Sophisticated Serifs.
Curated by the Monotype Studio.
Monotype Fonts.
Serifs, the short cross-strokes at the beginning and end of a letterform, originated from ancient Rome, where letters were chiseled into stone following the guidance of painted letters, which always flared at the end of the brushstroke. Serifs have many uses, including for text in print products, as they are more legible than sans serifs, especially at small sizes, and to create a specific look and feel for a brand. Monotype Fonts has options for every serif design need; here are a few samples from our serif inventory.
Display
Juana
Juana, a display serif from Latinotype, is the result of a journey to self-discovery and part of a continuous exploration process. The font, based on the Jazmín typeface, features a more developed design while still maintaining the essence of the original version. The extreme contrast between thick and thin strokes gives Juana a harmonic and stylish look. Juana is perfectly suited for editorial design, branding, magazines, logos, headings and more.
Gazpacho
Designed by Santi Rey and published by Monotype, Gazpacho is inspired by the serif typefaces used in editorial media in the 70s and 80s. The morphology of the letterforms makes this typeface ideal for display purposes like logos and big, bold headlines. Also, thanks to its large x-height it works perfectly on headlines with tight leading. On the other hand, its high contrast and very simple and recognizable shapes makes it highly readable, so it also works on small, long texts.
Amarga
The inspiration behind Amarga comes from the bitter taste of coffee. Amarga, from Latinotype, is a serif typeface with high contrast and pointed terminals, composed of 9 weights that range from a very heavy black version to a thin version plus italics, with a total of 18 fonts. Amarga has a great visual impact and is perfect for display uses in editorial design, web, branding, posters, and many others.
Ardina Display
Ardina Display, from DSType, is a soft and warm news typeface initially designed for the Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Notícias, then later repurposed for the DSType library with an extended set of characters. The font has slightly narrow proportions but a nice x-height – the right typeface for a seriuod newspaper that intends to achieve a very contemporary feeling. The foundry also offers separate Ardina families for text and title.
Slab
Apéro
Blending the best of multiple worlds, Apéro, by Resistenza, is a cheerful handwritten font family composed of 5 slab weights, 2 slab effects, and a sans serif. Handmade, friendly and classy, this family is inspired by a favorite tradition, “L’Aperitivo”, in which friends gather before dinner for refreshments. Handwritten to create a friendly and human feeling, the font’s letterforms are designed to reflect the charming mood of this event, while the sans serif has been inspired by some lettering found in old liquor labels.
Scharf
Scharf, created by The Northern Block, is a sturdy serif of eight weights with matching true italics. Accurate serif details are carefully drawn to allow improvements to readability and further enhance the fonts’ fluid and dynamic personality.
TT Rationalist
TT Rationalist, from Typetype, is a slab serif typeface that is both functional and original. Slabs are typically characterized by massive rectangular serifs, but in TT Rationalist they are trapezoidal and refined, which makes them look modern. TT Rationalist Black is perfect for headlines, especially on posters, and works well with Light styles in TT Norms® Pro and TT Commons Pro. TT Rationalist works well for both headings and text arrays, and looks especially pleasing in printed production (books, magazines, brochures).
Attica
Attica, from Resistenza, is a slab typeface with inverted contrast that was inspired by Caslon’s Italian type and by Aldo Novarese’s Estro, published by the Turinese foundry Nebiolo. The font was created with the goal of developing a wood type typeface. The entire alphabet was designed with a flat long brush, slowly finishing the entire character set. Attica also contains a large set of icons and dingbats.
Regan Slab
A precision cut slab serif typeface, The Northern Block’s Regan Slab features simple curves combined with sharp angles to provide a readable font with subtle characteristics. Regan Slab is ideally suited to wide range of applications including magazines, newspapers and handheld devices.
Semi-Serifs
Harmonique
Designed by Paulo Goode and published by Monotype, Harmonique is an incised serif typeface designed for both text and display. Harmonique’s low contrast forms have the appeal of a humanist sans serif typeface. Its subtly flared terminals evoke the craft and skill of a signwriter’s steady hand, creating an authentic and pleasing aesthetic. Harmonique Display is more calligraphic in its structure – as if drawn by a wide-nibbed pen. This style is accentuated by aggressively barbed serifs and chiselled arcs in its counters and bowls. These strong characteristics help to define a flamboyant, confident style that will provide impact and flair to your headlines, titles and identity designs.
Pseudonym
Pseudonym, designed by Paulo Goode and published by Monotype, is a low-contrast, subtly-flared serif available in four weights across three styles in both roman and italic. It is a font with incisive flared serifs that are combined with the strength and solidity of modern grotesque faces, resulting in great presence, style, and legibility – perfect for use in logos and distinctive branding typography.
Neoclassical
Walbaum
The Walbaum family, designed by Charles Nix, Carl Crossgrove, and Juan Villanueva, is a modern serif design that can be used in a wide variety of placements from micro caption text to massive headlines. Where other moderns preach austerity, Walbaum projects warmth—making it ideal for brands seeking a large type family that blends high style and approachability.
