Futura is the oldest font we’ve covered, designed all the way back in 1927 by Paul Renner. Since then it has been used by a range of big brands, in both logos and marketing materials
One of the most recognizable uses of Futura is the Supreme logo. A simple, but memorable red background and the brand name overlaid in Futura Bold Italic.
Futura comes pre-installed with macOS as a system font. That means if you simply defined the font in your CSS, even without any additional font loaders or scripts, it would display perfectly on Apple products.
Unfortunately for Apple, macOS has less than 10% market share. Which means the rest of your visitors would see something other than Futura.
There are different services you can use to ensure Futura displays consistently across operating systems. There is however a cost associated with those services – around $25 a month.
Google Fonts Alternatives
To avoid the costs associated with using Futura, here are three great alternatives from Google Fonts that are completely free to use, both for personal and commercial applications.
Didact Gothic
According to its designer, each character in the Didact Gothic Font represents the form it’s most commonly shown in elementary schools. Didact is very similar to Futura – but
Nunito Sans
Originally designed by Vernon Adams, then later expanded to include more weights by Jacques Le Bailly. One key difference between Nunito Sans and Futura is the tail on ‘j’.
Hind
Hind is a clear cut font specifically designed for user interfaces. The flat endings on each character share similarities with Futura. Hind features five weights: Light, Regular, Medium, Semibold, Bold.
