As this year comes to a close, we can look back and see that 2009 was a big year for typography. We saw more web designs with a focus on type, and there were some pretty amazing fonts released. Here are some of the best free fonts from this past year. A few of the fonts below were released at the end of 2008, but since they didn’t see much action until this year, I included them in the list.
Chunk
Chunk is an ultra-bold slab serif typeface that is reminiscent of old American Western woodcuts, broadsides, and newspaper headlines. Used mainly for display, the fat block lettering is unreserved yet refined for contemporary use.
Calluna
Calluna supports a very wide range in languages and is a very complete OpenType typeface. Each font counts 723 glyphs.
Vegur
League Gothic
League Gothic is a revival of an old classic, and one of our favorite typefaces, Alternate Gothic No.1. It was originally designed by Morris Fuller Benton for the American Type Founders Company (ATF) in 1903. The company went bankrupt in 1993. And since the original typeface was created before 1923, the typeface is in the public domain.
Sansation
Quicksand
Mentone
Mentone is a new general purpose typeface, an attempt at extending the line of the great sans-serifs of the previous century, Frutiger – Stone Sans – Myriad. The font has round corners and subtle chamfers, which are all but invisible at text sizes, but add an upbeat, irreverent expression at display sizes. The typeface is named after the beautiful bayside suburb of Melbourne, Australia, where the designer lives.
Serif Beta
Goudy Bookletter 1911
Based on Frederic Goudy’s Kennerley Oldstyle.
Titilium
Junction
Junction is where the best qualities of serif and sans serif typefaces come together. It has the hand drawn and human qualities of a serif, and still retains the clarity and efficiencies of a sans serif typeface. It combines the best of both worlds.
Sovba
Sovba is an amiable rounded sans-serif inspired by handwriting. Sovba is useful for a look that is uniquely casual, fresh and smooth. Sovba simplifies character forms down to their basic characteristics, and has a strong, silky smooth forward motion.