Best typeface
Twenty classic and much-debated typefaces, from Renaissance serifs to Swiss modernism and screen fonts.
Tier list by PairTier · 20 items
- Helvetica — Neutral Swiss sans-serif from 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann, seen everywhere.
- Times New Roman — Serif typeface commissioned by The Times of London in the early 1930s.
- Garamond — Family of elegant old-style serifs based on the work of 16th-century Parisian punchcutter Claude Garamond.
- Futura — Geometric sans-serif designed by Paul Renner in 1927, built from circles and straight lines.
- Gill Sans — British humanist sans-serif designed by Eric Gill in the late 1920s.
- Arial — Sans-serif from 1982, designed to match Helvetica's widths and bundled with Windows.
- Comic Sans MS — Casual, handwriting-style font made by Vincent Connare for Microsoft in 1994.
- Baskerville — Transitional serif designed by John Baskerville in Birmingham in the 1750s.
- Bodoni — High-contrast serif named after the Italian printer Giambattista Bodoni, a fashion magazine favourite.
- Frutiger — Clear sans-serif by Adrian Frutiger, originally created for signage at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
- Univers — Systematic sans-serif family by Adrian Frutiger from 1957, with numbered weights and widths.
- Gotham — Sans-serif inspired by New York building lettering, famously used in Obama's 2008 campaign.
- Johnston — Sans-serif by Edward Johnston from 1916, still used by the London Underground.
- Georgia — Serif designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft to be readable on low-resolution screens.
- Verdana — Wide, highly legible sans-serif by Matthew Carter for Microsoft, made for the screen.
- Palatino — Old-style serif by Hermann Zapf inspired by Italian Renaissance lettering.
- Courier — Monospaced slab serif designed for IBM typewriters in the 1950s.
- Roboto — Google's sans-serif developed for Android and widely used on the web.
- Papyrus — Rough-edged display typeface from 1982, much used for 'ancient' or exotic themes.
- Caslon — English serif by William Caslon from the 1720s, popular in 18th-century British and American printing.