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 A Vintage Font 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.
I would love to keep this list updated with new vintage fonts as they make their appearance on the web. If you’ve run across one that would be a great addition to the list, I would love to hear about it. Which one of these fonts did you adopt for your designs? Let the rest of us know in the comment section below. Thanks!
128 Comments
+Add your commentWell done my friend! I just adopted Campanile. Great job displaying the fonts.
I like Campanile as well, It’s very similar to Sesame. Thanks Allan!
youre cute :]
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
Wow, it looks great. I love the color scheme too. It’s nice to see one of these fonts in action. Thanks Federica!
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.
Nice font collection..
I appreciate it Rocky! Hope you found one that you liked.
great job! I adopted about fifteen.
Wow, fifteen! I’m glad I could uncover so many free fonts for your collection!
Awesome, these couldnt have come a batter time for me! thanks a bunch.
No problem Tom. I’m glad the roundup came in handy for you!
A great collection! Nice work and thanks for sharing :D
Very nice collection.
Thanks for the share.
I was looking for the carnivalee or something similar already a while now.
This is a fabulous collection and very different! Thank you for this.
WOW !! i was looking something just like this!!! what are the chances . thank you a million times
!!!!!!
This fonts are looking great. Thanks for sharing.
i love the fonts but im much more impressed with the background of each example. where do you find these textures and designs?!
Great list!
May want to double-check before using as some say they are free for personal use :)
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.
Great resource! I love retro&vintage style.
Fantastic post! I enjoyed looking through the fonts.
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!
…. a fantastic collection of fonts ideal for “retro and vintage” designs that anyone can use !!
Those are great fonts! Awesome post :)
Yeah, really awesome fonts!!
Thank you so much! I fell in love with Secesja. Had used Carnivalee Freakshow on my very first design…
those fonts are incredible
I love all of theses fonts. Best font listing post I’ve ever come across! Thank you
What are the chances these might be packaged for one big download…I want them ALL! : )
Great collection, many of them I’ve used in the past, but a few I’ve never seen before and really like!
great fonts, and great designs
Awesome! instant style, in a font. Thanks for the collection!
Superb fonts I especially love the Diner Regular font.
I love this but i always have a hard time installing new fonts :(
Thank you…Studebaker is MINE! heh heh heh
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.
Thank you! so useful for my future work! hehe :P
Deftone Stylus, Airstream, Hamburger Heaven, Ballpark, Studebaker, Market Deco, Kelvinized, Titania, and Sandwich are my favorites.
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.
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.
Just StumbleUpon’d you and I’m so glad I did. They’re all so pretty. Thanks for posting! :)
thank you so muchhh.. love it :)
I love the display of the fonts, it’s so clean and organized :D
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!
Great roundup, thank you!
great font collectionn!
Thanks for the fonts. I love star avenue.
Thank you so much – you’ve chosen wonderful fonts. I really love Parisian font.
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.
Beautiful work :)
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.
The presentation of the fonts look very clean and well done.
Thanks, very beautiful list, and very well displayed.
A big THANK YOU !!
THIS IS GREAT! HAPPY DAYS – THANKS
great freebies!
dude. this is really awesome
Great! Thanks so much!
RAD! (…yes, I said rad). Many thanks!
Thank you !!! Awesome!!!
Thank You very much. Free fonts are sure to be appreciated by template designers here @ Templamatic =))
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!
Thanks allot for sharing, this is awesome!
This artwork is realy amazing!
thx for sharing!
grtz, hotfof
thanks for sharing…..great list….awesome
nice fonts ..thanks for sharing
loved the fonts!
it really makes the vintage logo excel!
joana
Beautiful font collection. Thanks for sharing … appreciated!
fantastic collection, thanks!
These are alright. Personally, I like times new roman best.
No.
Nothing makes me more giddy that free fonts, these are all absolutely incredible! Thank you so much for posting this!!
Have been looking around all day for Vintage fonts. This is by far the best collection that I have seen.
This is why I love the interweb. THANK YOU!
Great collection, thanks for sharing! :-)
Great fonts! Think I just had an orgasm…
Thank you for putting the list together. I was able to get many new ones. I liked Parisian and Rubberstamp the best.
thank you, perfect fonts!
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!!
Im a fan of the Babel logo..
Wow these are really great gallery of beautiful vintage fonts..good thing they are free downloadable..thanks for sharing good stuff :)
good collection thanks for sharing it
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.
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 :)
Great classic fonts! thanks for posting it..
There are really great :) about to try out Rubberstamp now
Wow, you nailed this. Great list.
thanks! your way to display these is so inspiring..
Thanks Much – a lovely collection!
One of the best collections and most helpful posts I’ve come across recently. Hats off and sincere thanks, Shawn! : )
Good Job. Fonts presented beautifully!
awesome collection of fonts thanks for sharing it
Great collection! I just grabbed Fletcher Gothic for an art project and I’m sure to come back for more. <3
Fantastic. Thanks for saving my evening – and my sisters wedding invitation :)
Thanks for compiling these Shawn, Carnivalee works perfectly for a project i am working on! :)
Fantastic collection, I did not have the majority of these, so I grabbed a bunch! I’m off to share your post on my facebook page now!
excellent fonts…thanks for sharing
this is absolutely brilliant! thank you very very so much
What an extremely awesome list! Thanks so much for posting!
Bobel font link is dead, can be found here though:
http://www.fonts2u.com/bobel.font
My choice is “Sesame” for being neat in style.
All three weights plus the Open Type feturaes (contextual alternates, swash, etc) work for me; I downloaded it when I posted this last month. If something isn’t working, you can contact the Lost Type Co-op and I bet they can help you.
I used bellerose for the typography of my logo! It’s a great font. (just don’t use it if you are an SEO consultant.. jk)
Great job. I was looking for a 40s font and the tall deco looks ideal.
Life Saver! ;-)
I love these fonts. I’m doing a sign for my wall at home (DIY craft) and I’d love to find two of these in stencil format. Do you know where I can get them? I’m certainly willing to buy them. I am a newbie at the creative thing so no free hand for me. Thanks
Thank you for sharing!!
Brilliant!!
loved bobel! thank you so much <3
Thxxxxxx you for sharing
very nice font and god for logo create
so beautiful thank you
I like the Titania style the best possibly. Plan to pass this around, so really good looks on it.
Thank you so much!!
Thank you, thank you! This is just what I was looking for! Great roundup!!
lovely fonts, even lovelier backgrounds. where oh where can i go to get them. cheers
Beautiful! We actually used Seaside Resort and Stony Island as display typefaces in a recent book; glad to see them reunited on this list!
i love this fonts, i can imagine many many ways in which i could use them in different situations and for different purposes and needs. Even if, i’m sticking with Sandwich, my favourite cause it’s at the same time retro and fresh, original and nostalgic. I really appreciate this collection, thank you
Very nice font. Good for creating logo. Lovely looking. Thanks for this kinds of post.
Hamburger Heaven is cool.
I’m searching for a 70’s Tool Box (Snap-On, MAC, Matco Tools) Font.
The big First letter
Burger is clean though. Good site bro. Thank you
what is the font used for first banner saying ” RETRO FONT “?
I guess I’ll never find the one I want from my old computer that crashed. I’ve been through thousands of fonts looking for it. I made labels for all my clear kitchen canisters with it but don’t remember the name. I thought it looked like a 40s font like you see on Poirot TV scenes.
hi what font is the banner? (:
Would lover to know which font you used for the header “Retro Fonts”
how to download?
Really great fonts for that authentic look
Good one!
Very Lovely fonts.