Finding the perfect font can be the key to success for any design project. Serif fonts give a classic and timeless vibe, while sans-serif fonts are the go-to for modern designs. Clean, simple, and easy to read, these fonts are everywhere—from websites and mobile apps to branding and print materials.
But have you ever thought that using the same font over and over again can get boring? You’ve definitely thought about it! And of course, you feel like your design is just this and that, so you think you need to find a new font again, and maybe you don’t even know what the font is called, right? Especially in the work world or school assignments, if your friends are honest, they probably laugh at you for only using that one font and nothing else. So, I’ve got some font references that are similar to Poppins, so you don’t have to use that font anymore for your designs or websites. Read on till the end!
Inter is an open-source typeface that’s specifically designed for user interfaces (UI) on computer screens. Created by Rasmus Andersson, a designer and programmer, this font features highly functional and easily readable characters, even at small sizes. Its clean and modern design makes it a popular choice among web developers and app designers. Inter comes in a variety of weights and styles, from thin to bold, and supports multiple languages with special characters, making it super flexible for all sorts of global projects.
The origin of Inter started from the need for a better and free UI font. Rasmus Andersson kicked off this project in 2017 because he was not happy with the font options available at that time. He aimed to create a font that was optimal for on-screen reading, paying attention to details like letter spacing (kerning), x-height, and clear distinctions between similar characters (like ‘I‘, ‘l‘, and ‘1‘). The project is being developed openly on GitHub, allowing contributions from the design and developer community, which helps refine and expand the language support of this font.
This font is also available on Google Fonts.
The Red Hat font is a modern sans-serif typeface designed for the brand identity of Red Hat, a leading open-source software company. This font family has two main styles: Red Hat Display, which is optimized for headlines and larger text, and Red Hat Text, designed for better readability at smaller text sizes like paragraphs. The key characteristics of this font are its geometric shapes but with a human touch, giving it a clean, technical, and friendly vibe. Plus, it’s available as open-source, making it a popular choice outside of the Red Hat ecosystem.
The origin of the Red Hat font starts with the company’s decision to refresh its brand identity in 2018. Red Hat teamed up with the design firm Pentagram, with Paula Scher as the lead designer, to create a new typography that reflects the company’s values. The font was designed by Jeremy Mickel from MCKL. Mickel drew inspiration from classic American sans-serif typography like Tempo and Highway Gothic, but added a modern twist. The goal was to create a versatile font that could be used across various digital and print platforms, consistently representing Red Hat as a leader in open-source technology.
This font is also available on Google Fonts.
Noto Sans is an open-source font family developed by Google, mainly aimed at eliminating the ‘tofu‘ boxes that show up when a system doesn’t have the right font to display text. The name Noto is actually short for ‘no tofu‘, which literally means no empty boxes. The ambitious goal of this project is to create a font that can cover all the languages and characters in the world. Noto Sans gives a clean and consistent look across different platforms and devices, with a modern, easy-to-read sans-serif design, making it a great choice for user interfaces, websites, and documents.
The origin of Noto Sans started with Google’s initiative to tackle a universal problem in computing: displaying text in languages that aren’t supported by the default installed fonts. Back in 2011, Google kicked off the Noto project with the goal of creating a single font family that could support over 100 writing systems and hundreds of thousands of characters, including emojis. This project was a massive collaborative effort, involving typography and linguistics experts from all over the globe to make sure each character was designed accurately and in line with its cultural roots. The result? A huge font collection that covers almost every language in the world, available for anyone to download and use for free.
This font is also available on Google Fonts.
Nunito is a popular sans-serif font family known for its balanced and friendly design. It comes in two main versions: Nunito, which has rounded letter shapes, and Nunito Sans, which features sharper and more classic edges. The ’rounded’ characteristic of Nunito gives it a warmer and more inviting vibe, making it a go-to choice for designs that aim to look approachable and modern, like in app interfaces, websites, or branding materials aimed at a younger audience.
The origin of this font started with a type designer named Vernon Adams. He first created Nunito as a rounded sans-serif font aimed at display typography, or large-sized text, back in 2011. Then, Jacques Le Bailly took over and expanded the project by adding various weights to the font and creating a ‘non-rounded‘ version known as Nunito Sans. This development turned Nunito into a superfamily of fonts that are super versatile and can be used for both titles and paragraph text, making it one of the most widely used open-source fonts on Google Fonts.
This font is also available on Google Fonts.
Rubik is a modern sans-serif font family designed with slightly rounded corners, giving it a friendly and fun vibe. It has solid proportions and low stroke contrast, making it super easy to read, especially on digital screens. Plus, it’s open-source and comes in various weights and styles, including a monospaced variant, which makes Rubik a versatile choice for everything from user interfaces to eye-catching branding materials and headings.
The origin of the Rubik font started as part of the Chrome Cube Lab project initiated by Google. This font was designed by Philipp Hubert and Sebastian Fischer from the design studio Hubert & Fischer. The name “Rubik” comes from the Rubik’s Cube exhibition that was part of the project, where the letters were designed to fit perfectly inside a Rubik’s Cube. The font was then further developed with contributions from other designers to include support for Hebrew and Cyrillic characters, making it a strong and globally accessible font through Google Fonts.
