As a content creator, I need to choose fonts carefully, especially concerning licenses, and this is why I mainly resort to using fonts with open-source licenses that allow me to publish my modest designs without fear of legal prosecution.
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Where Can You Get Open-Source Fonts?
There are many open-source fonts in the repositories of your favorite distribution that you may find enough to meet your design needs. In addition, many fonts libraries provide hundreds or even thousands of open-source fonts ready to download and use in your personal or commercial projects (documents, art paintings, logos, etc.).
Here is my list of the best fonts libraries (sources) from which you can get open-source fonts to use in your upcoming artistic creations:
- The Font Library contains hundreds of free fonts with different open-source licenses, most notably the SIL Open Font License(OFL), which allows commercial use of the font, such as its use in commercial products.
- Google Fonts is my primary source for open-source fonts, especially when it comes to web fonts, and I do not rule out that you have used a font from this library even once in your life (Of course, I don’t need to inform you that Google owns this library).
What Are the Best Open-Source Fonts?
The choice of fonts is subject to many criteria, including aesthetics and readability, though I still consider fonts as tastes that vary from person to person.
Anyway, here is my list of the top 19 open-source fonts family (which you may not like).
Noto (collection)
- Category: Sans, Serif, Mono, and Other styles
- Language & scripts support: +1,000 languages and +150 scripts (including Arabic, Chinese, Devanagari, Hebrew, and Cyrillic)
- License: SIL Open Font License
The Noto fonts are available in your Linux distribution’s repositories, and you can easily install them using the software store or the Command Line Interface (CLI):
- Arch:
sudo pacman -Sy noto-fonts- Fedora:
sudo dnf install google-noto-fonts google-noto-cjk-fonts google-noto-sans-cjk-subset-fonts google-noto-serif-cjk-fonts - Ubuntu:
sudo apt install fonts-notoUbuntu
- Category: Sans-serif
- Language & scripts support: Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic
- License: Ubuntu Font Licence
The Ubuntu font family is available in your Linux distribution’s repositories, and you can easily install it using the software store or the Command Line Interface (CLI):
- Arch:
sudo pacman -Sy ttf-ubuntu-font-family- Fedora (copr):
sudo dnf copr enable atim/ubuntu-fonts -y && sudo dnf install ubuntu-family-fonts- Ubuntu (installed by default):
sudo apt install fonts-ubuntuRoboto
- Category: Sans-serif
- Language & scripts support: Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic
- License: SIL Open Font License
The Roboto font family is available in your Linux distribution’s repositories, and you can easily install it using the software store or the Command Line Interface (CLI):
- Arch:
sudo pacman -Sy ttf-roboto- Fedora:
sudo dnf install google-roboto-fonts- Ubuntu (installed by default):
sudo apt install fonts-robotoInter
- Category: Sans-serif
- Language & scripts support: Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic
- License: SIL Open Font License
The Inter font family is available in your Linux distribution’s repositories, and you can easily install it using the software store or the Command Line Interface (CLI):
- Arch:
sudo pacman -Sy inter-font- Fedora:
sudo dnf install rsms-inter-fonts- Ubuntu:
sudo apt install fonts-interGranada
- Category: Serif
- Language & scripts support: Arabic and Latin
- License: GNU General Public License
The Granada font is available in Debian-based distributions’ repositories (included in the Arab Eyes fonts package), and you can easily install it using the software store or the Command Line Interface (CLI):
- Debian & Ubuntu:
sudo apt install fonts-arabeyeskaushan Script
- Category: Script
- Language & scripts support: Latin
- License: SIL Open Font License
The kaushan Script font is available in Debian-based distributions’ repositories, and you can easily install it using the software store or the Command Line Interface (CLI):
- Debian & Ubuntu:
sudo apt install fonts-kaushanscriptOpen Sans
- Category: Sans-serif
- Language & scripts support: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Hebrew
- License: SIL Open Font License
The Open Sans font family is available in your Linux distribution’s repositories, and you can easily install it using the software store or the Command Line Interface (CLI):
- Arch:
sudo pacman -Sy ttf-opensans- Fedora:
sudo dnf install open-sans-fonts- Ubuntu:
sudo apt install fonts-open-sansIBM Plex
- Category: Sans, Serif, and Mono
- Language & scripts support: Arabic, Cyrillic, Devanagari, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, and Thai
- License: SIL Open Font License
The IBM Plex font family is available in your Linux distribution’s repositories, and you can easily install it using the software store or the Command Line Interface (CLI):
- Arch:
sudo pacman -Sy ttf-ibm-plex- Fedora:
sudo dnf install ibm-plex-fonts- Ubuntu:
sudo apt install fonts-ibm-plexOswald
- Category: Sans-serif
- Language & scripts support: Latin and Cyrillic
- License: SIL Open Font License
Mona Sans
- Category: Sans-serif
- Language & scripts support: Latin
- License: SIL Open Font License
Amiri & Amiri Quran
- Category: Serif (Naskh)
- Language & scripts support: Arabic & Latin
- License: SIL Open Font License
The Amiri font is available in your Linux distributions’ repositories (also bundled with LibreOffice), and you can easily install it using the software store or the Command Line Interface (CLI):
- Fedora:
sudo dnf install amiri-fonts- Ubuntu:
sudo apt install fonts-hosny-amiriHasköy
- Category: Sans-serif
- Language & scripts support: Latin
- License: SIL Open Font License
Alegreya
- Category: Sans and Serif
- Language & scripts support: Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic
- License: SIL Open Font License
The Alegreya font is available in your Linux distributions’ repositories, and you can easily install it using the software store or the Command Line Interface (CLI):
- Fedora:
sudo dnf install ht-alegreya-sans-fonts ht-alegreya-fonts- Ubuntu (Only the Sans typeface is available):
sudo apt install fonts-alegreya-sansRousseau Deco
- Category: Sans-serif
- Language & scripts support: Latin and Cyrillic
- License: SIL Open Font License
Cunia
- Category: Sans-serif
- Language & scripts support: Latin
- License: SIL Open Font License
Potra, NY Bricks, Bondi & Facón
- Category: Display
- Language & scripts support: Latin
- License: SIL Open Font License
💬 What are your favorite open-source fonts?
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