Old Style
Audela
Surpassing traditional Antiqua, Fontfabric’s collaborative font family Audela began in 2018 as an intern project, and slowly shaped into a full-fledged elegant serif typeface of 14 styles. Three years later, Audela is internally regarded as a breaker of limits earning its name from the French “au-delà,” meaning “beyond.” This popular font features sharp serifs, flowing letterforms, advanced OpenType features, Extended Latin and Cyrillic support, to name a few.
TT Jenevers
TT Jenevers is a modern serif with Dutch flavor, featuring the details specific to Dutch serifs such as the asymmetrical shape of serifs and an irregular slant of ovals. Both the lowercase and uppercase characters are large, making it a good display typeface, while the big half-ellipse of the lowercase characters does not allow the letters to stick, enabling the font to be used in text arrays. The family offers two dissimilar stylistic sets, which allow the option for the font to appear either handwritten or futuristic.
Nostalgia
Brought to us by Resistenza, Nostalgia is a serif font with a retro feeling. Echoing the 70’s, in which rounded and bold serifs were used to add a spark of life and modernity to brands, Nostalgia draws the positive mood of these nostalgic letterforms with softened edges and rounded terminations for a more contemporary approach. The family includes an extended set of alternates and swashes specifically designed to create stylish lettering compositions, as well as an endless collection of flowers and decorative forms to boost the vintage mood of any project. The result is a very versatile font that works in a wide range request, from logos, headlines, branding, magazine design to wedding cards, poster and so much more.
Evoque
Evoque is a humanist serif type family, designed for both text and display purposes. Its appearance is crisp and modern while echoing a classical Garamond heritage. The inspiration for Evoque came after reminiscing over Apple’s advertising of the eighties and nineties that utilized incredibly tightly-spaced headlines set in Apple Garamond. A number of swash alternates and discretionary ligatures enhance Evoque, giving title and branding designs more flair and personality.
Masqualero
The Masqualero™ family is a versatile solution for a deep and broad range of applications. In large sizes, the heavier designs are dark and handsome, while the lighter weights are charming and friendly in text copy. Like the legendary jazz song of the same name by Miles Davis, Masqualero is haunting and sophisticated, while transforming the music into typography: the flair of Miles’ electric funk and rock sounds, the sparkly smooth finish and serifs like trumpet bells, and the sweet lyricism and the tone and clarity of Miles’ horn. Masqualero is a luxurious typeface for exquisite typography - to sell diamonds, boats, real estate and champagne.
Condensed Serifs
Norman
Norman, an elegant and fashion forward typeface, was designed by Resistenza. This condensed and high contrast serif font is based on expansion, giving a sense of self confidence. The oblique ax was specifically added to obtain a contemporary and innovative sense. Norman is a young and idealist font with a distinctive sense of style. The font is best suited for big titles, magazine, editorial purposes, and display.
Transitional
TT Ramillas
TT Ramillas, from TypeType, is a fully reconsidered high contrast transitional serif, perfectly adapted to modern realities and requirements. The visual features of TT Ramillas are high contrast, small flared serifs, variable slope of ovals, open aperture of signs, contrasting thin nodules, and no drops. The font has a characteristic flame-like element in the lowercase Cyrillic letter б and a bright «tongue» in the letters Ээ, ductile legs in Кк, Жж, and Яя, and a very interesting upper terminal in the letter a. Perfect for use in magazines,fashion industry, and consumer goods and services, TT Ramillas is versatile and suitable for use both in headings and in text arrays. The typeface is also available in a variable version.
Singel
Fontfabric’s Singel is a neoclassical serif with semi-condensed proportions. As a contemporary interpretation, this typeface combines the rationalist modulated stroke with an elegant silhouette and crisp serifs. The overall splendid appearance of Singel, completed with a full set of Small Capitals and true form of italics makes it perfect for any luxurious and graceful design.
Clarendon
Cotford
Cotford is a celebration of shape, form, and attention to detail. It is a soulful, contemporary serif designed to meet 21st century needs and take creatives to new places through type. Cotford is at once layered with references to classic typeface designs and taps into current trends and future possibilities in font technology – a “pop serif” for the modern digital age.
Robust and versatile, Cotford embodies quality, consistency, and efficient performance in both static and variable, allowing you to tinker and tweak until you find the perfect style for a wordmark, editorial layout, headline, user interface, animation, or responsive experience.
Canturiana
Canturiana, from Latinotype, has a romantic and musical air, with curves that seduce, conquer, and hypnotize the reader. Its letters have a resounding lightness and a very earthly presence that is complemented by a certain aerial, spiritual expressiveness. Canturiana follows the 1920s Canterbury style, but creates a modern, digital version that is functional yet adapted to today’s more modern visual communication styles. Its elegant art deco essence provides it with a unique and heterodox imprint that works in very different media, giving them distinction and depth.