The 5 best free fonts like Gilroy
Introduction
Gilroy by Radomir Tinkov
Gilroy, a beautiful geometric sans-serif by Radomir Tinkov, is the kind of font that you rarely need to buy. It’s one of those typefaces that cover so many bases through its application of OpenType features (such as proper fractions, tabular figures, ligatures and more) and extensive language support that you can use it for almost anything.
And the truth is, you don’t need many fonts of this caliber because all of this flexibility comes at a price. Currently, the price for licensing the entire family over at MyFonts is $153, which doesn’t sound that much, until you try licensing the typeface for web and/or app use.
But what if you want the lovely geometric essence of Gilroy without breaking the bank? Perhaps you don’t need a ton of weights or support of Cyrillic characters.
Well, in that case, you can go for a free alternative to Gilroy, of which there are many. However, if trawling through the web for fonts is not your idea of fun, guess what: it’s, like, totally mine.
Free typefaces similar to Gilroy
#5 Questrial
Questrial comes up pretty often as an alternative to Gilroy and it’s a very apt comparison indeed. The characters look extremely similar, and you could be fooled into thinking it’s actually Gilroy without having the original font available as a reference.
However, Questrial comes in only one weight (regular) and with no matching italics. Character support is pretty limited, too. You could, of course, emply some sneaky designer tricks and bold the text by increasing the stroke width. You could even give the text a slant and make some crappy obliques, but would you be able to live with yourself after having performed this abomination?
Didn’t think so.
Questrial is free for both personal and commercial use.
#4 Jost
Jost is amazing. It has a ton of weights and matching italics, and the download also contains a variable font version so you can play around with it to your heart’s content.
It may not look as similar to Gilroy as Questrial, but it manages to be a much better alternative to it by virtue of its sheer flexibility. It still isn’t as fully-featured as Gilroy, naturally (for one, it doesn’t support Cyrillic characters) but it’s about as close as you can get to commercial quality using a free typeface.
Jost is free for both personal and commercial use.
#3 Kumbh Sans
Kumbh Sans is a typeface with many weights (nine, to be exact) and it comes with matching italics. Just like Jost above, the download also contains a variable font.
It doesn’t look as similar to Gilroy as Questrial does, but it has its own, more poetic and elegant character, with humanist characteristics that the aforementioned typefaces (as well as Gilroy itself) lack. In that sense, it’s not as good an alternative as either Questrial or Jost, but in many other ways, it kicks ass.
#2 League Gothic
I’m not putting League Gothic on this list solely to get a reaction out of you, but I got to admit that it is a controversial choice. This typeface comes in two widths that are essentially condensed and mega-condensed, with matching italics, and they are both quite heavy in weight.
That said, in construction the characters are very geometric and modern, with a slight tinge of art deco that soothes the soul. Or is it just me?
Better used in cases where you’d use Gilroy in a display setting, and not in a body text context.
#1 Geomanist
Image taken from atipo foundry’s website
“What? You said FREE. Geomanist is a commercial font. Heresy!”
Before you burn me at the stake, let me explain. Geomanist may be a commercial typeface, but the guys & gals over at atipo foundry will let you download the Regular and Regular Italic styles for free just by doing a social share. And let me tell you something, those guys deserve the share.
Geomanist retains the refreshing contrast of austere geometrics vs soft curves that Gilroy employs, and it’s that characteristic that gives them their similarity. The free styles of Geomanist also contain all the OpenType conveniences of the full typeface, so you’re getting quite a lot of bang for your (non) buck.
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