This font is also available on Google Fonts.
Mulish is a minimalist sans-serif typeface designed for general use. Created by Ivan Filipov, Mulish is known for its clean and simple look, making it ideal for user interfaces (UI) and websites. The font has fairly wide proportions and a large x-height, which keeps it easy to read even at smaller sizes. Its neutral and versatile nature makes it a great choice for projects that need a professional and modern font without being too flashy.
The origin of the Mulish font started with its original name, ‘Muli.’ It was first designed by Ivan Filipov and later released as an open-source font through Google Fonts. The name ‘Muli’ was inspired by the Bulgarian word ‘Muli,’ which means ‘mullets‘ or ‘tilapia fish.‘ However, they changed the name to ‘Mulish‘ to avoid any confusion and to strengthen its identity as a clean and minimalist font. This name change also marked the evolution of the font into a more complete superfamily, supporting various weights and styles, making it a solid choice for all kinds of digital design needs.
This font is also available on Google Fonts.
Manrope is a modern sans-serif font family that’s open-source and designed for optimal readability on screens. Created by Mikhail Sharanda, Manrope features clean, geometric proportions, making it a great choice for user interfaces, websites, and digital apps. One of its main highlights is its flexibility; the font comes in various weights, from thin to bold, and even includes a variable font version that lets designers tweak the weight precisely. Its neutral and minimalist look makes it super easy to mix with all sorts of other design elements.
The origin of the Manrope font dates back to 2018 when Mikhail Sharanda designed it to create a modern and free alternative to popular commercial fonts. The project was developed openly, allowing for collaboration and improvements from the community. In 2019, Mirko Velimirovic teamed up with Sharanda to convert Manrope into a variable font, which significantly boosted its functionality. With Manrope being added to Google Fonts, its accessibility increased even more, making it a top choice for designers and developers looking for a modern, easy-to-read, and license-free font.
This font is also available on Google Fonts.
Open Sans is one of the most popular and widely used sans-serif fonts in the digital world. Designed with a humanistic style, this font features open letterforms and friendly proportions, making it super easy to read even at small text sizes. Its main advantage lies in its outstanding readability on computer screens, mobile devices, and in print media. Open Sans is also well-known for its broad support for various languages and characters, making it a go-to choice for websites, apps, and user interfaces that need a clean, professional, and reliable font.
The origin of Open Sans kicked off with a project by Google. This font was designed by the well-known typographer Steve Matteson, who also serves as the principal director at Ascender Corporation. First released in 2011, Open Sans is made with an open-source license, which means anyone can use it for free. It quickly became a favorite among millions of websites around the globe through Google Fonts and became a staple for many digital design projects due to its balance and reliability. Since then, Open Sans has continued to be updated and developed, including the addition of variable font versions, to keep it relevant in the ever-changing design world.
This font is also available on Google Fonts.
Aeonik font is a super popular geometric sans-serif typeface among graphic designers because of its modern, minimalist, and super clean look. It has unique characteristics with structured letter shapes and balanced proportions, giving off a vibe that’s really technical yet elegant. You’ll often see Aeonik used in branding, user interfaces (UI), and editorial design to deliver a contemporary, precise, and sophisticated feel. Its variety in different weights and styles makes this font super flexible for all kinds of design needs.
The origin of the Aeonik font comes from a well-known typography design studio called CoType Foundry. This font was released in 2018 and is one of the flagship works from designer Mark Bloom and CoType Foundry itself. Aeonik was designed as a response to the need for a more humanistic and flexible geometric sans-serif font compared to classic fonts like Futura or Avenir. With attention to details like kerning and readability, Aeonik quickly gained recognition and popularity. Although it’s not an open-source font, Aeonik has become a favorite choice in many digital and print design projects because of its high aesthetic and quality.
Commissioner font is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed with classic proportions and low contrast, making it super versatile for all sorts of applications. This font has some unique characteristics because it’s designed as a variable font family. This means designers can tweak various axes like weight, slant, and unique features like ‘flare‘ and ‘volume,’ which affect the shape of the terminals and letter connections. It allows for a wide range of visual variations, from clean and technical styles to more expressive and characterful ones.
The origin of the Commissioner font comes from a designer named Kostas Bartsokas. This font was conceived as a typographic experiment inspired by classic humanist and grotesque sans-serif fonts, like Optima, but with a modern twist. The project was developed and released as an open-source font, which was later adopted and made available on Google Fonts. With support for various languages, including Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek, Commissioner has become a powerful tool for designers looking for a font that’s not only functional but also offers creative flexibility through its variable features.
This font is also available on Google Fonts.
That’s just my font recommendations; all the fonts mentioned above might inspire you if you’re getting bored with using Poppins. There are actually a ton of free fonts similar to Poppins, but I can’t list them all. If you want to find the best fonts, you can check out Google Fonts, DaFont, Deefont, Fonnts and Font Meme, which have a lot of fonts available for you.
