Free Sabon font alternatives
Sabon’s history starts in the early 1960s, when the German Master Printers’ Association requested a new typeface be designed and produced in identical form on both Linotype and Monotype machines. For this, Walter Cunz at Stempel responded by commissioning Jan Tschichold to design a new version of Claude Garamond’s Roman. Sabon was named after Jacques Sabon, the one who introduced Garamond’s Romans to Frankfurt.
This article includes free fonts with various language support: Latin, Latin Extended, Greek, Greek Extended, Cyrillic, Cyrillic Extended, Vietnamese, Arabic, Devanganari.
Crimson Text
An oldstyle typeface with fleurons and OpenType features like oldstyle figures and small caps. Crimson Text was inspired by the work of Jan Tschichold, Robert Slimbach, and Jonathan Hoefler.
- Language support: Latin
- Includes 6 styles (3 weights — 400 Regular, 600 Semi-Bold, 700 Bold — plus matching italics)
- License: SIL Open Font License → Licenses explained
Nanum Myeongjo
Nanum Myeongjo is a contemporary serif typeface expertly hinted for screen use. It’s part of the Nanum family (나눔글꼴), a set of high quality Unicode fonts designed especially for the Korean-language script Hangeul that also support Latin.
- Language support: Latin, Korean (Hangeul)
- Includes 3 styles: 3 weights (Regular, Bold — 700, Extra-Bold — 800)
- License: SIL Open Font License → Licenses explained
EB Garamond
Reproduces Claude Garamond’s original 16th century design closely. EB Garamond started as a scan of a specimen known as the “Berner specimen”, composed in 1592 by Conrad Berner — the son-in-law of Christian Egenolff and his successor at the Egenolff print office. EB Garamond’s name is an abbreviation of Egenolff-Berner Garamond.
- Language support: Latin Extended, Cyrillic Extended, Greek Extended, Vietnamese
- Includes 10 styles (5 weights — 400 Regular, 500 Medium, 600 Semi-Bold, 700 Bold, 800 Extra-Bold — plus matching italics)
- License: SIL Open Font License → Licenses explained
Amiri
A classical Arabic typeface in Naskh style, ideal for typesetting books and other running text. It was named after Amiria Press, the alternate name by which Cairo’s Bulaq Press was known. Amiri’s design is a revival of the beautiful typeface pioneered in early 20th century by Bulaq Press.
- Language support: Latin Extended, Arabic
- Includes 4 styles (2 weights — 400 Regular, 600 Bold — plus matching italics)
- License: SIL Open Font License → Licenses explained
Cardo
A Unicode font specifically designed for the needs of classicists, scholars, medievalists, linguists, and general typesetting in situations where a high-quality Old Style font is appropriate. Has OpenType features such as ligatures, old style numerals, true small capitals.
- Language support: Latin Extended, Greek Extended
- Includes 3 styles (400 Regular with matching italic, 600 Bold)
- License: SIL Open Font License → Licenses explained
Halant
A Devanagari and Latin font that includes Latin diacritics.
- Language support: Latin Extended, Devanganari
- Includes 5 styles (5 weights: 300 Light, 400 Regular, 500 Medium, 600 Semi-Bold, 700 Bold)
- License: SIL Open Font License → Licenses explained
