The Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time

Written by Jacob Cass

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Based on a German website, these are the top 100 best fonts of all time.

To say the least, ranking fonts is an obviously hard taskโ€ฆ how does one measure aesthetic quality, the benefit of an item, its value to humanity and so fourth?

Well, in this particular German publication, the judges ranked the fonts by their objective and various other weighted measurements:

  • FontShop Sales Figures: 40%
  • Historical Value/Meaning: 30%
  • Aesthetic Qualities: 30%

It is also worth noting that this evaluation consisted exclusively of licensed or commercial fonts only. Free fonts or operating system fonts were not considered, nor were fonts integral to standard software (i.e. Arial, Verdana, etc.). Font variations, which over the centuries have been individually interpreted by various Foundries, were uniquely evaluated as a class and the best variant was entered into the main judging process.

Below is a preview of the top 33 fonts and beneath this image you can find the full list of the 100 best fonts.

33-best-fonts

Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time

Below you will find the full list of the best 100 fonts along with the designer & the year in which they were designed.

1. Helvetica [1957 – Max Miedinger]

2. Garamond [1530 – Claude Garamond]

3. Frutiger [1977 – Adrian Frutiger]

4. Bodoni [1970 – Giambattista Bodoni]

5. Futura [1927 – Paul Renner]

6. Times [1931 – Stanley Morison]

7. Akzidenz Grotesk [1966 – G nter Gerhard Lange]

8. Officina [1990 – Erik Spiekermann]

9. Gill Sans [1930 – Eric Gill]

10. Univers [1954 – Adrian Frutiger]

11. Optima [1954 – Hermann Zapf]

12. Franklin Gothic [1903 – Morris Fuller Benton]

13. Bembo [1496 – Francesco Griffo]

14. Interstate [1993 – Tobias Frere-Jones]

15. Thesis [1994 – Lucas de Groot]

16. Rockwell [1934 – Frank H. Pierpont]

17. Walbaum [1800 – Justus Walbaum]

18. Meta [1991 – Erik Spiekermann]

19. Trinit [1982 – Bram De Does]

20. Din [1926 – Ludwig Goller]

21. Matrix [1986 – Zuzana Licko]

22. OCR [1965 – American Type Founders]

23. Avant Garde [1968 – Herb Lubalin]

24. Lucida [1985 – Chris Holmes / Charles Bigelow]

25. Sabon [1964 – Jan Tschichold]

26. Zapfino [1998 – Hermann Zapf]

27. Letter Gothic [1956 – Roger Roberson]

28. Stone [1987 – Summer Stone]

29. Arnhem [1998 – Fred Smeijers]

30. Minion [1990 – Robert Slimbach]

31. Myriad [1992 – Twombly & Slimbach]

32. Rotis [1988 – Olt Aicher]

33. Eurostile [1962 – Aldo Novarese]

34. Scala [1991 – Martin Majoor]

35. Syntax [1968 – Hans Eduard Meier]

36. Joanna [1930 – Eric Gill]

37. Fleishmann [1997 – Erhard Kaiser]

38. Palatino [1950 – Hermann Zapf]

39. Baskerville [1754 – John Baskerville]

40. Fedra [2002 – Peter Bil’ak]

41. Gotham [2000 – Tobias Frere-Jones]

42. Lexicon [1992 – Bram De Does]

43. Hands [1991 – Letterror]

44. Metro [1929 – W. A. Dwiggins]

45. Didot [1799 – Firmin Didot]

46. Formata [1984 – Bernd M llenst dt]

47. Caslon [1725 – William Caslon]

48. Cooper Black [1920 – Oswald B. Cooper]

49. Peignot [1937 – A. M. Cassandre]

50. Bell Gothic [1938 – Chauncey H. Griffith]

51. Antique Olive [1962 – Roger Excoffon]

52. Wilhelm Klngspor Gotisch [1926 – Rudolf Koch]

53. Info [1996 – Erik Spiekermann]

54. Dax [1995 – Hans Reichel]

55. Proforma [1988 – Petr van Blokland]

56. Today Sans [1988 – Volker K ster]

57. Prokyon [2002 – Erhard Kaiser]

58. Trade Gothic [1948 – Jackson Burke]

59. Swift [1987 – Gerald Unger]

60. Copperplate Gothic [1901 – Frederic W. Goudy]

61. Blur [1992 – Neville Brody]

62. Base [1995 – Zuzana Licko]

63. Bell Centennial [1978 – Matthew Carter]

64. News Gothic [1908 – Morris Fuller Benton]

65. Avenir [1988 – Adrian Frutiger]

66. Bernhard Modern [1937 – Lucian Bernhard]

67. Amplitude [2003 – Christian Schwartz]

68. Trixie [1991 – Erik van Blokland]

69. Quadraat [1992 – Fred Smeijers]

70. Neutraface [2002 – Christian Schwartz]

71. Nobel [1929 – Sjoerd de Roos]

72. Industria [1990 – Neville Brody]

73. Bickham Script [1997 – Richard Lipton]

74. Bank Gothic [1930 – Morris Fuller Benton]

