Ever wondered why certain websites instantly draw you in, while others make you click away? The secret often lies in the strategic use of typography. The coolest fonts to use on websites aren’t just about aesthetics; they shape your experience, branding, and readability.
Understanding the impact of font selection is crucial for anyone looking to enhance their online presence. This article demystifies the power of modern typography and guides you through the most visually appealing and effective fonts for your website. From scalable fonts that ensure perfect display on any device to minimalistic sans-serif fonts that speak of crisp professionalism, this piece is your go-to resource.
By the end, you will not only be fluent in distinguishing between typefaces like sans-serif and serif but will also learn about accessibility considerations like readability and visual hierarchy. Prepare to transform your site with insights grounded in the latest typography design trends and tools.
The Coolest Fonts to use to make your website interesting
| Font Name | Type | Style | Usage | Designer/Foundry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GT Walsheim Pro | Geometric Sans | Bold, Clean | Display, Branding | Grilli Type |
| Cooper | Serif | Old-style | Books, Magazines | Oswald Bruce Cooper |
| Pangram | Sans-serif | Versatile | Multi-purpose, Web | Pangram Pangram Foundry |
| Tiempos | Serif | Transitional | Editorial, Newspapers | Klim Type Foundry |
| Colfax | Sans-serif | Geometric | Web, Interface | Process Type Foundry |
| Acta Display | Serif | Modern Display | Magazine Headlines | DSType |
| Heebo | Sans-serif | Minimalist | Web usage, Screen | Google Fonts |
| Telegraf | Sans-serif | Clean, Professional | Corporate, Editorial | CastleType |
| Graphik | Sans-serif | Modern, Versatile | Branding, Advertising | Commercial Type |
| Roboto Mono | Monospaced | Straightforward | Coding, Technical texts | Google Fonts |
| BrownStd | Sans-serif | Contemporary | Design, Headlines | Lineto |
| Noe | Serif | High-contrast, Elegant | Editorial, Luxury | Schick Toikka |
| Karla | Sans-serif | Grotesque, Humanist | Web, Interfaces | Google Fonts |
| GT Sectra | Serif | Angular, Unique | Editorial, Distinct Uses | Grilli Type |
| Fugaz One | Display | Decorative | Titles, Posters | Latinotype |
| Anderson Grotesk | Sans-serif | Grotesque | Print, Web Design | Stephen French |
| Futura PT | Geometric Sans | Classic, Clean | Branding, Print | Paul Renner, ParaType |
| Recoleta | Serif | Soft, Retro | Branding, Display | Latinotype |
| Orpheus Pro | Script/Serif | Elegant, Classic | Invitations, Formal texts | Canada Type |
| Ivi Journal | Serif | Refined, Clean | Magazines, Journals | Ivy Foundry |
| Anton | Sans-serif | Bold, Impactful | Headlines, Posters | Google Fonts |
| Sporting Grotesque | Grotesque | Raw, Unpolished | Urban, Edgy Designs | Velvetyne |
| Ogg | Serif | Calligraphic, Unique | Book Covers, Music Albums | Sharp Type |
| Object Sans | Sans-serif | Hybrid, Functional | Digital, Print | Alex Slobzheninov |
| Apfel Grotezk | Sans-serif | Quirky, Stylized | Branding, Unique Projects | Collletttivo |
| Sprat | Serif | Classic, Readable | Books, Editorial | XYZ Type |
| Lora | Serif | Balanced, Modern | Web, Print | Cyreal |
| Self Modern | Serif | Contemporary, Stylish | Fashion, Lifestyle | Swiss Typefaces |
| Fuji | Sans-serif | Functional, Modern | Corporate, Web design | Type Department |
| Giselle | Script | Flowing, Elegant | Invitations, Branding | Bright Ideas |
| Gothic A1 | Sans-serif | Versatile, Geometric | Screen, Print | Google Fonts |
| Arial | Sans-serif | Neo-grotesque | General, Document text | Robin Nicholas, Patricia Saunders |
| Poppins | Geometric Sans | Clean, Modern | Digital Media, Print | Indian Type Foundry |
| Elgoc Alt | Sans-serif | Futuristic, Bold | Tech, Fashion | Alternative Type Faces |
| Beatrice | Display | Distinct, Bold | Branding, Artistic | Sharp Type |
| Neue Machina | Sans-serif | Monospaced, Industrial | Posters, Editorial | Pangram Pangram Foundry |
| Moderat | Sans-serif | Geometric, Minimal | Branding, Tech | Tightype |
| Banana Grotesk | Sans-serif | Organic Grotesque | Branding, Editorial | The Designers Foundry |
| Work Sans | Sans-serif | Optimized, Functional | Web, UI | Wei Huang |
| Reckless | Script | Hand-drawn, Casual | Apparel, Informal uses | Artimasa Studio |
| Neue Haas Grotesk | Sans-serif | Neo-grotesque | Typography, Corporate | Linotype |
LeverEdge
LeverEdge uses GT Walsheim Pro and Cooper.
