Old school font is often associated with the retro or vintage style, which typically refers to design elements from the 1920s to the 1980s. The specific era represented by an old school font can vary, depending on the design and intended use. They can be used in various designs such as posters, signs, logos, packaging and more to add a sense of nostalgia, tradition, and history and to provide a sense of timeline, texture and depth to your design.
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Characteristics of Old school Fonts
- Evokes nostalgia and a sense of the past
- Features bold, thick lines and serifs, and often has a hand-drawn or vintage look
- May also include ornate details such as swirls or flourishes
How I picked Free Old School Fonts for you
Finding the ideal old school font for your business can be a challenging task with the vast array of options available. To make your search easier, we’ve scoured the internet and carefully selected 37 of the best free old school fonts based on factors such as design, popularity, trendiness, number of downloads, and quality. Our exclusive list of old school fonts will provide you with a range of options to choose from without having to break the bank.
Let’s explore the list together and find the perfect font for your business.
1. Varsity (Unknown License)
Brøderbund Software presents a striking and bold block-style font, Varsity, that is sure to grab attention. This TrueType uppercase font comes with and without borders and offers multilingual support, making it perfect for using in display items such as t-shirts, letterman jackets, stationery, mugs, and other print-on-demand products.
2. Freshman (100% Free)
“Freshman” by William Boyd is a free, bold-serif font with a classic, old-school style. It includes uppercase letters, numerals, and common symbols. Perfect for creating attention-grabbing designs on jackets, jumpers, banners, posters, and more.
3. Colleged (Free for Personal Use)
“Colleged” by ImageX is one of the free, old school fonts that features a faded, washed-out appearance. Each letter is a bold, wedge-shaped block. This font is perfect for creating vintage-inspired designs on posters, banners, flyers, brochures, and any project that wants to evoke a sense of nostalgia.
4. Emilio 20 (100% Free)
“Emilio 20” is the updated version of “Emilio 19” by Adien Gunarta. It features a bold appearance with contrasting thin and thick borders. The uppercase letters and numbers are striking, making it ideal for letterman jackets and any print-on-demand items. This complete free font is perfect to give a bold statement on any designs.
5. Nexa Rust Slab (Free for Personal Use)
“Nexa Rust Slab” by Fontfabric is a unique and popular font that embodies a vintage, rusty aesthetic. It is perfect for creating book covers, wall posters, banners, flyers, and brochures that require a touch of the past. The font is only available for free for personal use, with a commercial license required for its use in business or for-profit projects.
6. Mom (Free for Commercial Use)
The Mom font by Rafa Miguel is one of the intriguing old school fonts that features letters made of thin lines and blocks, each with a unique cut-out design. Available in both outline and half-black styles, it is an ideal choice for vintage-inspired projects such as movie posters, book covers, banners, branding, and marketing materials.
7. Supporter (Free for Personal Use)
If you are looking for unique old school fonts, Billy Argel’s Supporter is a good option for you to consider. It’s an eye-catching color font with letters that appear to be on fire. It gives a unique retro-vintage aesthetic to your projects, making it suitable for branding and marketing for automobiles, food, and logotypes, among others. Please note that this font is only available for personal use.
8. Friday Night Lights (Free for Personal Use)
The Friday Night Lights font by KC Fonts is a striking and lively font. With its bold, thick lines filled with tiny dots, it mimics the appearance of actual light reflections. This captivating font is ideal for a wide range of design projects, including wearables, banners, posters, brochures, and more.
9. Restora (Free for Personal Use)
Restora by Nasir Udin is a timeless Roman Serif font that exudes a classic, book-like aesthetic. Its distinguished style makes it a perfect choice for display, evoking the nostalgia of 1970s and 1980s publishing. With over 700 characters and a vast array of alternative characters, Restora offers a wide range of possibilities for your design projects.
