The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Free font
DM Serif Display
A free alternative to Bodoni.
About DM Serif Display
DM Serif Display is Colophon Foundry's high-contrast display serif for Google Fonts, released in 2018 — Didone bones with rounder, friendlier curves than a strict revival. It ships in Regular and Italic only, which fixes its role precisely: a headline face rather than a type system, and slightly more idiosyncratic than a period-faithful Bodoni or Didot.
That softness is the point of difference. It gives editorial layouts Bodoni's elegance in a contemporary voice, and it supplies the fashion-magazine contrast associated with Didot without the severity. At large headline and logo sizes it also works as a Recoleta stand-in, trading Recoleta's slab warmth for a friendlier display presence in the same high-impact role. Use it for titles and covers, and pick something else for the running text underneath.
- Designer
- Colophon Foundry
- Released
- 2018
- Available at
- Google Fonts →
- Featured on
- 4 paid font pages
DM Serif Display is also a free alternative to…
- Bodoni → Colophon Foundry's contemporary display serif with high contrast in the Bodoni / Didone register. Slightly more idiosyncratic than a strict revival — works well for editorial layouts that want Bodoni's elegance with a modern voice.
- Didot → A high-contrast display serif with rounder, friendlier curves than a strict Didot — the fashion contrast with a contemporary softness. Regular and italic only, so it is a headline face, not a system.
- Recoleta → A high-impact display serif useful as a Recoleta stand-in for large headline and logo settings; rounder and softer than typical Didones, giving a friendly display presence. Best for the headline role.
- Chronicle Display → A clean, high-contrast modern serif tuned for large sizes and free for commercial use without fuss. Less nuanced than Chronicle across weights, but a dependable workhorse when you need a single sharp display serif for headings.
Display + body that work together
Headlines, written under pressure
Two thousand years of letterforms boil down to a handful of decisions — width, weight, proportion. Pick a pair you trust, and let the rest take care of itself.
Display · Editorial DM Serif Display + EB Garamond
Pages that earn the read
Body type does the heavy lifting. Get it right and the reader never thinks about it; get it wrong and they feel it before they can name what is off.
Display · Editorial DM Serif Display + Lora