The typeface inspired by Otto Baumberger’s lettering is beneficial, including supporting the Cyrillic languages. GT Walsheim Pro gets its inspiration from the 1930s Swiss designer’s style.
Cooper is one of those mysterious typefaces. It originates from a complex riddle with hidden letterforms, whilst GT Walsheim is more precise.
Even though its letterform is secret, Cooper’s design will add to your collection of cool fonts.
Bruskowski
Bruskowski uses Pangram and Tiempos.
The spread of Pangram’s font weight starts from Extralight to a strong Black, obtaining inspiration from some great geometric typefaces.
The Tiempos Collection has built a hardworking reputation for itself. This editorial typography has over 2800 interesting fonts of meticulously imprinted crafted glyphs.
Bruskowski is one of those cool typefaces that will take your design to a different level.
Subvisual
Subvisual uses Colfax and Acta Display.
Colfax has four workhorse weights, evolving from a refined oval sans serif font. It also has two extreme display styles, and easily combines with several typefaces and can stand independently in any web design with no form of support required.
Acta Display first appeared in La Tercera – a Chilean newspaper in the year 2010. Coming from the fresh and clean Acta family, Subvisual is befitting for a newspaper setting.
Storyblocks template
This Storyblocks template uses Heebo.
Heebo belongs to the Latin and Hebrew typeface family, and extends Roboto, Christian Robertson’s Latin to Hebrew. Meir Sadan mastered the font files of this cool font, while Oded Ezer attributed the Hebrew.
Reed
Reed uses Telegraf.
Telegraf is a combination of several grotesque forms with rigid angles. Its counter becomes more rectangular with an increase in weight. The large sizes provide added impact, while smaller sizes enable on-screen viewing.
A11.studio
A11.studio uses Graphik.
Graphik was released in 2009 and since then has become a classic, aiming to maximize communication flexibility. It has a rational grid consisting of nine weights inside eight different widths. .
Pixelismo
Pixelismo uses Roboto Mono and Heebo.
The vertical metrics of Heebo differ from the original Roboto family because of the Hebrew design of its primary font family. Rather than being hand-hinted like Roboto, the Pixelismo family is auto-hinted, resulting in Roboto’s improved rendering quality on old Windows machines.
Roboto Mono belongs to the monospaced Roboto family.
Bruno Cirilo
Bruno Cirilo uses BrownStd and Noe
The Noe Display has a serif display type consisting of strong contrast in fine details, including thicks and thins, vertical stress axis, as well as elegant curves that are all in rational mode.
Turbulent
Turbulent uses Karla and GT Sectra.
Karla is a grotesque typeface belonging to the San Serif family and offers support to all languages using Tamil and Latin scripts. The Latin script font family consists of Italic and Roman styles in Bold and Regular weights.
GT Sectra is a contemporary typeface of the Serif family and combines broad nib pen’s calligraphy with the sharp cutting edge of a scalpel.
Cyber particle hero template
This cyber particle hero template uses Fugaz One.