10. Haarlem Deco (Free for Personal Use)
Haarlem Decos by Twicolabs Fontdation is an all-caps, semi-condensed sans-serif typeface that features an art-deco touch. The font evokes a classic, retro, and vintage aesthetic, making it suitable for various designs such as posters, book covers, and branding materials. The inspiration for the font comes from old Euro-American signages and advertisements.
11. Intro (Free for Commercial Use)
Introducing Intro by Fontfabric, a powerful and sophisticated inline geometric font that showcases the perfect balance of elegance and simplicity. With 72 unique styles to choose and purchase from, including 3 options that are available for commercial use without any cost. This font allows you to create legible and visually striking texts, headlines, books, banners, and much more.
12. Lazer 84 (Free for Personal Use)
Introducing Lazer 84 by Sunrise Digital, a retro font that takes inspiration from the iconic 1980s arcade shops. With its unique combination of a brushed style and neon-inspired design, this font comes to life with beautiful brushwork. This old school font features uppercase letters, numerals, and supports multiple languages. Perfect for creating eye-catching posters, Lazer 84 will transport you back to the 80s with its nostalgic and bold aesthetic.
13. Nature Spirit (free for personal use)
Nature Spirit by Alex Joganic is a vintage font that exudes an adventurous spirit. With two distinct styles, Rough and Regular, each with alternates, this font is perfect for adding a touch of nature and nostalgia to your designs. A must-have in your collection of free old school fonts, Nature Spirit is perfect for creating posters, book covers, branding materials and more. Add a natural and rugged feel to your designs with Nature Spirit.
14. WestSide (Free for Commercial Use)
Westside, a font by Artimasa Studio, is a tribute to the poster designs and illustrations of the 1980s. With its block style and bold, sharp edges, this font exudes a strong and striking visual impact. The unconventional shaped letters give it a unique and playful touch. Best of all, Westside is available for free for both commercial and personal use.
15. Rousseau Deco (Free for Commercial Use)
Rousseau Deco, designed by Mariano Diez, is a jazzy art déco sans-serif font that exudes vintage elegance reminiscent of a fine-aged barrel of whiskey. With its unique style, this font is sure to make your projects visually captivating. The font also includes multilingual characters, making it versatile for a wide range of projects. It exudes luxury, glamour, and exuberance, making it perfect for branding and design projects that require a touch of opulence. Best of all, it is available for free commercial use.
16. Palm Canyon Drive (free for personal use)
Palm Canyon Drive by Retro Supply Co. is a highly-regarded monoline script typeface, drawing inspiration from vintage matchbook covers, postcards, and Hollywood. It evokes the relaxed atmosphere of a seaside beach, complete with swaying palm trees. And boasts impeccable composition and expert craftsmanship in each letter. The font comes in three weights, with one of them available for free use.
17. Stiff Staff (free for personal use)
Stiff Staff font is a fantastic decorative retro font created by Borislav Petrov. It features crisp lines and unique angles that give the characters a bold and striking appearance. This font conveys an assertive and confident personality that is hard to match. It can be used for various design projects, such as headlines, posters, packaging, and branding, to add a retro touch to the overall design. Also suitable for creating eye-catching and memorable typography for advertisements, book covers for both digital and print design.
18. Noir (Free for Personal Use)
Noir font is a stunning retro font designed by Matthias Guggisberg. It offers a touch of elegance to any design project, and it’s perfect for adding a vintage feel to your work. The font is a sans-serif font family that includes 12 different styles. The geometric structure of the characters makes the font unique and gives it a timeless feel. Noir font includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numerals, and special characters, which makes it a versatile font that can be used for headlines, posters, branding & advertising, and many more.
19. Paralines (Free for Commercial Use)
The Paralines font by Lewis Latham is a typeface that features an inline design and a sans serif style. It is widely associated with the 1980s aesthetic that is prevalent in popular media, such as the TV show Stranger Things and the Atari brand. The font has a unique retrofuturistic vibe, which combines elements of nostalgia and modernity, making it an ideal choice for designs that convey a sense of sentimentality, such as those used in an arcade bar setting.
