Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

I have a passion for fonts and typography. When I first started out in graphic design, I downloaded thousands of typefaces and tried them all at least once in some form or another. Unfortunately, most of them were not that great.

Other better known typefaces were behind a paywall, like Helvetica and Futura, as a novice designer I thought that those fonts were the real deal, however, I wanted something free.

So, after years of working in this field, I have compiled my favorite type foundries that I love.

But wait, what is a Type foundry you may ask?

It’s an organization that designs and publishes a collection of typefaces for anyone to download some are free some are not. Today I am focusing on the free open-source foundries that you can download and use freely for personal or commercial use

So here is the list of my favorite type foundries and 3 of my favorite fonts in there.

1. Google Fonts

This was my first foundry that I learned of and it is the one that I use the most, it has a massive font library with great filters that will make your search for a perfect font way easier.

My favorite fonts here are

Inter that looks clean and modern, Poppins is rounder and more playful, and Roboto that is like Helvetica little brother.

Link to the website: Google fonts

2. Open Foundry

Here you can find bold fonts that pop, decent examples of the font use and their interface allows you to experiment with kerning, sizing, and backgrounds so you can test fonts out before downloading it yourself.

My favorite fonts here are

Reglo bold because it has that Boldness I like, Bagnards sans has luxury and sparkly energy and Cooper Hevitt is funky and retro at the same time.

Link to the website: Open foundry

3. The League of Moveable Type

They are the first open-source font foundry established in 2009, so they paved the way for the internet fonts in a way, so these fonts are widely used in the web.

My favorite fonts here are

Raleway which is a bit futuristic and clean, League Spartan is blocky and Goudy Bookletter has that old serif type feel.

Link to the website: The League Of Moveable type

4. The Velvetyne Type Foundry

If you want to find professionally made funky typefaces that are useful as display fonts well then you will love Velvetyne type foundry, they have very fun and interesting typeface choices.

My favorite fonts here are

Basteleur with the medieval look, PicNick that has an interesting liquid effect, and Avara because it’s rough but stylish.

Link to the website: The Velvetyne Type Foundry

There are more open-source font foundries, but these are my favorites so you can continue your search on the internet or just visit those sites, I hope you found something new and interesting, and have a great day.

Written by Konstantinas Ladauskas