Sign fonts free download

by Dustin LeeJuly 01, 202040 Comments

High-quality free fonts are hard to find – especially retro and vintage fonts. But high quality free font downloads do exist; it just takes time to find them.

To help, we’ve created an epic collection of 60 free retro and vintage fonts for designers. Bookmark, and browse through, whenever you next need the perfect typeface for a new project.

(Elsewhere on the site, you’ll also find all the high-quality brushes, textures, actions, smart PSDs, and other retro and vintage design goods you could ever need).

In this list, you’ll find the very best free retro script fonts, calligraphy fonts, cursive fonts, handwritten fonts and more.

Some of the retro and vintage fonts are free for personal use but not for commercial projects – be sure to read the license, and support these hard-working designers by buying a commercial license when appropriate.

Read on for our hand-picked selection of 60 free retro and vintage fonts (and save yourself the trouble of digging through tens of thousands of fonts)...

Also check out:

01. Palm Canyon Drive

Palm Canyon Drive is a popular monoline script typeface inspired by retro matchbook covers, travel postcards, Tikki bars and Hollywood. With a classy but unpretentious tone, Palm Canyon Drive is as comfortable on a Tikki bar matchbook cover as it is on a Hollywood movie poster – and you can pick up one of the weights for free.

Click here to get the trial version of Palm Canyon Drive.

02. Restora

A Roman-serif with a classic bookish feel to it. Restora is at home as a display typeface in a modern novel or used to evoke the nostalgia of 1970s and early 80s publishing. Unbelievably, this font comes with over 700 characters and a massive amount of alternate characters. 

03. Intro

Another free retro font from FontFabric, Intro is a strong yet elegant in-line geometric font. It’s free for both personal and commercial work, and if you want the full font, you can purchase it from $29.

04. Nexa Rust

Nexa Rust – by Fontfabric Type Foundry – is a rough version of the popular Nexa and Nexa Slab families, with added new matching Nexa Script and Nexa Handmade fonts. It’s a warm, rough, diverse font system.

Nexa Rust includes sans, slab, script, handmade, and extras. Download five of the full 83 fonts for free. It works particularly well for vintage logos.

05. Parker

Art director and designer James Lafuente crafted Parker, an all-caps vintage-style custom typeface that works well for vintage logos, posters, T-shirts and more. It’s free for personal use, and can be licensed for commercial projects for $12. (“Use caps-lock when testing it out,” advises James.)

06. Stiff Staff

If you’re after a decorative free retro font, try Stiff Staff. Designed by Bulgaria-based Borislav Petrov, the font features clean lines and distinctive angles that give a nod to constructivism.

07. Lovelo Inline

This free retro font has no closed endings. It was designed by Hans Renzler, an art director in Vienna, Austria, and a free display version - Lovelo free font – can be downloaded from Font Fabric in three styles. The free geometric sans serif consists of a basic Latin alphabet, numerals, punctuation and an extended Latin alphabet too.

08. Ailerons

According to Brazil-based graphic designer Adilson Gonzales de Oliveira Junior, Ailerons was inspired by aircraft models from the 40s.

Ailerons has a clean, stylish, retro vibe, and an unusual mix of sharp and rounded edges. The font was created for an experimental design project but now available for personal use.

09. Big John / Slim Joe

This geometric all-caps font from Madrid-based designer Ion Lucin comes in two versions: bold and ultra light.

Together the pair provide an eye-catching contrast that could be applied to stunning effect in all kinds of retro and vintage projects. Big John / Slim Joe comes with numerals and glyphs, and is free for both personal and commercial use.  

10. Moon

Jack Harvatt’s rounded sans serif has two weights, light and bold, and is free for personal use. It includes a set of extended glyphs, and has gone down well on Behance – it’s received over a million likes so far, and rising.

11. Transistor

Okay, technically this font costs five buck — but it's got a neat backstory. I was digging through my grandparent's garage in Los Altos, California and came across tons of old electrical packaging.

I pulled together a collection of some of my favorite boxes and turned the font into Transistor. A true retro font inspired by history. 

12. Aqua Grotesque

Laura Pol’s retro-futuristic free font Aqua Grotesque has a mysterious feel to it. It comes in one weight, regular, and doesn’t have any glyphs - but if you’re looking to add a scientific edge to your retro and vintage designs, it can do the job.

13. Comodo

Comodo is the perfect sans-serif to capture the hand drawn feel popular in retro design. Plus, Comodo comes with a set of illustrations you can use with the font including rad stuff like skulls, tigers, snakes, eagles, and more! 

14. Nocturne

Nocturne is a hand lettered vintage script created by Rubirubiko Studio. This font is perfect for any project looking for a faux retro feel including branding, labels, spirits, and more. 

