Vintage, Retro and Art Deco Fonts
It’s been a little while since I wrote a post about fonts and typography, so I thought I’d treat everyone to some great vintage, retro and art deco fonts.
Many of the fonts are free and can be used in both personal and commercial projects, but as always, check the license of each font first.
Individual Retro Fonts
Make your own ‘classic’ movie poster with this dramatic family of retro fonts.
A sans-serif font that would be great for signs or posters.
A fantastic retro movie font from the great Saul Bass/Alfred Hitchcock movie posters.
A unique but very readable open source sans-serif font. Also available for web embedding via @font-face (CSS 3).
Chunk
Thanks to the League of Moveable Type for pointing out this open source slab serif font (as well as Blackout). Also available to embed via @font-face.
The art deco font used (or really close to it) in ITV’s Poirot television series of the ’80s and ’90s during the opening credits / title sequence.
A very nice free sans-serif typeface from Ascender Fonts.
An art deco / sans-serif font that also looks very clean and modern.
A clean, subtly-retro font family inspired by the lettering on US interstate and road signs.
Retro Font Resources
You can find tons more retro and vintage fonts on the web. To get you started, here are a few places you might try.
A huge collection of 757 free retro fonts, as well as retro clipart, photos and more.
B-Movie Poster Fonts (MyFonts.com)
Did you like the B-Movie fonts? My Fonts has a whole category dedicated to old movie poster fonts.
Font Diner has some fun and unique retro fonts. Makes me want to go and grab a ‘burger at a roadside diner!
A must-stop site for funky, fresh, fun retro and vintage fonts.
Find instantly classic retro fonts and even some dingbats on Rotodesign’s site. (PS: I want me some x-ray glasses)
Fontoville’s got a fun collection of retro typefaces that work equally well for surf posters or cartoons and illustrations (think Dexter’s Laboratory).
A type foundry specializing in retro and vintage fonts.
Some nice retro fonts from the newly launched FFonts.net site.
A whole section dedicated to classic fonts at DaFont.
15 Beautiful and Free Urban & Retro Fonts (Web Resources Depot)
Web Resources Depot’s recently featured blog post of free urban and retro fonts.
Retro Category on SearchFreeFonts.com
Some funky and psychedelic fonts at SearchFreeFonts.com.
Large collection of advertising and product fonts from the Prop-A-Ganda font foundry.
Retro Fonts (1001FreeFonts.com)
1001FreeFonts.com has an entire category of retro-style fonts.
UrbanFonts.com’s retro font category has classic ’50s, ’60s and ’70s fonts, as well as quite a few art deco typefaces.
A wide variety of vintage fonts.
Free Retro Fonts (AndyNortnik.com)
Some fun and funky vintage fonts and clipart.
7 Comments to 'Vintage, Retro and Art Deco Fonts'
July 24th, 2009
Thanks for the link to my site (Tack-O-Rama), and all these other great sites! Love the Hitchcock font, and the stuff from The League of Movable Type!
July 25th, 2009
@Josella – And thank you for a great site and all the nice retro resources.
I haven’t had a chance to check out everything else besides the fonts, but I intend to this weekend.
July 25th, 2009
Vintage, Retro and Art Deco Fonts…
Showcase of several nice vintage and retro fonts, as well as over 16 other sites where you can find tons of vintage and retro fonts and clipart.
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February 15th, 2010
[…] development posted a nice collection of retro, vintage and art deco fonts in their blog. pretty good selection and also a good resource for typo […]
September 4th, 2010
I think your site is a great service. Thank you. As a school librarian with no artistic capabilities whatsoever, it’s a real help when I design my displays.
I would like to know if you can identify the font used in the credits of the Jeeves and Wooster TV series?
January 18th, 2011
Art Deco Font is considered the most stylish and most recognizable typography of the 20th Century.
The classic Art Deco aesthetic – streamlined, geometric design – heavily influenced lettering and calligraphy in the early 1920s.. I think it’s so elegant and sexy as hell!
You can learn more about Art Deco Font here: http://www.art-deco-style.com/art-deco-font.html
April 29th, 2011
I love tackorama