17 designers favorite fonts
Everyone has their favorite fonts. Fonts that are very versatile and work well for a variety of projects. With that in mind we asked some very well known designers and digital artists what their top 3 serif and top 3 san-serif fonts would be. Among the artists we spoke with are Eduardo Recife, Tom Lane and Radim Malinic.
Also, we would like to know what your top 3 serif and san-serif fonts would be. Leave a comment with the list so everyone will be able to see your favorite.
Jonathan Wong - www.artofwong.com
San Serif
Serif
Eduardo Recife - www.misprintedtype.com/v4/
San Serif
Serif
Eric Sin - www.projectsd.net
San Serif
Serif
Brian Smith - www.skynerve.com
San Serif
Serif
David Mondou-Labbe - www.m0oo.com
San Serif
Serif
Karan Singh - www.wakeupmrsingh.com
San Serif
Serif
Ehren Kallman - www.nnuvo.org
San Serif
Serif
Perttu Murto - www.perttumurto.com
San Serif
Serif
Kai Isselhorst - www.dopaminart.com
San Serif
Serif
Rik Oostenbroek - www.secretshowcase.com
San Serif
Serif
Alexander Radsby - www.aeform.net
San Serif
Serif
Christopher Haines - www.neondistractions.com
San Serif
Serif
Mike Harrison - www.destill.net
San Serif
Serif
Nick Delaney - www.vandal.nu
San Serif
Serif
Leigh Flurry - www.fontdeli.co.uk
San Serif
Serif
Tom Lane - www.gingermonkeydesign.com
San Serif
Serif
Radim Malinic - www.brandnu.co.uk
San Serif
Serif
About author
I'm from Brazil, co-founder of Zee with Fabio. Nowadays I like to play with Fireworks, Photoshop and improve my skills in CSS. If you wanna request some posts, please feel free to contact me.
hi.do you have the bigcaslon-medium fonts?
we need it,would you send to me if you have?
thank you very much!
Its not because of its history it just looks bad, and apprently i'm not the only one that thinks that way. Myriad Pro has the same history as Arial, in that it was a ripoff of helvetica done by Apple, but its much more beautiful than Arial will ever be, and has a very comprehensive family than Arial does, especially the open type version.
And yes you pick the best typeface for the job, in a small publication, poster, pamphlet or something like that its less evident, but if the very type heavy and requires several members of the font family for the typographic elements then you are very limited in creating a cohesive typographic layout, because Arial doesn't allow you the flexibility.
Verdana is even a nicer font for the web than Arial is, and I would use that over Arial anyday.
It's kind of sad on how some people trash Arial. Just because of it's history. But any good designer will use the best typeface to suit the design they are working on. So if it's Arial then it's Arial. Arial is different than Helvetica which gives it a bracket of it's own. Thus in turn allows for a designer to actually like it. There could be a numerous amount of reasons for a designer to like Arial. I've liked typefaces because of one letter, or a bowl or an ear. It's not that uncommon.
Ok i'm sorry I have to comment on this:
@ Webby: Typeface is the CORRECT term for what is displayed here. Font refers to the digital file for a typeface, and Fontfamily refers to several variations of the same typeface, where the variations include various weights, thicknesses and slants.
@ All those that are Arial fans:
Arial is the bastard typeface of the digital world. Its basically the product of a group of people at Microsoft in the 80's who decided they wanted to cash in on the success of the sans serif typeface and compete with Adobe in the type department. Its a ripoff of Helvetica, which Myriad is also by the way, and is modified slightly to circumvent copyright laws. So what they did is essentially took something that was near perfect, modified it AWAY from its original form and made it screen viewable and then made it Truetype. This was never done in Postscript format, and therefore is not even recognized as a proper printer font, and is ONLY suitable for view on screen. If you actually worked with Arial you would know that the kerning and spacing are atrocious, and same with the actual design of it. And to call someone "arrogant" who knows a better quality product over another one is simply ignorant. As web guys don't forget that design is based on print first, and just because the web does not include the tools to properly set type yet, doesnt mean that we should settle for mediocracy. The differences between Helvetica and Arial are not significant on the web, in print its very significant. Oh and wow all the artwork shown here is print based! And not one of them uses Arial...
my favourite fonts are FLAMA, LISBOA AND KLAVIKA.
Nice post with very great fonts! But no download link? I'm disappointed :<
hmmm... seems to me some people have a problem with Arial even though it's just as respectable a font as Helvetica, stop being arrogant.
@ PatrickKeefe:
Get with the times old man, we call them fonts now not typefaces. I bet you are still using a typewriter too. HA!
I think "Impact" is a good font for designing.
Stop trashing Arial!
All typefaces have specific uses and Arial is by far the best standard typeface to use on websites built on html/css.
I am quite partial to Helvetica Neue, I use it all over my website http://nuttersmark.com but I think it's time I branch out. These are great suggestions and I've already changed the font on one of my new sites thanks to this article. Thanks!
Fascinating. Arial surprises me. I would have assumed that all designers had read up on the history and opinions of the main fonts they use. I just can't bring myself to use Arial when Helvetica or Akzidenz exists.
Very surprised not to see Univers as well
San Serif - Univers , Helvetica , Avant Garde
Serif - Boton , Georgia , Baskerville
When someone says 'Arial' it's just shorthand for "I don't honestly know know very much about typography."
Also, these are typefaces, not fonts.
This is amateur hour.
Yeah, that's a nice idea for a post. Interesting to see some of the usual suspects here, and I too was surprised to see Arial on the list - there are similar fonts with much more style :)
Sans Serif - Corbel, Arial, Cooper Black
Serif - Palatino, Times New Roman, Georgia
What? No Comic Sans? (Okay, now that that's out of the way...)
Surprised to see Arial there--multiple times, no less.
My fave has to be Trajan Pro!
I might have to reconsider now! some nice inspiration here!
I would love to see more topics on fonts! :)
@Anonymous: Yes, Fail to everyone using Arial... but also FAIL using Times New Roman. Helveta is also just like Arial... and in my opinion also FAIL :)
Great work Abduzeedo!
Surprising to see so many designers choosing Arial. Also surprising that Univers wasn't mentioned even once!
Wow, a lot of the same ones.. not much diversity here.
Agree with a lot of them tho
lol at the people choosing arial, fail.
My Top 3:
Serif - Arno Pro, Garamond and Trajan Pro.
San serif - Helvetica, Myriad Pro and Futura.
Great resources!
Valeu!
Stainless all the way.
good to see some times new roman love
My top 3:
Serif - Garamond, Trajan Pro and Bodoni.
San serif - Century Gothic, Square and Helvetica
elvog.deviantart.com
flickr.com/photos/elvog/
nice resources, thx
Premium!
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