15. Obake font

A Buenos Aires-based font designer created Obake, a free font that works well for headlines.

Obake is a textured, condensed sans serif with a retro drop shadow. Bring an aged feel to your designs with ease.

Free for personal projects and available for commercial license.

16. Whisholder

Whisholder is a Victoria-style vintage font inspired by signs, product packaging, and labels of the era. Perfect for use in branding projects, whiskey labels, old fashioned stationary and more.

17. Helsinki

German graphic designer Ludwig Übele is giving away two extreme weights - heavy and hairline - of his beautiful geometric font Helsinki, which is inspired by the Finnish traffic sign typeface. The free fonts cover the Western and Central European character set, and come for desktop and web. 

18. Supria Sans

Sometimes you need a quietly retro font: say hello to Supria Sans, by HVD Fonts’ Hannes von Döhren.

Inspired by the utilitarian clarity of Swiss type design, Supria Sans is an easy-to-read workhorse of a font. Get the regular and regular italic weights for free.

19. Ansley Display

Perfect for headlines and large display type, this retro-inspired slab serif has a modern twist. It was created by designer Kady Jesko and is free for both commercial and personal use.

20. Cast Iron Font

Designer Jeremy Vassey created this free condensed font. Cast Iron has a geometric structure and industrial aesthetic. Ideal for high-impact logos or headlines. Available in both sans and sans-serif versions.

Free for commercial use.

21. Hustlers Rough

Recreate vintage signage with Decade Type Foundry’s free Hustlers Rough demo font.

The commercial version comes with clean and rough options and more than 300 glyphs.

22. Noir

Add a touch of elegance to your retro designs or illustrations with free, geometric, sans serif font Noir, created by Switzerland-based designer Matthias Guggisberg.

23. Labor Union

A classic serif font inspired by signs used during labor strikes in the 1950s and 1960s. A great choice for protest signs, letterhead, and business cards where a retro touch is needed. 

24. Bradford

WT Bradford was made by Winston Type Co. and has the distinct feel of early 20th century trade cards, circulars, and signage. Perfect for signs, branding, labels, and other consumer goods that need a feel of history and tradition.

25. Sabo

Swiss designer Philippe Moesch is the brains behind Sabo, a pixel-style retro font available in two styles - inline and filled - and perfect for an arcade-style game.

26. Graphique Pro Next Comp

Profonts studio took Swiss designer Hermann Eidenbenz’s idea of a very narrow, economic headline font to the next level with Graphique Pro Next. There are eight weights for this classic font family, and you can get Graphique Pro Next Comp free (the others are £24 each).

27. Gist Rough

Warm, weathered, free font Gist Rough is the letterpress version of Gist. It has a vintage look with modern twist, and all-caps typesetting has an especially retro edge. Gist Rough Light Three is free; the other weights are £13.99 each.

28. Volume Dealers

Alt Retro is an eye-catching, multi-lined, five-weight typeface that oozes retro charm. Created by Cyprus-based designer Andreas Leonidou, it’s free for both personal and commercial use.

29. Blackshore

Blackshore nails the look of the kind of lettering you might see painted on a pop-up brewery or shipping containers. Blackshore is an SVG font which means when you use it they'll be transparency in some areas emulating the look of real painted hand lettering.

30. Lichtspiele

Evoking early 20th century cinema, Lichtspiele - designed by Stefan Huebsch – is a vintage free font that’s packed with character. Of the five styles, Lichtspiele Trailer is free.

Bonus: Five Free Retro Fonts

31. Mensch

Designer Morgan Knutson has applied a pay-what-you-can personal use license to his condensed uppercase typeface, Mensch. There are four weights - regular, thin, inline and bold - and a one-five commercial license is $40.

32. Orwellian

A reversed-stress typeface designed for display use, Orwellian is guaranteed to add atmosphere to your designs. It was inspired by the concepts explored in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four, and is another font that comes with a pay-what-you-want personal use license.

33. American Brewery

Another free font from Decade Type Foundry, American Brewery Rough is a quirky retro typeface that’s ideal for vintage signage and labeling, and free for personal use.

34. Hooverville

Free for personal use, Hooverville is a vintage 1920s-1930s era font that’s perfect for adding a retro touch to your illustrations.

35. Cast Iron

This elaborate free retro font features rounded flourishes for a strong, vintage look. Created by West Wind Fonts, and the second 'Cast Iron’ font in this list, it’s free to download.

36. Sho-Card-Caps

Sho-Card-Caps is well-suited to drop caps and headlines. An adaptation of standard 1930s font Futura Display, it’s inspired by “hand-lettered posters from a bygone era” says designer Nick Curtis.

