Choosing the right font for titles or headlines is a crucial part of the design process. It creates a visual hierarchy that makes your content more legible, memorable, and impactful.
Your choice depends on your design style, target audience, and message. Typically, headline fonts are larger and more distinguished. The point is to ensure they are legible and do not overpower the design.
This collection offers over 40 clean, highly legible, and beautiful free fonts for creating headlines and titles in web and print designs. These fonts will give your typography the professional quality your readers and users demand.
The right font can significantly improve your design, whether for a website, a poster, or any print material. Use this collection to find the perfect headline and title font for your next project.
The Top Headline & Title Fonts for Creatives
1. Aleo Font by Alessio Laiso, Free
Aleo is a free headline and title font created by Alessio Laiso. The ligatures are perfect for readability, and you can pick from six styles to create the perfect title for your next article.
2. Bariol Font Family by Atipo Foundry, Free
Bariol is a friendly and fun sans-serif font, perfect for headlines and titles. It sets a casual tone right from the start. The free version includes Bariol regular and Bariol italic, with more options available in the upgraded version.
3. RNS Camelia
Inspired by 1920s and 1930s New York street typography, RNS Camelia is a modernized demi-slab typeface. It offers 14 styles, from thin to black, and will make your headlines both glamorous and highly legible.
4. Calendas Plus by Atipo Foundry, Free
Add elegance to your projects with Calendas Plus, a beautiful classic typography typeface with intricate swashes and ornate details. It’s perfect for web headlines and print campaigns.
5. Foglihten F02 by Gluk Fonts, Free
Foglihten is a beautifully designed script font with elegant ligatures that will take you back in time to the era of Victorian penmanship and love letters. You can download Foglihten for free.
6. Fénix Typeface by Fernando Díaz, Free
Fenix is perfect for your next project. Bold strokes interact with elegant lines to create a beautiful typeface for headlines. You’ll get uppercase and lowercase characters, numerals, punctuation, and other special characters for (mainly) European languages.
7. Movavi Grotesque Black Typeface by Sergiy Tkachenko, Free
Movavi is a modern grotesque typeface ideal for shorter headlines, book cover titles, and more. It includes uppercase, lowercase, numerals, punctuation, and Latin and Cyrillic characters.
8. Municipal Typeface by Sean Coady, Free
Municipal is an outstanding free font for bold headlines. This strong sans-serif is all-caps, with lowercase characters triggering stylistic alternates with shadows. It also includes numerals and punctuation.
9. Marquis Organic Font Duo
Vintage with a modern flair, Marquis is a bold serif and sans-serif font duo. It offers an organic feel because it was hand-made, and each font has four styles (regular, bold, italic, and outline). It’s perfect for headlines, and you’ll get 12 logo templates, too!
10. Lovelo Font by Fontfabric, Free
Lovelo is a bold font family that is perfect for display campaigns. It includes three free fonts: black, line bold, and line light.
11. New York Font
The New York font family includes eight unique styles, each with a grungy, distressed texture. From New York Regular to New York Shadow Line, it’s perfect for vintage and retro designs!
12. Promesh Athletic Font by Paul Reis, Free
Create a victorious atmosphere with Promesh Athletic, a free display serif font inspired by athletic typography and the mesh texture you would’ve seen on LeBron’s jersey.
13. The Douglas Collections
The Douglas Collection is a family of beautiful fonts for your next headline or logo project. You’ll get 12 hand-made fonts with an outdoorsy, vintage aesthetic, as well as graphic elements and logo templates to help you create something incredible.
14. Biko Font Family by Marco Ugolini, Free
Biko is a friendly and outspoken sans-serif. Its bold versions work perfectly for headlines, and lighter versions guarantee readability. Biko is free for personal use, and you will get four versions: light, regular, black, and bold.
15. Nexa Font Family by Fontfabric, Free
Simple and futuristic, Nexa is a sans-serif font family that’ll work well for headlines, display campaigns, and even shorter texts. You can download four versions for free: Nexa Bold, Nexa Text Bold, Nexa Light, and Nexa Text Light. It also offers multilingual support (extended Latin and Cyrillic included).
16. Knubi Font by Matt Vergotis, Free
Knubi is an excellent choice for your next typography design. You’ll get uppercase and lowercase letters, special characters, numerals (with fractions), and more.
17. Fanwood Font by The League of Moveable Type, Free
Fanwood is a distinctive serif typeface with four versions: regular, italic, text, and text italic. It’s perfect for adding a touch of elegance and tradition to headlines and longer paragraphs.
