Fonts and font pairing

Type carries a lot of a brand. A logo often depends on one typeface, and the rest of the brand needs one or two fonts that sit well beside it for headings and body text. The tools here help you find fonts, test pairings and identify a font you have seen somewhere else.

Google Fonts and Fontshare offer free font families you can use on websites and in print. Adobe Fonts gives people on Adobe plans a large library they can sync to their apps and use on websites. Typewolf is an editorial site that shows fonts in real use and suggests free alternatives to popular paid typefaces.

Fontjoy generates font pairings with a machine learning model: it proposes a heading font and a body font with good contrast, and you lock the ones you like and generate again. WhatTheFont and the Font Squirrel Matcherator identify a font from an image, which is handy when a client sends a photo of a sign and asks for that exact lettering. Expect close matches, not always the exact face, and confirm before you buy a license.

Licensing is the part people skip. Free fonts usually come under open licenses that allow commercial use, but check whether you can embed them in apps or modify the letterforms. Paid fonts are licensed by use, such as desktop, web, app or broadcast, often with limits on the number of users or page views. A logo built on a font may need a license that covers that use, so read the terms before the logo goes to print.