Do you want a lightning-fast way to look hip, vintage or home-made with your graphics and branding?
🛁 It’s better than making your own soap & toothpaste!
🥜 It’s better than spreading peanut shells on your kitchen floor!
🛍 It’s better than spending hours shopping at thrift stores (OK, maybe not — that is fun!!)
🧚♀️ It’s using vintage fonts!
I’ve rounded up quite the crusty & rusty, vintage, yet trendy set of fonts for you!
As you might have guessed, I’m quite a font fanatic! If you want to know where I get the good stuff, grab my free PDF below.
First, what is a vintage font? I’d say it’s a typeface that looks like it’s from an older era, though it may have been created recently. Some vintage fonts might be better labeled as retro if they are reminiscent of the 1950s to the 1980s. When I think vintage, I think older than that, like 100 years old.
Sometimes these vintage fonts have a rough look like they were rubber stamps or like they’ve been scuffed up and rubbed off over time. For this reason using vintage fonts is a great way to instantly give your brand or artwork a handmade, folksy feel.
In my experience, some fonts are reminiscent or a particular era. For example Corvinus Skyline look very 1920s to me (Art Deco), whereas Bauhaus looks more appropriate to recreate 1970s art. By the way Corvinus Skyline was created in 1991!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus_(typeface)
https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/grouptype/corvinus-skyline/
Vintage font tips
Most of these are display fonts! You’ll also notice that some of them are caps only (capital letters).
Display fonts should be used sparingly and for decorative purposes. Use them for logos, headlines, posters, advertising, packaging and book covers (see examples above). Don’t set body copy in a display font or you will drive your viewer mad! Try to stay at 24 points minimum for print use and larger for web use. If you set a display font too small, it can turn to mud and lose its appeal and uniqueness.
Of the fonts listed, I’d say that Bauhaus and Brandon Text are the two that could be used as body copy.
I’ve broken my vintage font list into five parts: serif, sans serif, script, display and families.
Display is a catch-all term for ones that didn’t easily fit in the others. Families refers to extended groups of fonts that cross over the other categories. They even have dingbats so if you want an easy path to logo design, consider customizing an icon from the dingbats and combining it in some unique way with a vintage font. Add a vintage color combination and Boom! — easy, custom, vintage logo!
At the bottom I’ve linked to three vintage font round-up articles I found. Some of the fonts look good, some do not, imo. Some look vintage, some do not. You can scroll through and judge for yourself.
Let’s look at some vintage fonts!
Serif vintage fonts
- Corvinus Skyline (free for personal use) – https://fontmeme.com/fonts/corvinus-font/
- Copperplate Gothic 31AB ($35) – https://www.linotype.com/1549209/copperplate-gothic-family.html
- Engravers Bold Face ($0) – https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/engravers/
- Gist Rough Light Three ($0) – https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/yellow-design/gist-rough/light-three/
- Ansley ($0) – https://www.behance.net/gallery/30110545/Ansley-Display-Free-Font
Sans serif vintage fonts
- Bauhaus ($35) – https://www.linotype.com/1196067/itc-bauhaus-family.html
- Brandon Text ($249 for 12 styles) – https://www.fontshop.com/families/brandon-text/buy
- Intro rust ($0) – https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/intro-rust
- Sucrose Two Demo ($0) – https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/yellow-design/sucrose/two-demo/
- Sucrose Bold Two Demo ($0) – https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/yellow-design/sucrose/bold-two-demo/
Script vintage fonts
- Thirsty Rough ($49 for 21 fonts) – https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/yellow-design/thirsty-rough/
- Ed’s Market Main Script ($29) – https://www.fonts.com/font/laura-worthington/eds-market
- Outfitter Script ($20) – https://creativemarket.com/imagitype/410722-Fetridge-Outfitter-Script
- Variane Script ($0) – https://www.fontspace.com/work-ins-studio/variane-script
Display vintage fonts
- Intro inline ($0) – https://www.cufonfonts.com/font/intro-inline
- Mexcellent ($8 for family) – https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/typodermic/mexcellent/
- Monthoers Vintage ($17) – https://creativemarket.com/swistblnk/370467-Monthoers-Signature-Font-Duo
- Moonshiner ($0) – https://www.dafontfree.net/freefonts-moonshiner-f30483.htm
- Hooverville ($0) – https://www.dafont.com/hooverville.font
Vintage font families
- Trend Rough Sans and Slab – https://www.mightydeals.com/deal/trend-rough-family.html (on sale now for $19!) OR https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/latinotype/trend-rough/ (not on sale, 24 fonts for $159)
- Nexa Rust (slab black shadow, sans black, script light, handmade extended, extras, dingbats ($0) – https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/nexa-rust
Resources for vintage fonts
Round-up posts for vintage fonts:
60 Free Retro and Vintage Fonts (not all of these are free, and some are only free for personal use)
60 Free Retro and Vintage Fontsretrosupply.co/blogs/retrosupply-blog/45740673-50-free-retro-and-vintage-fonts
42 Free Retro Fonts
42 free retro fontscreativebloq.com/typography/free-retro-fonts-2132019
25 Best Vintage Fonts (I don’t think I would call all of these vintage fonts, but it’s worth a scroll through)
25 Best Vintage Fonts | Fonts | Graphic Design Junctiongraphicdesignjunction.com/2017/07/best-vintage-fonts/
Creative Market vintage typefaces
Vintage fonts blog post outtakes
I had so much fun making a header graphic I made 4 of them; here are the extras!
Do you have a favorite vintage font? Have you used one recently in your design work? Do you think you might soon? Let me hear from ya!
Sheri Hall
Entrepreneur, graphic designer, photographer, cookie-baker
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📨 Email sheri @ sherihall dot com
“She who dies with the most fonts wins!”
P.S. If you enjoyed this post on vintage fonts, share and comment please =)
Hi Sheri, I am looking to duplicate a specific font that was used for a monogram inside my grandmother’s fur coat. I have searched online through many fonts without any luck. Hoping you can help if I can send you a picture of the monogram! Thanks so much!
Hi Sheri, I am looking to duplicate the font for a monogram that was used inside my grandmother’s vintage fur coat. I have searched online through many fonts. Hoping you can help if I can send you a picture of the font! Thanks so much!