Isopixel
9. Mar 6, 2009: The Technology Blog: The Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time
10. Mar 6, 2009: Daily Links | AndySowards.com :: Professional Web Design, Development, Programming, Hacks, Downloads, Math and being a Web 2.0 Hipster?
11. Mar 6, 2009: an Record - Top 100 Best, Cool, Most Popular Professional Fonts (In English)
12. Mar 6, 2009: Skelton Media » 100 Greatest Fonts
13. Mar 6, 2009: ¿Las 100 mejores fuentes de la historia? | dominios, diseño web, ecommerce - Mantis Technology Solutions Blog
14. Mar 6, 2009: Haftan?n Derlemesi - 19 | Hasan Yalç?n
15. Mar 6, 2009: Weekly Links | Shaun Preston
16. Mar 7, 2009: SOB Business Cafe 03-06-09 - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.
17. Mar 7, 2009: Helvetica Wins Again… « Design for Journalists
18. Mar 7, 2009: Las 100 mejores fuentes tipográficas de la historia
19. Mar 7, 2009: siete’s blog » ??????100?????
20. Mar 7, 2009: Ana Tasarim » Blog Archive » Haftan?n Derlemesi - 19
21. Mar 8, 2009: Exploring the world of blogs « PharmaXL Blogs
22. Mar 8, 2009: ??????100????? - Jeff-Chen.Com
23. Mar 10, 2009: Design corner #4 - The Blogs at HowStuffWorks
24. Mar 12, 2009: The 100 best fonts of all time - Waavoo!
25. Mar 13, 2009: Linkit 02.3. - 13.3. | Valontuoja
26. Mar 14, 2009: A Periodic Table of Typefaces « Design for Journalists
27. Mar 14, 2009: Our Web Design Agency’s Links of the Week | The Ocean Agency
28. Mar 15, 2009: Top fonts of all time | Made in Mundo
29. Mar 15, 2009: Saturday Geek Links - 3/14/09 | Geeks with Tricks
30. Mar 16, 2009: links for 2009-03-15 on studiowhiz.com
31. Mar 17, 2009: The Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time | DesignerMill
32. Mar 18, 2009: Arial in 90’s and now Calibri « Thoughts I want to share…
33. Mar 26, 2009: Dalej to samo
34. Mar 27, 2009: tüm zamanlar?n en iyi 100 yaz? fontu | Cep telefonu Laptop Diz üstü pc Donan?m
35. Apr 11, 2009: My 10 Favourite Typefaces Of All Time | Hi, I'm Grace Smith
36. Apr 21, 2009: 300+ Excelent free font colections for web designer | blogfreakz.com
37. Apr 28, 2009: En iyi 100 Yaz? Tipi
38. Jun 23, 2009: Designer’s Favourite Fonts & Why
39. Aug 31, 2009: Top Commercial Fonts For Print Designers
40. Sep 6, 2009: Corporate logo tips « *.rng = *.Sriranga Chidambara J L
41. Sep 6, 2009: Corporate logo design tips « *.rng = *.Sriranga Chidambara J L
42. Sep 8, 2009: Over 100+ Best Fonts on the Web for Designers | Web Hosting Blog | Lunarpages Lunartics
43. Sep 8, 2009: Over 100+ Best Fonts on the Web for Designers | Hot Hosting
44. Sep 11, 2009: 19 top fonts most preferred by graphic designers from around the web
45. Sep 11, 2009: Top 10 fonts for graphic designers
46. Sep 13, 2009: Las 100 mejores fuentes de todos los tiempos | Adventure Graphics
47. Sep 23, 2009: Kaffehausdekadenzmoderne » Archives » 100 Design-Related Blog Posts With Lists of 100 Things
48. Sep 24, 2009: More Font Websites | Dan Murphy's Blog
49. Oct 19, 2009: Roundup of Fonts Roundups at ESTHETIC CORE | blog
50. Nov 8, 2009: Type Organization and Classifications