18. Maven Pro Font by Lost Type Co-op, Free
Maven Pro builds on the original Maven typeface by including three lighter weights. These additions give you more options, making it versatile for your design projects. It’s free for personal use.
19. Kelson Sans by Fontfabric, Free
Kelson Sans is an update on the original Kelson font family with new features. This free sans-serif typeface has nine styles, including bold, light, regular, and regional variations (Bulgarian and Russian).
20. Corporata Font by Advent Font, Free
Corporata includes seven distinct weights. Uppercase characters are bold and ideal for headlines, while the lowercase characters will bring a modern touch to body copy. This typeface offers plenty of options for various design needs.
21. Myra Font by Fontfabric, Free
Myra is a decorative sans-serif typeface inspired by vintage typography. Its Art Deco style is perfect for big headlines, logo design, and display campaigns. Although it’s an all-caps font, using lowercase characters gives you character alternates without curls.
22. Mathlete Font by Mattox, Free
Mathlete is a fun font that includes four unique versions: skinny, skinny slant, bulky, and bulky slant. You’ll also get matching numerals and punctuation, capturing the essence of handwritten flow.
23. Hammersmith One Font by Sorkin Type Co, Free
A bold sans-serif, Hammersmith is a typeface you can rely on. Its strong lines make it excellent for large headlines and titles, but it retains its legibility even in smaller sizes. You’ll get uppercase and lowercase characters, numerals, and punctuation.
24. Fenix Font Family by Fernando Díaz, Free
If you want your headlines to radiate elegance, give Fenix a try. This free typeface is incredibly versatile and also works well for display and print campaigns.
25. Manteka Font by Edu Araya, Free
Manteka is a bold, all-caps sans-serif that’s perfect for large headlines. The font includes numerals and punctuation, making it an excellent choice for brands that want to show innovation and a modern mindset.
26. Homizio Font Family by Álvaro Thomáz, Free
Homizio is a versatile sans-serif font family suitable for web headlines and print campaigns. It includes six weights: thin, light, regular, medium, bold, and black. Some styles include ligatures, adding a unique touch to your designs.
27. Mission Script by Lost Type Co-op, Free
Mission is a gentle script font perfect for blog headlines and designs with a refined feminine aesthetic. The designer created it to celebrate brush script fonts, and it shows.
28. Sreda Font by Fontfabric, Free
Sreda is a slab-serif font that works great for headlines but can also be used at smaller sizes. Sreda also supports Cyrillic characters.
29. Edmondsans Font by Lost Type Co-op, Free
Edmondsans is a highly adaptable sans-serif font available in three weights. It offers stylistic alternates, non-lining figures, and meticulously crafted lowercase characters, making it an essential asset for your design toolbox.
30. Intro Font by Fontfabric™, Free
Intro is a modern sans-serif with beautifully quirky strokes that will improve your headlines and make your designs seem more friendly. In the free version, you’ll get four fonts.
31. Verb Font by Yellow Design Studio, Free
Verb is a sans-serif that’s perfect for all types of design projects. The fonts in the family are lively, and you can get two for free: Verb Light and Light Italic. Verb Light also works great for longer paragraphs.
32. Mission Gothic by Lost Type Co-op, Free
Inspired by the era when letters were hand-painted on wood, Mission Gothic is bold and beautiful. It can be used for headlines and web displays. You will get five weights and two styles.
33. Oranienbaum Font by TypeType Foundry, Free
Modern but inspired by elegant vintage typography, Oranienbaum is fantastic for both headlines and body text. This serif has recognizable strokes and ligatures, making it stand out; it’s perfect for refined brands.
34. Abraham Lincoln Font by Lost Type Co-op, Free
Inspired by Abraham Lincoln himself, this font is tall and reliable. This humanistic display typeface carefully incorporates serifs into a condensed, legible format. It’ll stand out in headlines, titles, and other print and web campaigns. The Abraham Lincoln typeface is free for personal use.
35. Archive Font by Fontfabric, Free
Archive is a bold sans-serif typeface with strong geometric forms. It’ll stand out in headlines, but you can also use it for poster and logo design. It’s an all-caps typeface with Cyrillic characters.
36. Kreon Font by Julia Petretta, Free
If you’re looking for a funkier serif, take a look at Kreon. This serif is lively and buoyant, perfect for friendly brands. You’ll get three weights: light (great for paragraphs and body copy), regular, and bold (great for headlines and titles).
