Calibri Alternatives

German designer Hans-Jürgen Ellenberger originally developed the concept behind Elementis in 1975. Wanting to create an alternative typewriter script that was more round and natural, Elementis' design was born. True to its typewriter roots, Linotype's Elementis exhibits more character than one expects from that genre. The letters display a delightfully quirky nature, which is sure to lighten up... Read More

Xavier Dupré’s FF Absara is a work of French proportions, but its shapes take influence from the Dutch style: less polished, and more direct. Its casualness refers to humanist written forms. FF Absara’s rough cut makes it interesting at display sizes, but thanks to its generous x-height and firm serifs, FF Absara works equally well setting text. The typeface’s idiosyncratic italic creates a... Read More

Xavier Dupré’s FF Yoga mixes the harshness of a blackletter with the balanced rhythm and round shapes of the Renaissance Roman. Its... Read More

Linotype Textra™ is a clever twist on the sans serif genre, designed by Jochen Schuss and Jörg Herz in 2002. Schuss says this about Linotype Textra: "Two in one! The same Linotype Textra, which is so neutral and practical for long text passages turns into an eye-catching headline type when used in larger point sizes. The trick? It's all in the details. The type's clear, robust forms give it a... Read More

Isonorm was created in 1980 by the International Standards Organization (ISO). The font's design is simple, clean, and geometric, with strokes that all have rounded ends. Isonorm is a font whose forms are very legible by both the human eye and machine readers. The font is also a good choice for drafting and architectural purposes, as well as for technical charts and graphics.

Arial was designed for Monotype in 1982 by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders. A contemporary sans serif design, Arial contains more humanist characteristics than many of its predecessors and as such is more in tune with the mood of the last decades of the twentieth century. The overall treatment of curves is softer and fuller than in most industrial style sans serif faces. Terminal strokes... Read More

ITC Tabula is meant to be read. The design grew out of a study to create a font to set film subtitles. According to Julien Janiszewski, the face's Paris-based designer, “I set parameters for the design whereby the letters had to be able to hold up at very small sizes when set on film and yet must be able to be enlarged 2000 times to be read on a theatre screen.”The subtitle font was not... Read More

ITC Humana Sans font is the work of British designer Timothy Donaldson, an extended and versatile font family with a large array of variations. Donaldson first created ITC Humana Script with a broad-tipped pen and then went on to design the corresponding roman. ITC Humana Sans is the perfect font for anything requiring both clarity and a touch of personality.

Mixage font is the work of Italian designer Aldo Novarese, who cleverly combined the character shapes and proportions like those of Syntax and Antique Olive with the grace and warmth of a calligraphic typeface. Mixage font is a good alternative to more traditional sans serif designs.

The branding agency's client wanted an "ultra modern" typeface that was "futuristic without being gimmicky or ephemeral," according to... Read More

The European Union (EU) has added numerous members since 2004, increasing significantly the number of languages spoken within its boundaries. To write the thirty or more languages, three alphabets are required: Roman (Latin), Greek, and Cyrillic. The WGL character set supports all EU languages, in addition to Russian, Ukrainian, and Serbian, and Croatian. Current principal languages of the EU... Read More

London-based designer David Quay designed ITC Quay Sans in 1990. One of the precursors to the long run of functionalist European sans serif faces that has been a dominating force in type design since the 1990s, ITC Quay sans is based on the proportions of 19th Century Grotesk faces. Grotesk, the German word for sans serif, defines an entire branch of the sans serif movement, which culminated in... Read More