Fugaz One is a sans serif font that leaves its formal beginnings as a result of its characteristics, with gestural characteristics and geometric features. Fugaz One combines with italic inclination to form a dynamically interesting font.
Kelly Phan
Kelly Phan uses Anderson Grotesk
Anderson Grotesk is Stephen French’s creation; a Neo-Grotesk hand-rendered typeface.
Viral Positivity
Viral Positivity uses Futura PT and Recoleta.
Futura PT bases its san serif face on geometrical shapes, representing the aesthetic Bauhaus school that existed between the 1920s and 1930s. Futura PT uses several weights and widths and is now a popular choice for display and text setting.
Recoleta is a composition of different recipes. Its compositions stem from several typefaces from the 1970s mixed in a single fresh, familiar design including the gentle and soft shapes found in Windsor’s angled strokes, the fluid, and Cooper.
Mélanie Hubert-Crozet
Orpheus Pro belongs to Melanie Hubert-Crozet.
The Orpheus Pro is a simple, cool looking font, which started as Euphorion and Tiemann Orpheus’ straightforward revival. Orpheus gives a snazzy line and is appealing to the eyes.
Fernando Puente
Fernando Puento uses Ivi Journal.
Designed by Jan Maack, Ivi Journal is from Ivy Foundry.
Travel blog template
This travel blog template uses Anton.
Anton is the reworking of the san serif typefaces of many traditional advertisements. Its letterforms underwent digitization and a reshaping to serve as a Webfont, with an opening of counters and stems optimization for bold display on new web browsers.
Jessica Hägg
Jessica Hagg uses Sporting Grotesque and Ogg
Sporting Grotesque is an original creation of Lucas Le Bihan.
Ogg by Oscar Ogg captures the unique blend of typography and calligraphy from his era, when hand-carved brushes, pen nibs, and white-out, were popular.
Matt Downey
Matt Downey uses Object Sans and Literata
Literata belongs to the contemporary family of serif made for long-form reading such as an ebook. Literata received its commission in 2014 by Google Play Books. It became widely available with variable font-weight in January 2019.
Object Sans combines the best Swiss geometric and neo-grotesk fonts. This contemporary family is a multifunctional workhorse, best for on-screen and printed contexts.
Lorenzo Girardi
Lorenzo Girardi uses Apfel Grotezk and Sprat.
Apfel Grotezk font has a hybrid typeface, blending natural handwriting imperfections with the neatness of uniformly weighted san-serifs.
The powerful Sprat font family makes strong statements as well as powerful logos. The conventional serifs are also useful. It has four weights such as bold, semi bold, medium, and regular.
Landing page template
This landing page template uses Lora.
Lora is a contemporary serif with calligraphy roots, with moderate contrast that suits body text well.
Steph Jeong
Steph Jeong uses Self Modern and Telegraf
Self Modern starts with the cool typefaces of the Japanese serif, Mincho, which began in a 2015 Japanese magazine, and has since grown in its appeal.
Telegraf combines mid-century grotesk forms with rigid angles. The counters of Telegraf become increasingly rectangular with an increase in weight, aids small sizes on-screen viewing, and increases impact in large sizes.
Jesse Zoutewelle
Jesse Zoutewelle uses Fuji and Giselle.
Fuji Sans is a bold typeface of sans-serif, slightly condensed to fit perfectly with brands and bold designs.
The Giselle font is an excellent font for music, design, film, and logo. It is also great for TV, publishing (books, magazines), games, corporate identity, and cinema.
Gardenberg
Gardenberg uses Gothic A1 and Arial.
In the past 30 years, one of the most commonly used typefaces is Arial®. It was the creation of Patricia Saunders and Robin Nicholas in 1982 for an early IBM printer, perfect for textual content.
The Korean and Latin Gothic A1 sans-serif font is versatile with multiple weights and optimized spatial distribution.
Art Gallery Slider
This art gallery slider uses Poppins.
Poppins is a from the long tradition of Geometric sans serif font that also supports the Latin and Devanagari writing systems. It’s just one of those ssans serif fonts that you need to have.