75. Corporate ASE [1989 – Kurt Weidemann]

76. Fago [2000 – Ole Schafer]

77. Trajan [1989 – Carol Twombly]

78. Kabel [1927 – Rudolf Koch]

79. House Gothic 23 [1995 – Tal Leming]

80. Kosmik [1993 – Letterror]

81. Caecilia [1990 – Peter Matthias Noordzij]

82. Mrs Eaves [1996 – Zuzana Licko]

83. Corpid [1997 – Lucas de Groot]

84. Miller [1997 – Matthew Carter]

85. Souvenir [1914 – Morris Fuller Benton]

86. Instant Types [1992 – Just van Rossum]

87. Clarendon [1845 – Benjamin Fox]

88. Triplex [1989 – Zuzana Licko]

89. Benguiat [1989 – Ed Benguiat]

90. Zapf Renaissance [1984 – Hermann Zapf]

91. Filosofia [1996 – Zuzana Licko]

92. Chalet [1996 – House Industries]

93. Quay Sans [1990 – David Quay]

94. C zanne [1995 – Michael Want, James Grieshaber]

95. Reporter [1938 – Carlos Winkow]

96. Legacy [1992 – Ronald Arnholm]

97. Agenda [1993 – Greg Thompson]

98. Bello [2004 – Underware]

99. Dalliance [2000 – Frank Heine]

100. Mistral [1953 – Roger Excoffon]

Further Resources:

So what other fonts should be included in this? What fonts shouldn’t be in this list? Vent your spleen below.

10 thoughts on “The Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time”

  1. Willard Harrison

    WOW! Fantastic article. These truly are a great selection of the BEST that we use. A few of the later ones are new to me, but most are old friends I work with every day.

    Yep, if I had to work with only these 100 every day, in my work as a graphic designer, I could live with it. Wellll-l-llll, maybe 90 percent of the time… a true typaholic HAS TO have those exciting display faces that seem to be the perfect solution to one specific challenge. It’s like spice to an otherwise hearty and nourishing diet.

    Thanks of the nourishment, “Best Article.” A week or so ago, many of us subscribers thought BEST had become its evil twin WORST. I mean, c’mon: Jesus’ murder? Porn flow charts? How Not to Fail at Life? Three on Facebook? Thank goodness we’re up again, after that bottom-of-the-barrel nonsense.

  3. MzEllen

    I use comicsans a lot – most people hate it but I use it for one reason…there are not that many fonts that make lower case “a” and “g” the way that I’m trying to teach young students to write them…

  5. Willard Harrison

    Retarded? Hardly.

    There’s an anti-Papyrus font website, with deep and broad discusssion of the overuse of what was a substantial display font. Nowadays, its everywhere, in all the wrong places.

    One corporate drone took the time to give a “stinging rebuke” to fontheads who question his constant use/abuse of the font. Basically, he was just too retarded to understand why we see HIM as retarded, tasteless and deficient in our area of interest.

    Obviously, he was clueless enough to use all fonts interchangeably. I wonder he’s a stickler about personal appearance, dressed to the nines with every hair in place?

    ——-

    MizEllen,

    you’re making PERFECT use of Comic Sans. It’s intended to have a fresh, childlike, handwritten look. I think what people hate about it is its misuse. (And overuse. System fonts are excluded from the Germans’ 100 Best listing, maybe because such boring usage is smothering the earth.)

    One does not expect to see Comic Sans in a headline of a full-color advertisement for diamond jewelry. It looks dorky on a huge billboard for a car dealership. I’d much rather see it on a flyer for a kids’ event, than on official papers related to an attorneys office.

    Ahhh, I see what you mean with the “roof” over the letter ‘a’ and the circles and frou-frous on a ‘g’. Children don’t need that. Look at Avant Garde Gothic, two fonts down from Comic Sans at web.mit.edu/jmorzins/www/fonts.html. It’s simple and elegant, if you wanted a professional typeface (copycat fonts are available free on the web.)

    You might also want to look through the twenty Handwritten font pages at http://www.dailyfreefonts.com. But I’d say ‘don’t bother — Comic Sans is terrific for your purpose.

  8. Selectric

    Courier is missing. Seriously? It served as the basic font for nearly every business typewriter for decades.

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