40 Free Fonts Ideal For Retro And Vintage Designs

Vintage and retro style designs can be a beautiful thing. By using a combination of rough textures, grunge patterns and brushes meant to add an aged or used appearance, designers can easily pull of this timeless look. To compliment this aged appearance, it is important to use the proper typography to help match the style you are trying to represent. To help you out, I’ve rounded up 40 attractive retro and vintage fonts to use in your designs.

Bobel

Parisian

Deftone Stylus

Seaside Resort

Airstream

Dymaxion Script

Star Avenue

20db

Bazar Medium

Mailart Rubberstamp

Matchbook Typefaces

Nougat

Fletcher Gothic

Nashville

Chi-Town

Blue Plate Special

Showboat

Day Poster Black

Circus Ornate

Diner Regular

Carnivalee Freakshow

East Market

Tall Deco

Sesame

Minstrel Poster

Louisianne

Bellerose

Campanile

Forty Second Street (TrueType Font)

Hamburger Heaven

Minotaur

Stony Island

Ballpark

Studebaker

Secesja

Echo Deco

Market Deco

Kelvinized

Titania

Sandwich

Find What You Were Looking For?

I’m hoping that you found at least one new font to add to your collection. I did my best to use each font in a sort of vintage style design so that you could see it in action. While compiling this list there were a few that I fell in love with, including – Bobel, Diner Regular, Sesame and Titania just to name a few. Which ones did you adopt for your designs? Let the rest of us know in the comment section below. Thanks!


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86 Comments

  1. Allan Spece May 7, 2010 at 7:19 am #

    Well done my friend! I just adopted Campanile. Great job displaying the fonts.

    • Shawn Ramsey May 7, 2010 at 1:09 pm #

      I like Campanile as well, It’s very similar to Sesame. Thanks Allan!

    • alyssa October 6, 2011 at 1:38 pm #

      youre cute :]

  2. Federica Sibella May 7, 2010 at 7:44 am #

    Thank you for the big round up! I just used Seaside Resort for my last project and it works beautifully! You can see it live at http://www.festeggiano.it

    • Shawn Ramsey May 7, 2010 at 1:10 pm #

      Wow, it looks great. I love the color scheme too. It’s nice to see one of these fonts in action. Thanks Federica!

    • Dave August 6, 2010 at 6:19 am #

      Hey Federica. Site looks good but just a heads up, jQuery does not load up in IE 7 which ends up making the site look horrid. It creates a scroll bar inside of that div on the left and causes text to scroll over the navigation.

  3. Rocky May 7, 2010 at 9:17 am #

    Nice font collection..

    • Shawn Ramsey May 7, 2010 at 1:11 pm #

      I appreciate it Rocky! Hope you found one that you liked.

  4. Nils May 7, 2010 at 10:42 am #

    great job! I adopted about fifteen.

    • Shawn Ramsey May 7, 2010 at 1:13 pm #

      Wow, fifteen! I’m glad I could uncover so many free fonts for your collection!

  5. tom May 7, 2010 at 12:43 pm #

    Awesome, these couldnt have come a batter time for me! thanks a bunch.

    • Shawn Ramsey May 7, 2010 at 1:13 pm #

      No problem Tom. I’m glad the roundup came in handy for you!

  6. Hilde May 9, 2010 at 6:49 am #

    A great collection! Nice work and thanks for sharing :D

  7. ARTisani May 10, 2010 at 2:58 am #

    Very nice collection.
    Thanks for the share.
    I was looking for the carnivalee or something similar already a while now.

  8. Hillary May 10, 2010 at 1:05 pm #

    This is a fabulous collection and very different! Thank you for this.

  9. Sam Aaron May 10, 2010 at 10:22 pm #

    WOW !! i was looking something just like this!!! what are the chances . thank you a million times
    !!!!!!

  10. katerlake May 11, 2010 at 10:24 pm #

    This fonts are looking great. Thanks for sharing.

  11. e mesghali May 12, 2010 at 1:35 am #

    i love the fonts but im much more impressed with the background of each example. where do you find these textures and designs?!

  12. Lisa May 12, 2010 at 2:04 am #

    Great list!
    May want to double-check before using as some say they are free for personal use :)

    • Shawn Ramsey May 12, 2010 at 4:57 am #

      Yeah, they are not all free for commercial use, but they are for personal use. That is the case with a lot of free fonts. The good news is if you like them enough in your personal designs, they can be bought for relatively cheap. Thanks Lisa, it is good to point that out.

  13. blackvalon May 13, 2010 at 11:13 am #

    Great resource! I love retro&vintage style.