Thomas Bosc
Thomas Bosc uses Elgoc Alt and Beatrice.
Beatrice was designed in Ti Morawa, an Indonesian sub-urban village found in North Sumatra and is new to the typeface family. This family explores contrasting methodologies, merging several canon expansionist systems, including sans serif Grotesk’s contrast behavior and inverted contrasts.
Rachel Yhe
Rachel Yhe uses Karla and Tiempos.
The grotesque Karla supports languages using Tamil and Latin scripts. The Latin script has bold and regular weights with Italic and Roman styles.
The Tiempos collection belongs to the modern serif family, with over 2800 crafted glyphs for editorial typography.
Mackenzie Child
Mackenzie Child uses Sofia Pro.
Olivier Gourvat is the Sofia Pro designer under Mostardesign. Sofia Pro has 16 different cool fonts and options for the family package.
Gweno
Gweno uses Oaks and Vulf Sans
Oaks displays a really cool typeface with a straightforward attitude and character, inspired by the signwriting structure used in the latter part of the 1800s.
Vulf Sans has 5 weights in Roman and Italics.
Construction company template
This construction company template uses Zilla Slab.
Zilla Slab is a Mozilla typeface used for wordmark and headlines, featured throughout their designs. The text has a sophisticated industrial look, constructed with true italics and smooth curves.
Quentin Hocde
Quentin Hocde’s is one of the professionally built websites in this article and uses Neue Machina.
The Neue Machina is meticulously crafted with a powerful typeface,boasting monospace and deep ink traps in heavier weights.
Sanne Wiibenga
Sanne Wiibenga uses Moderat.
Moderat combines some edgy accents and geometric shapes to produce a really cool sans serif typeface.
Julie Muckensturm
Julie Muckensturm’s web design uses Banana Grotesk.
Published in 2018, Banana Grotesk is a really good font of sans-serif typeface.
Start Agency template
The Start Agency template uses Work Sans.
The Work Sans typeface family has some roots in early Grotesques. The regular weights optimize on-screen text at medium-sizes and are really useful in print design.
Henrik and Sofia
The Hendrik and Sofia web design uses Reckless and Neue Haas Grotesk.
This is a design of Max Miedinger and Christian Schwartz. Neue Haas Grotesk contains 22 styles and several family package options.
The serif text family font of Reckless has a renaissance look.
Matt Dayton
Matt Dayton’s web design uses Inter.
The variable Inter font belongs to a carefully crafted font family aimed for computer screens, featuring a tall x-height that aids readability.
Niccolo Miranda
Niccolo Miranda’s website uses Saol.
Saol gives modern conveniences such as, broad language support, several weight ranges, and opulent italic caps.
This is Grey
This is Grey uses Space Mono.
The Space Mono is Colophon Foundry’s design for Google. Its fixed-width type of family enables English and Western European typesetting.
Jesper Dahlqvist
Jesper Dahlgvist uses Basis Grotesque.
Basis Grotesque from Colophon Foundry features four monospaced weights as well as five weights in regular and italic.
Victor Work
Victor Work uses both Athene and Mabry
The serif typeface Athene comes with a modern geometric touch. It looks best as a Display. This free serif is an amazing custom font by Matt Ellis.
Mabry presents various characteristics: rigorous and gestural, historic, and contemporary, as well as coarse and refined, subjective, and objective. It is also a Multan royal contemporary, precise and cultivated.
Vic Bell
Vic Bell uses Urbane Rounded.
Urbane Rounded is an uncomplicated version of Urbane, only with curves. It is an all-purpose versatile member of the sans serif family consisting of italics and six weights.
Davide Baratta
Davede Baratta makes use of GT Cinetype.
GT Cinetypeis based on the design used for a subtitling cinema machine. It works using a laser to remove the film’s color layer, so only very small sharp white letters appear. It is an extremely interesting font.
Jonnie Hallman
The Jonnie Hallman typeface uses Segoe UI.