20. Ailerons (Free for Personal Use)
Ailerons, a font created by Agonz Oliveira, is a sleek and stylish typeface that is inspired by the aircraft models of the 1940s. The font features a thin and tall sans serif style that is both elegant and modern. Its clean lines and edges evoke a sense of flying above majestic mountain ranges, making it an ideal choice for designs related to aviation, travel, and adventure.
Ailerons font is free for personal use, it can be used for various design projects such as posters, brochures, and websites. With its timeless look, Ailerons is perfect for any design project that wants to reminisce about adventure.
21. LOT (Free for Personal Use)
The LOT font, designed by Svetoslav Simov, is a typeface that pays homage to the stylized block lettering of the 1970s and 1980s. It is particularly reminiscent of the lettering seen in advertising, posters, and magazine design of that era. The font has been updated to make it more suitable for a modern audience, while still maintaining its retro aesthetic. The result is a striking and unique font that can give your work a bold and distinctive appearance. It can be used in various print and digital design projects, such as headlines, posters, and branding.
22. Say it Fat (Free for Personal Use)
Say It Fat, a font designed by Timo Titzmann, is a slab typeface that features bold and chunky letterforms with a retro aesthetic. The font is ideal for creating eye-catching designs such as posters, banners, brochures, and headlines. Its unique retro style gives designs a timeless and distinctive look that will make them stand out. It is a great font choice to create memorable designs that will capture the attention of the audience.
23. Monthoers (Free for Commercial Use)
Monthoers font, created by graphic designer Angga Suwista, is the latest version of the Rochoes typeface. It is free for both personal and commercial use. This retro-styled typeface is reminiscent of the typography seen in 90s movies and black and white cinema. It instantly takes us back in the past and is perfect for creating designs with a vintage aesthetic. Whether you’re working on a movie poster, a brochure, or a website, Monthoers font will give your designs a unique and timeless look that will make them stand out.
24. Obake (Free for Personal Use)
Obake, a font created by Ezeqviel Ergo, is a unique typeface that exudes a rough and rugged aesthetic. The tall and narrow letterforms with straight edges give it a bold and striking appearance, making it perfect for header designs and headlines. The font is a condensed sans serif with a retro drop shadow that brings a vintage feel to life. The addition of the drop shadow adds a dynamic and eye-catching effect, making it stand out in any design.
Obake is a versatile font that can be used in design projects, such as posters, brochures, and websites. It is available for free for personal projects, making it a great option for those looking for a unique and budget-friendly font choice.
25. Far Out (Free for Commercial Use)
Far Out, an old school display font crafted by the talented Gaby Bacani. This stylized semi-serif display font takes inspiration from the type of the 1960s and exudes a retro charm. With its unique petal-like letterforms and versatile uppercase and lowercase letters, Far Out is the perfect font for modern social media branding. Whether you’re a small business or a creative individual, this font is a great choice to add a touch of personality and distinction to your projects.
26. Whisholder (Free for Commercial Use)
Experience the elegance and charm of the Victorian era with Whisholder font, a vintage font carefully crafted by Creatype Studio. This font is inspired by the signs, product packaging, and labels of that era.With its ornate and decorative style, Whisholder is perfect for branding projects, whiskey labels, old-fashioned stationery, and more. The added ornaments and vectors give the font a unique and versatile look that will make any project stand out.
27. Canter (Free for Personal Use)
Introducing Canter, a capital font designed by New York-based creative Christopher J. Lee. This condensed font is available in 6 different weights. The different weights make it easy to match the font to the tone and style of your project, whether you’re looking for something sleek and modern or classic and vintage. With its retro aesthetic, Canter is perfect for creating titles, headlines, posters, banners, and other display purposes. Canter’s condensed style gives it a strong and powerful look, while its bold and shadow features give the font depth and dimension, making it stand out from the crowd. Free for personal use.
