21 Useful Free Fonts for Photographers

Photography is not always just about the photo. Whether it’s for promotional purposes, or for a shareable social media post, you may want to put text over your image while editing. You can’t just use any font with your photos; you will need to find something that fits with the style and feel of your art.

In the past we gave you a list of the best summer fonts for photographers, but this article will be a more general look at great fonts for photographers you can use any time of year. And the best part is, they’re all free!

1. Sinkin Sans

Sinkin Sans is a simple, easy to read font. But its clean simplicity belies a deeper level of detail. Where appropriate, the letters have been designed with subtle notches that can be found at the intersections of lines. This produces sharper right angles that make more intricate characters better defined.

2. Morva

Morva is an elegant typeface that would look appropriate on an interior design magazine cover. It features letters that contain a combination of thick and thin strokes. This results in a font that is easy to read. This pack also comes with several alternate versions in both lower and upper case that add in swirl flourishes, for a more flowery effect.

3. Playfair

Playfair is a serif font that is is transitional in style. This takes inspiration from the fonts of early printing technology, displaying text that has a somewhat thin stroke, but with enough detail to be fully legible as a display font for websites. Paired with a bolder sans serif font, Playfair will draw in the eye to any message.

4. Milkshake

Milkshake is a thick script font that is sure to be eye catching. This font really shines because of its consistent roundness. Every stroke has at least a slight curve, allowing each letter to flow into the next. Milkshake is versatile for any situation, its thickness pairing nicely with a busy background if needed. Use this typeface if you want to make a bold statement.

5. Sacramento

In contrast to Milkshake, Sacramento is a thinner, monoline script. The type styles of the 50’s and 60’s inspired this font. Occupying a space between casual and professional, this font is very versatile and many photographers can find a use for it.

6. Chlakh

Chlakh almost sounds like “chalk”, which is only appropriate. This hand-drawn typeface gives off a vintage vibe. Its bold look makes it suitable for logos, t-shirts, packaging, and more. Because it’s hand-drawn, it is also down to earth, making it great for homegrown designs that want to inspire trust.

7. Rachella

Rachella is a script typeface that comes with plenty of extra swirls and swooshes to play around with. Test out some of these in your designs. It will look great over any elegant, light photography. It is professional enough that it will look good in any modern design.

8. Harvest Barn

Harvest Barn is a fun script font great for anything that has an old-fashioned or hipster look. It gives off a farmhouse feel, and will make any design look rustic. This font will be good for any branding or quotes.

9. Selima

Selima is a free-flowing font that looks like it was made with a wet paint brush. It’s refreshing and perfect for any casual look. It alternates wildly between thick and thin, so it’s not great for extremely professional designs.

10. Majestic Inline Grunge

Majestic Inline Grunge is a unique font that plays with the baseline of letters. This results in a more free-flowing and creative font, despite its hard lines and serifs. Fonts like this have their place, and the “grunge” term seems appropriate. This is a great font for something more grungey or dark fantasy, but will look great in those situations. Of all the fonts for photographers we have here today, this is probably the most niche one.

11. Alcubierre

Alcubierre is the cleanest font we’ll be featuring in this article. A geometric sans serif typeface, Alcubierre is a minimalist font. It is perfect to place over simple or monochromatic images, since just simple lines and curves make up the characters.

12. Break

Break is another free font that provides a unique set of characters to play with. This font does appear broken, as the characters feature blank spaces in between some strokes. This is an artistic font and should be used sparingly. It is very thin, meaning that it is not a good choice to put on top of any sort of complicated photo. This is a clean, modern font and it has its place!

13. Peace Sans

Peace Sans is made for peace. It is supposed to evoke a sense of calm and kindness, and it succeeds. It is a sans serif font with gentle rounded edges and heavy bolding. Because of this bold look, it stands out on any image and evokes a strong message.

14. Waterlily

Waterlily is the definition of a paintbrush font. Each letter was handpainted with a brush, and this makes it great for anything that you want to have a flowery or casual loo. With the right editing, you can make it look like it was actually painted into your image.

15. Aventura

Inspired by camping and the outdoors, Aventura is great for evoking a rugged feeling. Using earthy tones with this font over your nature photography will result in some eye-catching designs that instantly inform the viewer what sort of image they are looking at.

16. Painter

Painter is a bold script font that comes with swoosh effects. These can quite literally underscore your important text, and bring a viewer’s eye to wherever you use it. Painter is excellent for logos or short titles.

17. Herr Von Muellerhoff

Herr Von Muellerhoff hearkens back to an earlier time when everything was written and signed by hand. This script font is professional and the combination of multiple handwritten signatures. This font will work great for the most elegant and professional of photos that demand a certain type of lettering.

18. Wisdom

The Wisdom script font is playful and perfect for any bright or happy image. All of the letters connect to each other, resulting in a font the flows over an image like a winding river.

19. Cookie

Cookie is a clean script font based on brush calligraphy. It was inspired by the font used alongside pin-up models in the 50’s, but will work great for any usage that requires a friendly, welcoming type.

20. Junction

Junction claims to be where the best qualities of serif and sans serif meet. It has the hand-drawn qualities of a serif, and the clarity of a sans serif. Subtle serifs can be found through the font, but it is otherwise a very legible and clean font, with just a little extra flair.

21. dPopper

Dpopper is a fun, all caps font that looks bubbly and fun. But it is also bold and solid, meaning that it will definitely pop on whatever graphic you use it on. This is one of the more specific fonts, and won’t look good everywhere, so be careful with it!

More Free Design Resources

• Free Film Strips PNG Overlays

• Free Light Leaks Photoshop Actions

• Free Floral Brushes and Patterns for Photoshop

Cover image background photo by Annie Spratt.