Web Development: The Best Fonts for Magazine Designs (& Famous Magazine Fonts!)

The Best Fonts for Magazine Designs (& Famous Magazine Fonts!)

Looking for magazine fonts to match your next editorial design project? This article covers everything you need to know about typography for editorial design.

When it comes to editorial design, choosing the right magazine fonts can be a challenge. Finding the right font to best suit your editorial project can make or break the interest from your readership.

In this article, we have a great roundup of amazing fonts that will come in handy for your next editorial design project. If you've ever wondered what font a magazine uses, we've included some of the most renowned magazine fonts out there. This list is divided into different magazine genres, so be sure to keep an eye out for the best free font downloads in each section!

In a hurry? We’ve got amazing magazine font styles over at Envato Elements and GraphicRiver. Go check them out!

Best Fonts for Magazine Design

If you’ve ever worked in editorial design, you have probably struggled with finding fonts that are clear and portray the right mood for your magazine.

First and foremost, consider the brand personality of the magazine as a whole. Every font has a personality, and that's a big part of brand design. Make sure that the font you choose resonates with what the brand and magazine stand for.

Communication is the purpose of typography. The right font will speak to your readership, so choose a font that will connect with them at an emotional level. Consider the context and how the font will function.

Make sure the first boxes you check off are readability and legibility. Try not to sacrifice functionality for the looks of the magazine. Every font has a purpose—it's just a matter of finding the perfect one for the project.

Tips for Choosing Fonts for Magazine Design

There are many factors involved when it comes to choosing the right typeface. We've put together some tips to consider when you're in the process of selecting fonts for magazines:

Font style: consider the emotional attributes embedded in a font and how they relate to your readership. Consider the brand itself and how you’ll be using the font of choice.
Font combinations: Find the perfect pairing of a serif font and a sans serif. This combo will help create a nice texture on the page and hierarchy to set apart different sections of the magazine.
Create contrast: Choose fonts that are different enough to create a strong contrast. This will help guide the reader through the magazine.
Create emphasis: If you’re working on a big publication with main stories, choose different display fonts that go with the theme of the content. This will help set the story apart from the rest of the magazine.
Legibility and readability: the top priority for body copy is that it’s read with clarity. Choose fonts that are easy and enjoyable to read. Try not to get too experimental with the arrangement when it comes to kerning and tracking.
Test your design: It's always good to test your font choices before using them. Use them on a fictional layout and print a spread to see how comfortably you can read the copy text. For instance, as a rule of thumb, the font size for an A5 magazine is between 9 and 11 points. This should be a good starting point.

Best Fonts for Sports Magazines

Rockster Casual Sans

The Thrasher magazine font is one of the most iconic in the world of skateboarding. Rockster is a great dupe for this magazine letter font—while it isn't exactly the same, it evokes the same feeling. This casual sans serif has that handwritten and laid-back vibe.

Uniclo

Sports magazines are all about being dynamic. Uniclo is a great font that just looks amazing in its italic form. This is one of the best fonts for magazine covers because the font is chunky and substantial. This is a great font if you are looking to create some impact on newsstands!

Forever Freedom

Tall fonts have a way of looking super dynamic and fast, especially if they are in italics. This modern and striking magazine font is great for a magazine cover or to use as a headline in a story. It evokes speed and is sure to captivate your audience.

Maqin Larisa Display Font

Designing an old-style sports magazine? Maqin Larisa is a display font that resembles baseball-style typefaces with its geometric shape. This magazine letter font is suitable as a magazine headline for a baseball-themed article.

Blackheat Display Font

Energetic and strong, this font will make your sports magazine look like you mean serious business. This magazine letter font pack includes four styles and includes a version that is just the outline stroke. The fonts also include multilingual support so you're ready to translate your content into different languages.

Best Fonts for Music Magazines

Signia Pro

The British NME magazine is no longer in print but has been around since the 50s—now it only exists online. The NME magazine font is a geometric sans serif, and Signia Pro is a great dupe for it, especially if you are looking for the best font for magazine articles. If you are looking for the best free font options, a really close alternative is Montserrat from Google Fonts.