28. Alt Retro (Free for Commercial Use)
The Alt Retro font by Andreas Leonidou is a unique and creative take on a retro style, with a distinct alternative twist. The repetitive stripes in roundness of the font create a mesmerizing and hallucinating effect, adding an extra layer of visual interest and intrigue to any design project it is used in. This unique feature sets it apart from other retro fonts and makes it a great choice for projects, banners, posters, etc. that want to make a memorable statement. It is also completely free for commercial use.
29. Rispa (Free for Personal Use)
Konrad Bednarski’s Rispa font is a retro-inspired typeface that draws inspiration from the designer’s hometown. The font’s vintage and nostalgic aesthetic gives it a timeless appeal. The Rispa font comes in three weights – light, regular and bold – and features all caps and multilingual support, making it a versatile choice for any project – clothing designs such as t-shirts, hats, jackets, including promotional materials such as posters, flyers, etc.
30. Ansley Display (Free for Commercial Use)
The Ansley Display font, designed by Kady Jesko, is a perfect choice for adding a unique and distinctive flair to your headlines. The font is designed with a slab serif style which was popular in the 19th century and early 20th century. The thick and blocky serifs that are typically the same width as the main strokes of the letters.
The slab serif retro design features six different styles: light, regular, bold, black, inline, and outline. These styles give you a lot of options to choose from and allow you to use the font in a variety of ways. This simple yet striking font is available for both personal and commercial use and is entirely free.
31. BradFord (Free for Personal Use)
WT Bradford is a font created by Winston Type Co. It has a vintage feel reminiscent of early 20th-century trade cards, circulars, and signage. It is suitable for signs, branding, and labeling and can add a touch of history and tradition to a project. The font is available for free for both personal use only and includes capital letters and numbers in a classic style. It is inspired by traditional sign-writing and packaging from the early 1900s.
32. Labor Union (Free for Personal Use)
The classic serif font called Labor Union by McLetters HAND-MADE TYPE was influenced by signs. Signs that were displayed in the 1950s and 1960s, during labor strikes. It is a display typeface with all capitals. Free to use for both personal and professional purposes. You can use it for attention-grabbing signs, banners, titles, and headlines, among other things.
33. Cast Iron Font (Free for Personal Use)
Cast Iron Font by Designer Jeremy Vassey is a condensed font that has a geometric structure and industrial aesthetic. The heavy structure resembles the old retro style. With three styles—clean, rounded, and rough—and four weights, it is perfect for high-impact logos or headlines. The font is exclusively free for personal use. It can be used to create titles, headlines, bundles, as well as print and digital content.
34. Jocker (Free for Personal Use)
The Jocker font by Craft Supply Co. is a stunner when it comes to free old school fonts. This was motivated by vintage circus fonts. This ornamental serif font has eight different layers and many embellishments. Jocker font is a great option for packaging, logos, and posters. You can use it free for personal use only.
35. Hamurz (Free for Personal Use)
Bagus Budiyanto’s Hamurz font is more of a hipster-style retro typeface with rough edges and rounded curves. The font texture will remind you of morning milk tea. It offers a wide range of applications, including logos, headings, or designs for t-shirt printing, badges, or letterpress. It is free to use for personal purposes only. So for commercial use, you need to buy the license.
36. Swiss Grit (Free for Commercial Use)
The Swiss Grit font is a one-of-a-kind creation by Rafael Nascimento that perfectly captures the bold and rebellious spirit of old-school punk and rock music. The smudged and rough design gives the font an authentic and raw feel that is sure to evoke genuine emotions from viewers. One of the great things about Swiss Grit is that it’s versatile enough to be used in a wide range of projects. Whether you’re creating a poster for a rock concert, a t-shirt for a punk band, or a social media graphic for a music festival, this font is the perfect choice.