The Segoe typeface or font family is famously used by Microsoft.
Andrei Robu
Andrei Robu has Chivo.
Chivo (Goat) is a sans serif typeface family with a modern Omnibus-Type grotesque nature. Chivo Black’s bold outlook makes it one of the coolest fonts for headlines and highlights.
Martin Laxenaire
The Martin Laxenaire uses Nunito Sans.
Nunito is a sans serif typeface with great balance. Vernon Adams is responsible for the production of this round terminal typeface, which also supports Display typography.
Robin Rotman
Robin Rotman uses Europa.
This geometric sans-serif typeface is made by the Swiss designer Fabian Leuenberger. Europa sold in 2011 through Europa type. Its unusual design is due to its geometric and humanist influences.
Javier
Javier uses Helvetica
Helvetica is yet another neo-grotesque typeface. Akzidenz-Grotesque and other Swiss and German designs inspired the production of Helvetica. These two were famous designs from the 19th century, and its modern counterpart is great for websites.
Melanie Da Veid
Melanie Da Veid uses Proxima Nova.
Proxima Nova closes the gap between typefaces including Akzidenz Grotesque and Futura, combining geometric looks and modern proportions.
Donica Ida
Donica Ida uses Copernicus.
Copernicus is a provisory serif typeface. It was initially designed in 2009 and influenced by Monotype Plantin’s metal versions, and now rebranded for the twenty-first century.
White Elephant
White Elephant uses Mark Pro and Windsor BT.
The producers of the Mark Pro San font are the German designers Christoph Koeberlin, Hannes Von Döhren, and the Font Type Department.
Windsor BT is a font from the Windsor family influenced by Roman weight and style.
Zef
Zef utilizes Lausanne.
Lausanne is an elegant sans-serif font with an aesthetic feel. It has small but legible sizes and several details in large sizes.
Jess+ Design
Jess+ Design uses Quattrocento Sans.
Quattrocento Sans is a refined, cool, and classic typeface family. Its open letter form makes it legible in small text bodies. It is readable without being intrusive. This typeface is the most suitable sans-serif partner for Quattrocento.
Marco
Marco makes use of the Calibre and Dr. Raymond’s fonts.
Dr. Raymond is perfect for titles and headers requiring sharp edges and prominent serifs, with outstanding and strong outlines. This typeface best works at large scale. Its prominent nature is slightly different from its Marco counterpart, Calibre.
Calibre’s typeface, unlike other signage lettering, is clear and graceful. Letterings on the street signs of West Berlin inspired the creation of the neo-grotesque sans serif Calibre.
Snow Particle Scene Hero Template
This hero template uses Lilita One.
The display typeface, Lilita One, is best for short texts and headline, due to its fat appearance. Yet, it gives a soft look and personal feel wherever it’s used, due to its new captivating details and a slightly compact structure.
Union Haus
The Union Haus typography uses Archivo Black.
Archivo Black will work either on digital platforms or prints, available for high topography performance.
Nidia Dias
This font has both Roboto and Playfair Display at play.
Playfair is a provisory design. Being a Display, its font size is large, and is therefore compatible with Georgia for the text body in both style and function.
Roboto is a dual-natured typeface. Its structure is mechanical and the letterform is highly geometric, however the features of the font have open curves.
Gilabert Design
Gilabert Design uses Apercu Regular Pro and Feijoa Display.
Apercu seeks to blend the realist classics, Franklin Gothic, Gill Sans, Neuzeit, and Johnston. Its form portrays the synopsis of its origin.
The principle of a straight line being a deadline inspires Feijoa’s design, thus the typography features letterforms with warm curves. The individual letters have their distinct forms but together they form a unique design.
Julia Zass
Julia Zass uses Lava.
Lava was originally used for magazines, and so brings strength and versatility to the fore. This typeface is one of the coolest fonts because it can maintain its style amidst chunks of text. There is no reason to fear that your relatively lengthy text will scare visitors away. Lava takes care of this with ease.
Hicks
Hicks uses TT Norms Pro.
