What is sans serif?

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Sans serif fonts are typefaces without the small projecting lines or “serifs” at the ends of each letter. Their clean, simple shapes make them easy to read across both digital and print formats.

You’ve likely seen some of the most popular sans serif font examples already, like Helvetica, Arial, and Futura. While each has its own personality, they all share a crisp, modern feel that works in everything from digital interfaces to print layouts. Designers often choose sans serif fonts for their versatility and clarity, whether it’s for bold headlines, UI elements, or long-form text.

Capriola

Capriola, designed by Viktoriya Grabowska and introduced by Sorkin Type Co., is a distinctive sans-serif typeface inspired by the rhythm and expressiveness of handwriting. With rounded terminals, subtle playful swashes, and a gentle vertical stress, Capriola brings a sense of motion and energy to text without sacrificing readability. Its name—meaning “somersault”—perfectly captures the font’s lively personality, most notably seen in its acrobatic “g.”

Originally created for digital screens, Capriola serves as a friendly, character-rich alternative to utilitarian fonts like Verdana or Tahoma. Well-proportioned letterforms and strong legibility make it versatile enough for both editorial layouts and web design, working equally well in headlines and longer passages where clarity and personality need to coexist.

Best for

Headings, editorial content, apps, and web interfaces that need a dynamic feel

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface designed specifically for screens, with rounded letterforms that give text a welcoming, easygoing presence. Its clean, modern structure and even spacing ensure excellent legibility, keeping letters distinct and comfortable to read even at smaller sizes.

Supporting Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts, Ubuntu offers a wide range of weights along with normal and italic styles, allowing designers to emphasize different sections of text without disrupting visual flow. With its calm, slightly stiff expressiveness and competent, business-oriented character, Ubuntu is a versatile choice for multilingual and professional design projects alike.

Best for

App interfaces, tech tutorials, open-source guides, and onboarding materials

Raleway

Raleway is an elegant geometric sans-serif typeface with sleek letterforms that create a light, airy feel. Its refined shapes, generous spacing, and subtle neo-grotesque influences make it especially well suited for headings, display text, and minimalist designs where sophistication is key. Designers often turn to Raleway when they want something stylish and modern without overpowering other visual elements.

Designed by Matt McInerney, Pablo Impallari, and Rodrigo Fuenzalida, Raleway originally debuted as a single thin weight and was later expanded into a nine-weight family in 2012. It supports multiple scripts, including Latin and Cyrillic, and is complemented by a sister family, Raleway Dots, adding further flexibility to its design system.

Best for

Elegant headlines, event invitations, fashion branding, and editorial layout

Be Vietnam Pro

Be Vietnam Pro is a neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface designed with digital reading in mind, featuring generous spacing and open letterforms that make text easy to scan across screens. Building on the original Be Vietnam typeface, it supports Vietnamese and extended Latin scripts, making it a reliable choice for multilingual and tech-focused projects.

Designed by Lâm Bảo, Tony Le, and ViệtAnh Nguyễn, Be Vietnam Pro offers refined Vietnamese diacritics, high readability, and both normal and italic styles. It works well as a thoughtful alternative to fonts like Inter or Roboto, delivering clear, structured text with subtle expressiveness and a hint of vintage character—without ever feeling bland.

Best for

Dashboards, websites, apps, and product interfaces

Tenor Sans

Tenor Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface with elegant, extended letterforms that bring a sense of calm and balance to dense layouts. Its uniform stroke thickness and even spacing help maintain structure and clarity, making it comfortable to read in both content-heavy pages and more restrained editorial designs.

Designed by Denis Masharov, Tenor Sans is optimized for both print and web, with rounded shapes that enhance legibility in body text as well as headlines. Supporting Latin and Cyrillic scripts—and covering Western, Central European, Turkish, Baltic, Icelandic, and Celtic languages—it offers multiple styles that allow designers to emphasize hierarchy without disrupting the overall flow of the page.

Best for

User manuals, instructional guides, data-heavy reports, and corporate presentations

Sen

Sen is a geohumanist sans-serif typeface with compact letterforms and generous spacing that naturally guide the eye through long reads. Its consistent stroke weight creates a smooth reading rhythm, helping dense content feel organized, calm, and approachable—making it a strong choice for tutorials, documentation, and long-form explainers.