Funkies

If you are looking for retro music-themed fonts, Funkies evokes that 70s feeling. This magazine letter font is bright, and it's really close to the Rolling Stone magazine logo. The font includes many stylistic alternates, so you can add swashes to any of the characters. If you're looking for a free option for the Rolling Stone magazine font, check out Royal Acidbath.

Electric Vibe

Specializing in a specific music genre? Electric Vibe is the best font for magazine articles. This natural brush pen font is based on fast handwriting and includes a combination of uppercase and lowercase glyphs.

SoundBlast

If you're looking for a multipurpose font, SoundBlast is an all caps brush font appropriate for magazine articles. The font has a single brush stroke style throughout all the characters. This display magazine letter font is also suitable for branding and poster design.

Grunge!

The metal and rock & roll music genres have a grungy and laid-back personality. Handwritten fonts best convey the unfinished and unpolished vibe that these music genres always stood for. Grunge! is suitable as a magazine cover font, and this magazine font style won't let you go unnoticed.

Best Fonts for Journalism Magazines

Saint Capital Modern Serif Typeface

This playful modern serif font is a great alternative for the New York magazine font. The characters have a classic line, with a twist of minimalist design. This elegant font is one of the best fonts for magazine design because it's so versatile. If you're looking for free fonts, a good alternative is DM Serif Text from Google Fonts.

BW Surco

Journalism magazine fonts need to be a little more refined as they need to be highly legible and readable for the audience. BW Surco has a fresh take on the classic humanist fonts. The rounded shapes evoke friendliness and an easy-going vibe, with just the right amount of seriousness. This is one of the best magazine fonts for body text because it's highly legible at smaller point sizes.

Mondia

If you're looking to brand a journalism magazine, Mondia is an amazing choice. This contemporary font includes a high contrast between thick and thin strokes, so it lends it a touch of style to its personality. This is the best font for magazines with lots of text content because it was designed to work both as display and body copy.

ELMODER Regular

Here's an iconic font suitable for branding a journalism magazine. This super contemporary magazine letter font evokes an elegant personality. While this isn't your typical sans serif font, ELMODER possesses a seriousness that makes it suitable for a journalism magazine.

Pioggia

If your journalism magazine has a younger target market, Pioggia is a modern and playful serif font. Lots of attention went into designing this font with beautiful details, so you can play with the alternate characters and explore the many options. This versatile typeface is one of the best fonts for magazine covers.

Best Fonts for Fashion/Celebrity Magazines

Kenjo

Font magazines with a high contrast between thick and thin strokes evoke elegance and high fashion, and that's exactly what Kenjo does. If you're looking for Vogue magazine font styles, this font is a great option. It has Art Deco and Japanese influence, and it's the best font for a magazine headline that's stylish and elegant. If you're looking for a free font that looks similar to the Vogue magazine font, Playfair from Google Fonts is a good option.

Brioche

The Harper's Bazaar magazine font is also similar to Vogue's. This fashion magazine also uses a font that has high contrast between thick and thin strokes. Brioche is a classic modern serif with many alternates that make it looks super stylish. Otama e.p. from Font Squirrel is the same Didone style font as the Bazaar magazine font.

BW Glenn Slab

Bw Glenn Slab is a strong typeface that evokes confidence and a strong personality, ready to stand up to anything. This magazine font is highly legible because the characters have very open shapes. The People magazine font is a similar slab serif magazine font, at least for its logo, so Bw Glenn Slab would be a great substitute. One of the best People magazine free font options is Slabo from Google Fonts.

Style Clubs Serif

This single style serif font is one of the best fonts for a magazine design. This typeface includes an italic version to emphasize text. This is one of the best serif font fonts for magazines because it's perfect for branding a magazine, to use as a magazine headline, and even for short body text.

Elegant Karin

If you're looking to portray a stylish vintage flair, Elegant Karin is the best font for magazine headlines. This minimalist magazine font style includes beautiful ligatures and glyphs to choose from that can add a special touch to any magazine headline.

Gorgeous

Didone style fonts are super sophisticated, and so is Gorgeous. This magazine font is perfect for anything fashion-related. Use this font as a headline on a story, and you'll see how it instantly makes the page stylish and elegant.