  14. Oliver May 13, 2010 at 7:30 pm #

    Fantastic post! I enjoyed looking through the fonts.

  15. CentralOrbit May 14, 2010 at 11:18 pm #

    OH my goodness. Looking at this list just makes me drool…
    If only I had more projects to use these fonts on! I would never tire of retro and vintage design, if only I had more excuses!

  16. Hermitbiker May 23, 2010 at 7:38 pm #

    …. a fantastic collection of fonts ideal for “retro and vintage” designs that anyone can use !!

  17. Marcell Purham | Webdevtuts May 23, 2010 at 9:35 pm #

    Those are great fonts! Awesome post :)

  18. TechGyo May 27, 2010 at 11:24 am #

    Yeah, really awesome fonts!!

  19. ki May 27, 2010 at 11:32 am #

    Thank you so much! I fell in love with Secesja. Had used Carnivalee Freakshow on my very first design…

  20. sir jorge May 30, 2010 at 3:47 pm #

    those fonts are incredible

  21. Scott Webb June 5, 2010 at 7:31 am #

    I love all of theses fonts. Best font listing post I’ve ever come across! Thank you

  22. Jeremy June 7, 2010 at 6:58 pm #

    What are the chances these might be packaged for one big download…I want them ALL! : )

  23. Theraisa K June 8, 2010 at 9:54 am #

    Great collection, many of them I’ve used in the past, but a few I’ve never seen before and really like!

  24. sir jorge June 17, 2010 at 5:10 pm #

    great fonts, and great designs

  25. Calgary Graphic Design June 22, 2010 at 7:50 pm #

    Awesome! instant style, in a font. Thanks for the collection!

  26. Web Design Blog July 3, 2010 at 11:04 pm #

    Superb fonts I especially love the Diner Regular font.

  27. PurpleB July 4, 2010 at 7:11 am #

    I love this but i always have a hard time installing new fonts :(

  28. Rick July 4, 2010 at 4:54 pm #

    Thank you…Studebaker is MINE! heh heh heh

  29. Jacob Williamson July 5, 2010 at 11:32 pm #

    Thanks. The font diner regular reminds me of a really expensive font that I almost had to buy called knockout, plus it works in other design situations and not just retro.

  30. Ivan July 6, 2010 at 2:26 am #

    Thank you! so useful for my future work! hehe :P

  31. energy monitoring July 7, 2010 at 12:41 am #

    Deftone Stylus, Airstream, Hamburger Heaven, Ballpark, Studebaker, Market Deco, Kelvinized, Titania, and Sandwich are my favorites.

  32. Rone July 8, 2010 at 6:41 pm #

    Man…I absolutely love the way you’ve displayed the fonts, really gives you a good idea how they can work in a Vintage inspired design…well done. In fact I’m now on the hunt for some similar background images…..awesome.

  33. KJ July 28, 2010 at 7:12 am #

    Thank you so very much. I will honestly download them all… they are fantastic and I am sure I will need them in the future.

  34. Sarah Samways July 29, 2010 at 7:00 pm #

    Just StumbleUpon’d you and I’m so glad I did. They’re all so pretty. Thanks for posting! :)

  35. lita August 6, 2010 at 3:13 am #

    thank you so muchhh.. love it :)

  36. Cleibo August 26, 2010 at 10:22 am #

    I love the display of the fonts, it’s so clean and organized :D

  37. Dan@ASC August 29, 2010 at 6:11 pm #

    Thanks very much Shawn! I’m very surprised I haven’t noticed this thread before now – several additions to my personal collection, and I think Secesja fits the bill for my personal blog!

    Thanks again!

  38. inspirationfeed September 13, 2010 at 7:17 pm #

    Great roundup, thank you!

  39. kfarnell @sonicprint & direct mail October 11, 2010 at 12:21 pm #

    great font collectionn!

  40. Brett Widmann October 24, 2010 at 6:17 pm #

    Thanks for the fonts. I love star avenue.

  41. Big Dreams Embroidery November 3, 2010 at 11:45 pm #

    Thank you so much – you’ve chosen wonderful fonts. I really love Parisian font.

  42. David November 17, 2010 at 6:36 pm #

    I love to see all the effort put into displaying these fonts. Very nice work and way more interesting than just seeing them displayed in b/w.

  43. Samantha November 30, 2010 at 7:47 am #

    Beautiful work :)

  44. SilverMagpies December 31, 2010 at 12:05 pm #

    I love several of these fonts including stony island. However, as I am not a graphics or technical person I was wondering if someone could explain to me how/if these fonts would work in other browsers.