37. Swiss Grit

Get the minimalist fonts of modern Swiss design. Then put it through a paper shredder, dump fish sauce on it, and leave it in the sun for a few days. The result is Swiss Grit. The perfect font for punk rock posters, zines, and any other work in need of a trashy DIY feel.

38. Fenwick 

Fenwick is a stunning sans serif, display font family published by Typodermic Fonts Inc. Of the eight weights available, Fenwick Outline is free.

39. LOT

This angular geometric free font is a versatile creation that’s well-suited to a variety of uses, from graphic design to motion and apparel.

40. Matchbook

The first ever typeface from lettering artist Simon Walker, Matchbook is characterised by extended forms and rounded serifs, and includes a textured version reminiscent of letterpress type. It has a pay-what-you-want personal use license, or you can get a commercial license for $30.

41. Booster Vintage

It doesn't get more classic vintage script font than this. Great for everything from softball team logos to the beer label for a pale ale. Plus, this font comes with tons of alternate characters, ligatures, and swashes so you can truly make it your own. 

42. Camar

A thick Art Deco-inspired font. Camar is perfect for postcards, premium food packaging, and other projects that need clean bold design with a classic vintage touch.

43. Mekon

Melon Gradient is the free font in this heavyweight retro family designed by Jonathan Hill. It’s ideal for use on print, web, motion, T-shirts and apparel, and the additional weights will set you back £21.95 each.

44. Sucrose

A premium letterpress family with rectangular letterforms and authentic, hand-crafted texture, Sucrose is a distressed font with two free weights.

45. Variane Script

Variane Script is a friendly retro cursive font with rounded terminals and a graceful rhythm. It’s free for personal use; for commercial use you need to contact the creator, Work Ins Studio.

46. Clear Line

Clear line is a retro script font with a unique style, designed by prolific typeface designer Måns Grebäck. It’s free for personal use only.

47. Marmellata

Add a vintage touch with retro font Marmellata Jam. Designed by FontsCafe, it’s free for commercial use and other weights are available with a commercial license.

48. Yesteryear

According to designer Brian Bonislawsky, Yesteryear is a “flat nib connecting script font” loosely based on the title screen from 1942 film, The Palm Beach Story. Free for both commercial and personal use, it has a sharper feel than the source and is reminiscent of the chrome scripts of vintage automobilia.

48. Arvil

Graphic designer Ben Dalrymple’s Avril features strong lines with rounded, soft terminals. The result is a versatile collection of strong, friendly letterforms, which you can use with a pay-what-you-want personal use license.

50. Yaquote

Based on 1960s advertisement scripts, Måns Grebäck’s elegant vintage font Yaquote is free for personal use only. 

This font is a perfect free cursive font when you need an understated look that won't distract from the main message.

51. Esplanade Script

Like Yaquote, but prefer a more distressed design? Esplanade Script - also by Måns Grebäck - is perfect for when you need some vintage calligraphy handwriting.

52. Ranger

Ranger is a weighty display face created by designer Evan Huwa. It comes in four styles, and has a pay-what-you-want personal use license.

53. Canter

An all caps, condensed typeface, Canter makes for a contemporary retro free font available in six different weights. It’s perfect for vintage titles, headlines and posters.

54. SilverFake

Alexey Frolic’s wide contemporary slab serif Silverflake balances an old-style vibe with modern curves for a retro, yet up-to-date aesthetic. The all-caps font is free for personal and commercial use, and contains some alternative characters.

55. Fancy Me

Fancy Me is the first font from Marie-Michelle Dupuis, who describes the vibe as “edgy, yet feminine”, and says it’s free for personal and commercial use.

56. Campground

Seen on many brands and signs, this smooth flowing font is perfect to add a campground adventure twist into your designs. It is free for personal and commercial use!

57. Berg

This pack comes with 7 font files that gives you a great assortment of different fonts to try out to create any logo or posters. The lettering is perfect to grab anyone’s attention and bring you a great vintage feel to your designs.

58. Kino Font

For a handmade decorative typeface with a retro twist, try Curely by Jakarta-based Konstantine studio. The makers say the design is “cuteness overload”, but we think in a certain light it also has a Halloween feel. Lovely stuff.

59. Portia

Portia is a beautiful film-noir inspired typeface perfect for evoking the mystery, class, and nostalgia of this classic period in cinema. 

60. Sonder

61. Optician Sans

The LogMAR chart is the chart you see at the optometrist office to test your eyes. Optician Sans is a font inspired by historical eye charts bring a classic, intellectual touch to your next project. 

Looking for the perfect typeface to create a vintage logo, branding or packaging project? Step up Sonder, a curvy free font that comes with both serif and sans-serif characters, in distressed and non-distressed form, and in black, bold and regular weights. A sample version is available for free, and the full typeface can be purchased for commercial use.

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