The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Trajan Pro vs Times New Roman
Two classical serifs that sit at opposite ends of the job: one is built for a single line on a poster, the other for pages of running text. Trajan Pro is Carol Twombly's 1989 digitisation of the capitals carved on Trajan's Column in Rome, while Times New Roman is the newspaper text face Stanley Morison and Victor Lardent drew for The Times in 1932.
Trajan Pro is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Cinzel, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Trajan Pro → Times New Roman is a commercial font, so it is shown here in Tinos, its closest free alternative. All free alternatives to Times New Roman →
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
- Trajan Pro has no lowercase at all — it is an all-capitals incised face, with small caps in the lowercase slots — so it only works for titles, names, and short lines.
- Times New Roman is a transitional text serif with a high x-height, short descenders, and a condensed fit, tuned for newspaper legibility and economy of space.
- Trajan was designed for large sizes and is famous for film posters and book titles, whereas Times New Roman's home is body copy in books, reports, and office documents.
- Both are commercial: Trajan Pro comes with an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription or a Fontspring purchase, while Times New Roman ships with Windows and Office but is otherwise sold by Monotype.
Trajan Pro
Reach for Trajan Pro when you need a monumental, carved-in-stone title — movie posters, book jackets, awards, and anything that should feel timeless at display size.
Times New Roman
Reach for Times New Roman for long-form text, formal documents, and anywhere you need a compact, universally installed serif that readers will not notice.