37. Ostrich Sans by The League of Moveable Type, Free
Ostrich Sans is tall and dynamic. It includes over 200 glyphs and various weights, including inline effects for stand-out headlines and posters. The black weight grabs attention, while the inline italic version looks fresh and innovative.
38. Varela Font by Admix Designs, Free
Varela is a simple, single-weight, workhorse sans-serif. Varela Sans has nice curvature, which gives it a friendly feel, but it’s a no-nonsense font for no-nonsense brands.
39. Muchacho Free Font by Jeff Schreiber, Free
Muchacho is a serif with a Wild West aesthetic that integrates vintage typography with modern trends to create a unique (and free) addition to your design kit. You’ll get three weights: regular, bold, and italic.
40. Novecento Sans Font Family by Synthview, Free
Novecento Sans uses various typography trends to create a unique font family for headlines and titles. This free font has everything you need, from the wide ultra-light version (perfect for elegant designs) to the sturdy demi-bold weight with its Bauhaus aesthetic.
41. RBNo2 by Fontfabric, Free
These are the droids you have been looking for! RBNo2 is a modern gothic sans-serif font family with strong, straight lines. It’s perfect for contemporary designs and headlines.
42. Source Sans Pro by Adobe, Free
Source Sans Pro offers a plethora of font weights for all sorts of projects. They’re all sans-serif fonts, and you’ll have your choice of weights: from the simple extra light for body copy to the ornate, bold italic that will grab everyone’s attention.
43. Governor Font by Lost Type Co-op, Free
Governor is a distinctive font inspired by Art Deco typography and Miami Beach signage. It includes uppercase characters only (no numerals or punctuation), making it best suited for short, impactful headlines.
44. Sheep Sans Font by Álvaro Thomáz, Free
Sheep Sans is a friendly, modern sans-serif. It’s a great workhorse font, but it also has the potential to make your headlines more inviting. You’ll get two versions: Sheep Sans Regular and Sheep Sans Bold. In addition to that, Sheep offers special characters, numerals, and punctuation.
45. Infinity Font by Tarin Yuangtrakul, Free
Infinity is a free sans-serif font inspired by the number 8 and its similarity to the infinity symbol. This font follows geometric principles to create stunning headlines. It can also be used in shorter paragraphs.
46. Weston Font by Fontfabric, Free
Weston offers the best of both worlds: vintage typography and futurism. This rounded slab serif is perfect for creative headlines. You’ll get two free fonts: Weston Light and Weston Regular.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What are Headline and Title Fonts?
Headline and title fonts are bold, legible, and designed to capture attention. Perfect for headers, covers, and web page headings, they have thicker strokes to ensure your messages make an impact.
What Makes a Font Suitable for Headlines and Titles?
A good headline or title font should be attention-grabbing and readable. It needs to make a statement and draw readers in while being clear enough to read at a glance.
Can I Use These Fonts for Body Text as Well?
Generally, headline fonts are designed for short, impactful text and may not be suitable for body text due to readability over longer content. It’s best to pair them with more readable fonts for body text.
Can These Headline Fonts Be Used in Logo Design?
Headline fonts can be very effective in logos, offering a strong presence and instant brand recognition.
Are Sans-Serif or Serif Fonts Better for Headlines?
Both work well. Sans-serif fonts offer a modern, clean look, while serif fonts bring a classic, sophisticated touch. The choice depends on your design’s overall style and message.
What Should I Avoid When Choosing a Headline Font?
Avoid fonts that are too decorative or intricate for quick readability. Also, avoid fonts that don’t align with the tone and character of your content or brand.
Can I Use Multiple Fonts for Headlines in the Same Project?
While possible, it’s best to limit the number of different fonts to maintain consistency. If you use multiple fonts, ensure they complement each other and don’t clash.
Are There Trends in Headline Fonts I Should Be Aware Of?
Yes, font trends can change. Currently, bold and minimalist fonts are popular for headlines. However, choosing a timeless font can be more beneficial for the longevity of your design.
How Important is Font Weight in Headlines and Titles?
Font weight is crucial. A bolder weight generally works better for headlines to grab attention, while lighter weights might be used for subheadings or less prominent titles.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter if your headline font is serif or sans, thick or thin, or regular or bold. What matters is that the title font is legible, distinguished, and, most importantly, doesn’t overpower your content or design.
With the proper application, your title or headline font will add a distinctive and intriguing element to any UI or print design project.
All of these free fonts will give your typography the professional impact your readers or users demand.
Related Topics
- Display Fonts
- Geometric Fonts
- Google Fonts
- Sans Serif Fonts
- Serif Fonts
- Typography Design
- Web Fonts