Designed by Kosal Sen, Sen was introduced as Philatype’s first OFL release and offers a neutral, humanist interpretation of geometric typefaces, comparable to fonts like Avenir or Futura. Following its 2023 variable font update, Sen delivers improved flexibility and readability while supporting Latin and Latin-extended scripts, reinforcing its suitability for modern, content-heavy digital projects.

Best for

Long-form articles, e-books, newsletters, and educational websites

Merriweather Sans

Merriweather Sans is the sans-serif companion to the popular Merriweather serif, designed with legibility as a primary goal—even at very small text sizes. Its compact, slightly condensed letterforms and large x-height help long passages remain readable without feeling cramped, while low-contrast strokes ensure clarity across phone, tablet, and desktop screens.

Designed by Sorkin Type and introduced in 2013, Merriweather Sans is a humanist sans-serif optimized for dense on-screen text. It supports multiple scripts, including Latin, Cyrillic, and Vietnamese, and is available in eight styles, making it a dependable choice for multilingual, content-heavy interfaces.

Best for

Articles, reports, presentations, and web content that needs a professional tone

Epilogue

Epilogue is a clean, versatile geometric sans-serif typeface with open spacing and a steady, minimalist structure, making it well suited for clear, straightforward communication in digital projects. Its restrained design helps content take the lead, allowing typography to stay quietly in the background when needed.

Designed by Tyler Finck (ETC), Epilogue was released as a modern, globally adaptable typeface featuring nine weights in both upright and italic styles. Supporting Latin, Latin-Extended, and Vietnamese scripts, it works as a thoughtful alternative to fonts like Lato or Helvetica—balancing clarity, warmth, and subtle expressiveness across a wide range of use cases.

Best for

Digital interfaces, presentations, minimal websites, and internal documentation

Lato

Lato is a sans-serif typeface designed in 2010 by Łukasz Dziedzic, originally commissioned for a corporate identity. Its name—meaning “summer” in Polish—hints at the font’s distinctive balance of professionalism and warmth. Combining strong structural foundations with subtle curves, Lato keeps text both highly readable and visually inviting.

After the original client pivoted, Lato was released publicly and went on to become one of the most widely used fonts worldwide. With classical proportions, a sleek modern finish, and dependable clarity at both small and large sizes, it supports Latin and Latin-extended scripts—making it a versatile, “friendly-in-a-smart-suit” choice for a wide range of digital and brand-driven projects.

Best for

Marketing emails, corporate reports, infographics, and portfolio websites

Yaldevi

Yaldevi is a narrow neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface designed for headlines and shorter passages, where space efficiency and clarity matter most. Its compressed letterforms and short ascenders and descenders allow more text to fit comfortably on a line without feeling cramped, while gentle curves introduce a subtle, slightly playful personality.

Designed by Mooniak with input from Sol Matas, Yaldevi was introduced in 2015 and includes multiple weights, giving designers flexibility to highlight key elements without disrupting the overall rhythm of the layout. Supporting Latin, Latin-extended, and Sinhala scripts—and featuring distinctive Sinhala glyphs—it balances neutrality with character, making it a strong choice for compact, display-focused, and multilingual design projects.

Best for

Web headings, short-form content, banners, and presentation titles

Beyond the defaults

Sans serif fonts are often seen as neutral, but as you’ve seen throughout this list, neutrality doesn’t have to mean generic. Each of these typefaces brings its own balance of clarity, personality, and usability—whether you’re designing dense documentation, polished interfaces, or expressive editorial layouts.

You may notice that widely used fonts like Poppins, Roboto, Montserrat, Inter, and Open Sans are intentionally absent from this list. They’re excellent typefaces, but precisely because they’re so familiar and heavily used, they were excluded on purpose. Instead, this selection focuses on strong alternatives that can help your designs feel thoughtful, distinctive, and just a little less expected—without sacrificing readability or professionalism.

Choosing the right font isn’t about finding the most popular option; it’s about finding the one that best supports your content and context. Hopefully, this list gives you a few new tools to explore—and a reason to look beyond the usual defaults next time typography matters.