March 18, 2024

26 Free Progressive and Experimental Fonts

Design is constantly changing and moving forward. However, typography is one aspect of design that seems to resist progression. When it comes to typography, there are standards and traditions that have been around for many years. These rules are there for a reason – to make sure that letters and words are legible. But to move forward, sometimes rules have to be broken. So for this post we’ve rounded up 26 free progressive and experimental fonts. These fonts might be pushing the limits of traditional type design, but the results are stunning.

Rounded

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Cube 02

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Paranoid

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Dark Moon

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Ultras

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Gagalin 

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Nano

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Slukoni

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VAL

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Guerrilla

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Quadranta

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Guest Circus Paradiso

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Playtime

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Sylar Stencil

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Sans Serious

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Kain Block

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LOT

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Clutchee

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Tribbon

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KnucklePuck

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Etcetera

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Amputa Bangiz

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Betlog Square

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Slimbo

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Days

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FILE

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Henry Jones is a web developer, designer, and entrepreneur with over 14 years of experience. He is the founder of WDL and ThemeTrust.

36 Comments

  1. Lisa Reply

    I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your article. I really enjoy your site I’m currently 22, a college student, and quickly looking to develop myself on the web. I currently work at my university as the web designer and developer. I’m impressed with these resources and hope to discover more here in the future.

    I just want to add another point of reference for typography is http://www.pilo.me – it is a quite remarkable typography forum where you can find free and exclusive typefaces. It is usually invite only, so if memberships are open, join while you can and be sure to contribute as the rules are a bit strict.

  2. Alexander Sperl Reply

    It’s amazing how many of these typefaces are so obviously inspired by (if not partly contructed in) FontStruct. Modularity is an approach that is quite dominant in typeface design it seems.

  3. Ron Reply

    Most of them are variation of the others. Seen so many of this style, nothing is original anymore. The last 4 ones are my favourites.

  4. Damian Smith Reply

    nice list, I especially like quadranta, probably just the way it has been used in that design anyway. The one that I would probably use quite often is days and val. I think they could work really well in a few of the websites I have designed, especially val with starburst, it is kind of bit like cooperblack.

    Using a web embed font tool, web designs are becoming so much nicer too look at now so many fonts can used and still be “SEO” friendly. Just can’t wait for CSS3 and HTML5 to become more usable (basically meaning getting everyone to stop using old browsers, mainly IE)!

  5. Bill Hill Reply

    Nice fonts – silly article. There have never been limits on font design if you want to create fonts for headings or artistic purposes like posters, etc.
    The so-called “rules” apply to typography for body text people read for sustained periods. And they’re not “rules”, rather constraints that are driven by the mechanics of human vision. Typefaces have been evolving since Gutenberg. Body text has changed little in the past couple of hundred years because what worked for human vision survived, and what didn’t work failed. Human vision hasn’t changed in the past few million years…

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