The main version of TT Norms Pro is neutral and subtle, and when using the stylistic alternates the outlook is more humanistic. This typeface comes with several variations and styles, including two variable fonts, with ligatures and stylistic alternates, small capitals and broad support of OpenType. The font has eleven weights matched with their eleven corresponding italics.
Bobby Giangeruso
Bobby Giangeruso uses GT America.
This font builds a bridge between the European Grotesque and American Gothic typeface genres, in a seamless blend. The interesting font combines the design features of both traditional styles, thus uniting them with a contemporary finish.
FAQs about the coolest fonts
What makes a font “cool” for website use?
Coolness in fonts translates to a blend of aesthetics, readability, and functionality. Fonts like Google Fonts are popular for their sleek design and vast library, fitting various digital typography needs while aligning with the latest typography design trends.
How do I choose the right font for my website’s brand?
Selecting the right font involves matching the font’s personality with your brand’s image. Serif typefaces suggest formality and respectability, while Sans-serif fonts offer a cleaner, more modern look. Always consider visual communication theory when aligning typefaces with brand identity.
Are free fonts good enough for professional website use?
Many free fonts provide professional quality similar to paid fonts. Platforms like Google Fonts offer a plethora of reliable options. However, ensure font licensing allows commercial use to avoid legal issues.
How should I pair different fonts on my website?
When pairing fonts, aim for a harmonious contrast. Usually, choosing a robust display font for headings and a simpler, legible font for body text works well. Tools like Adobe Fonts can help visualize potential partnerships before making a final decision.
What are the latest trends in website typography?
Recent trends include the incorporation of bold, minimalist fonts and the use of variable fonts that allow fine-grained adjustment of typography settings. Design blogs frequently update these trends, helping designers stay current.
Why is readability important in choosing a website font?
Readability dictates how easily users can comprehend your content. Poor readability drives visitors away, while high readability enhances user engagement and extends visit duration. Focus on aspects like font size, spacing, and color contrast for optimal readability.
Can the choice of a font affect website speed?
Yes, font choice can impact site speed. Heavier fonts require more bandwidth to load. Opt for efficient formats like WOFF2 for web fonts, which offer compression to aid faster loading times without compromising on font aesthetics.
How do I ensure my font choice looks good on all devices?
Opting for scalable fonts and implementing CSS font styles ensures your typography adapts seamlessly across devices. Responsive design practices are essential, considering increasing mobile and tablet usage.
What’s the difference between serif and sans-serif fonts in web design?
Serif fonts feature small lines attached to the ends of letters, suited for print and more formal content. Sans-serif fonts, sleek and modern, enhance legibility on digital screens, making them ideal for website text.
How often should I update the fonts on my website?
While there’s no strict timeline, refreshing your fonts as part of a broader website redesign every few years can revitalize your brand’s online presence. Keeping up with design software updates and new releases can also provide fresh alternatives to enhance your site’s aesthetics and usability.
Conclusion
Diving into examples of the coolest fonts provides invaluable insights not just into style but also accessibility, readability, and web performance. Embracing these choices pushes boundaries in creating captivating user experiences. From crisp Sans-serif designs promoting clean modernity to Serif selections offering traditional grace, selecting the right typography impacts how content is perceived and interacted with.
To implement these choices:
- Seek variety while maintaining harmony.
- Consider the emotional tone your font selection conveys.
- Optimize for functionality, ensuring texts are as easy on the server as they are on the eyes.
Whether one leans towards bold and minimalist fonts or prefers typographic contrast to underline content hierarchies, integrating these principles ensures your site not only attracts but also holds attention. Always keep an eye on evolving trends and tools, like Google Fonts or Adobe Fonts, to keep your designs sharp and engaging. Today’s daring choices could define tomorrow’s trends.
If you liked this article with the coolest fonts, you should check out this one with tips for creating a website design questionnaire.
We also wrote about other useful topics, like using a web design contract, CSS frameworks, responsive image sliders, responsive product carousels, and dummy text generator tools.