    I’m currently using Airstream for 1 particular part of my site, but I then I saw my site on a friends computer and the airstream reverted to Times. I think I solved the problem by making and inserting a jpeg of the text. But I’d love to change the font I enter my content in. Arial is not capturing the mood I’m aiming for!

    Thanks.

  45. fajas colombianas January 19, 2011 at 11:17 am #

    The presentation of the fonts look very clean and well done.

  46. Faris February 3, 2011 at 12:22 am #

    Thanks, very beautiful list, and very well displayed.

  47. Subrato Mitra February 5, 2011 at 2:36 am #

    A big THANK YOU !!

  48. PIPPA February 11, 2011 at 10:03 pm #

    THIS IS GREAT! HAPPY DAYS – THANKS

  49. Jonathan Owen Photography February 25, 2011 at 2:04 pm #

    great freebies!

  50. john February 26, 2011 at 4:53 pm #

    dude. this is really awesome

  51. masha March 8, 2011 at 5:10 am #

    Great! Thanks so much!

  52. tia March 31, 2011 at 8:11 pm #

    RAD! (…yes, I said rad). Many thanks!

  53. Selena April 4, 2011 at 1:43 pm #

    Thank you !!! Awesome!!!

  54. Lex Koff May 1, 2011 at 4:18 pm #

    Thank You very much. Free fonts are sure to be appreciated by template designers here @ Templamatic =))

  55. jane May 8, 2011 at 10:35 pm #

    I am so thrilled that I found your website. You found a great collection of fonts that I have forwarded to my designer. This is awesome!

  56. Fume Hood May 24, 2011 at 12:27 am #

    Thanks allot for sharing, this is awesome!

  57. hotfof June 25, 2011 at 4:44 am #

    This artwork is realy amazing!
    thx for sharing!
    grtz, hotfof

  58. heaters June 28, 2011 at 5:52 am #

    thanks for sharing…..great list….awesome

  59. svcars July 1, 2011 at 1:50 am #

    nice fonts ..thanks for sharing

    • Joana September 16, 2011 at 2:44 pm #

      loved the fonts!
      it really makes the vintage logo excel!

      joana

  60. ilovesouthdevon July 22, 2011 at 11:47 pm #

    Beautiful font collection. Thanks for sharing … appreciated!

  61. jana August 13, 2011 at 4:49 am #

    fantastic collection, thanks!

  62. Jordan August 19, 2011 at 5:15 pm #

    These are alright. Personally, I like times new roman best.

  63. Naomi August 31, 2011 at 10:05 am #

    Nothing makes me more giddy that free fonts, these are all absolutely incredible! Thank you so much for posting this!!

  64. SEO Pro September 14, 2011 at 4:12 pm #

    Have been looking around all day for Vintage fonts. This is by far the best collection that I have seen.

  65. henshed September 21, 2011 at 3:10 am #

    This is why I love the interweb. THANK YOU!

  66. Ali-B September 26, 2011 at 4:43 pm #

    Great collection, thanks for sharing! :-)

  67. A September 27, 2011 at 9:50 am #

    Great fonts! Think I just had an orgasm…

  68. Kevin Shorter September 29, 2011 at 2:22 pm #

    Thank you for putting the list together. I was able to get many new ones. I liked Parisian and Rubberstamp the best.

  69. Metin September 30, 2011 at 12:25 am #

    thank you, perfect fonts!

  70. GA September 30, 2011 at 8:27 pm #

    Can these be used for a website logo design? Such as for a bar/lounge? I don’t want to get sued for copyright infringement… it says “free” and that could just mean free to download, but not necessarily to use for a business. Hope for a quick response, thank you!!

  71. Image Sharing and Hosting October 4, 2011 at 5:35 am #

    Im a fan of the Babel logo..

  72. Ella Bañez October 29, 2011 at 9:20 am #

    Wow these are really great gallery of beautiful vintage fonts..good thing they are free downloadable..thanks for sharing good stuff :)

  73. chillers November 17, 2011 at 6:14 am #

    good collection thanks for sharing it

  74. SewPo December 1, 2011 at 6:22 pm #

    Thanks for a great collection of fonts!

    Deftone Stylus is not necessarily my favorite, but it is totally perfect for an embroidery project I am working on.

  75. Louise December 19, 2011 at 2:30 am #

    Thanks so much for these! They are all wonderful! Bellerose, Ballpark and
    Rubberstamp are some of my favourites! I’m so happy that I came across your site, its really great :)

  76. freeze January 11, 2012 at 5:53 am #

    Great classic fonts! thanks for posting it..

  77. Lisa January 19, 2012 at 8:49 am #

    There are really great :) about to try out Rubberstamp now

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