Best Fonts for Lifestyle Magazines

Giga Sans

Giga Sans is a super-clean geometric magazine font. The best fonts for magazine headlines are strong and powerful. Giga Sans is one of those, you can mix and match the nine weights included in with this pack. If you are looking for the Essence magazine font dupe, this is a great option!

Baille Simpson

Looking for a specific typeface for a magazine article? Baille Simpson is a modern brush magazine font that's versatile and chic. Use it for magazine articles or as a magazine cover font. Since this style is flexible, this magazine font can also be used on logos, books, and even packaging design!

Girly Moods Script

If you want to add a feminine touch to your project, this handwritten script font is the one. The strokes on each character flow naturally, making it look very authentic and not computer-generated. While this is a great magazine font, it has many purposes and can be used on books, logos, and even branding.

Flow

Flow is one of the best fonts for magazine articles. This OpenType font comes in an SVG format that allows you to access all the different layers of the font. This oil-paint font is experimental and perfect if you want to highlight a specific article in your magazine design.

Magnetico

Looking to emphasize certain parts of your magazine design? Magnetico is a modern font that can help you take your page layout to the next level. This italic sans serif has a very laid-back and relaxed personality that is key in a lifestyle magazine.

Best Fonts for Film Magazines

Fonseca

Fonts inspired by the early 20th Century and Art Deco are synonymous with glamour and movies. Empire is a film magazine that uses a geometric font on its cover. Fonseca is a perfect dupe, mimicking that old-time and elegance feel. This substitute Empire magazine font download includes eight weights with their respective italic versions.

Suburbia

This Saul Bass inspired magazine cutout font is made up of geometric shapes and has a casual appearance. Saul Bass was famous for his title sequences in movies, so this font is perfect for a magazine project. This is one of the best fonts for a magazine article because Saul Bass is so well known, so it would instantly communicate the film quality you're trying to convey.

Norman

Norman is a vintage font in a handwritten brush style. The characters look very inky and heavy, so it's perfect if you're looking to put the spotlight on a specific article on a magazine. Mix and match lowercase and uppercase characters and explore the glyphs and swashes to emphasize certain words.

Zuume

This high-impact display font is sharp and evokes action for any magazine layout. The characters have a very graphic quality to them because of the heaviness that makes this magazine font perfect for a cover. Create eye-catching cover lines, and your magazine will stand out on newsstands.

Carbon

Carbon is a super-clean font suitable for magazine covers and headlines. The sans serif has a modern take on Art Deco fonts, and the result is very futuristic. Movies are all about transporting us to another time, and this font can do exactly that in a magazine.

Best Body Text Fonts for Magazines

Bw Nista Grotesk

Nista Grotesk is a clean sans serif font with small, quirky details. Inspired by the famous functional Swiss-style, Bw Nista Grotesk has a neutral voice, and it's one of the best fonts for magazine text. It's highly legible, and with seven weights, you're sure to find great combinations to fit your content.

BW Quinta

Smart and professional-looking Bw Quinta delivers content clearly and efficiently. This sans serif is the best font for magazine body text because it's highly legible. The characters feature slightly round corners, conveying an approachable feel that other sans serif fonts can't easily transmit.

Articulat CF

Articulat is another Swiss-inspired font that strives for clarity, legibility, and functionality. This contemporary sans serif font was built from scratch, and it includes nine weights with their respective italics. Hands down, this sans serif is one of the best body text fonts for magazines.

Addington CF

If you're looking for a classic and beautiful serif font, Addington is the best font for magazine body text. The font is practical and versatile because it's based on traditional serifs. It's definitely my go-to serif font and works for large and smaller text.

Madelin Serif

Madelin is an adaptable serif font suitable for body copy. It comes in five weights, and the Regular version is highly legible at smaller point sizes. The heavier weights are perfect for magazine articles as headlines. The set is one of the best serif fonts for magazines, and it also comes with a web font kit if you want to take your project online.

You're Ready for Your Next Project

This list features amazing resources for your next editorial design project. Choosing magazine fonts is not easy, but with the tips we provided, you're set up for success. You learned what font magazines use, and we gave you a few free font options and lots of great assets from Envato Elements. If you're looking for inspiration for your next editorial design project, be sure to also check out GraphicRiver. There are lots of display fonts and body text fonts for you to explore!

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