37. Betty Noir (Free for Personal Use)
Betty Noir is a font created by the company Blambot. It is described as a “Fancy Retro” font. The contrast between the thick and thin strokes of the letters in the alphabet, make it more attractive. It looks classy as headlines in magazines, and websites, as well as in all sorts of digital and print purposes. The font is licensed as freeware, non-commercial and it is available for free for personal use.
38. Fenwick (Free for Commercial Use)
Fenwick is a typeface designed by Typodermic Fonts, specifically by Ray Larabie. It is a unique take on late-nineteenth-century sans-serif typefaces. Despite its resemblance to old-fashioned gothic typefaces, the design takes more inspiration from once-popular serif display fonts and elegant clock digits.
The typeface comes in 7 different styles and includes proportional old-style numerals which can be easily accessed in OpenType-friendly applications. Fenwick is free for commercial use. So you can create a wide range of design projects such as posters, videos, web graphics, t-shirts, signs, logos and more.
39. White Rabbit (Free for Commercial Use)
White Rabbit by Matthew Welch is a unique and stylish geometric font that evokes the nostalgia of the iconic movie, Matrix. Designed to resemble the coding seen on the screen, this typeface is perfect for creating eye-catching banners, brochures, logos, and branding materials. Whether you’re working on a personal project or a professional campaign, this old school font is sure to make your designs stand out.
40. Camar (Free for Personal Use)
Camar by DonMarciano is an unique art deco typeface. The font exudes an old-fashioned, summery vibe. Ideal for projects that are tropical, beachy, or in the summer. This gorgeous typeface can be used to produce banners, posters, books, coupons, etc. While it is free for personal use, there is a fee for business use.
41. Clear line (Free for Personal Use)
Clear line is a retro script font with a unique outline designed by Måns Grebäck. With exquisitely carved upper and lower case lettering, it appears to be handwritten. The font style makes you think about vintage masterpieces and music. Create logos, advertising, covers, banners, and other project elements with a retro flair using this old school typeface. Also, it is free for personal use.
42. Yesteryear (Free for Commercial Use)
YESTERYEAR is a “flat nib connecting script font” by Astigmatic. The font takes it inspiration from the title of the 1942 film, The Palm Beach Story. With its chromatic design, the typeface works well to evoke a feeling of nostalgia.
It is totally free to use for both personal and commercial needs. So you can use this elegant old school font to add appeal to your posters, graphics, social media posts, logos, etc.
43. Esplanade Script (Free for Personal Use)
“Esplanade Script” is another amazing old school font brought to you by Mans Greback. The vintage calligraphic letterfaces takes you back to the old days of dramatic billboards and posters everywhere. So if you are looking for a popping font, that brings a lot of attention to your project whether book cover, brochure, flyers, comics, or graphics, Esplanade Script font is a great choice for you. It is also free for personal use.
45. Silverfake (Free for Personal Use)
SILVERFAKE font by Fontfirma Mrfrukta stands out from the crowd because to its classic skyline look. This all-caps typeface provides a killer blend of retro style and contemporary attitude. Its slab serif design works well for titles, headings, book covers, flyers, brochures, and other eye-catching projects. The personal use of this font is free.
44. Egyptienne Zierinitialien Font (Free for Commercial Use)
Egyptienne Zierinitialien Font is designed by Typographer Mediengestaltung. This font is heavily crafted and gives off an authentic vintage Egyptian impression. The 55 ornate characters make it a wonderful choice for creating an old school feel project. It is absolutely free to use for banners, posters, branding, packaging, and other personal and business applications.
Final Words
We have come to the end of the article. Hope the resources were helpful enough for you to choose an amazing font for yourself among the 45 best free old school fonts. Most of the fonts I have picked here are not only gorgeous in visual sense but also comes free of cost for personal and commercial use. Some require a minimal fee for using it for business purposes.
Now, that you have more specific options, choose the best suited one for your project hassle free.
