The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Free font
Hanken Grotesk
A free alternative to ABC Favorit.
About Hanken Grotesk
Hanken Grotesk is Alfredo Marco Pradil's grotesque, formerly released as HK Grotesk: classic Swiss bones drawn with open apertures and a distinctly friendly warmth. A few quirks mark it out — the single-story 'g', the sliced-off 't', the softness in the curves — and a variable weight range with true italics carries it from signage weight down to interface text.
It is the name similarity tools surface first for Larsseit, and the alternative most often named as the best all-round free stand-in for Apercu. It also answers Atlas Grotesk's trick of warming up Swiss structure, and covers Aeonik, Coinbase Sans, and Amazon Ember in their friendlier registers, along with JetBrains Sans in body-text roles. It sets slightly wider than Apercu, so check line lengths; in long-form documentation and paragraph text few free grotesques read as comfortably.
- Designer
- Alfredo Marco Pradil
- Available at
- Google Fonts →
Hanken Grotesk is also a free alternative to…
- ABC Favorit → A clean, evenly weighted grotesque tuned for screen text and interface work. Less idiosyncratic than Favorit but comfortable at small sizes, so it covers the body and UI end of the range.
- Aeonik → A geometric grotesque with clean horizontal terminals and generous, even letterforms that echo Aeonik's balance of mechanical precision and warmth. Its wide weight range makes it a practical drop-in for brand systems built around Aeonik.
- Amazon Ember → A warm grotesque with humanist touches that handles long UI text gracefully — a good pick if you want Ember's friendliness with a bit more neutrality.
- Apercu → The alternative most often named as the best all-round free stand-in for Apercu. It carries many of the same quirks — the single-story 'g' and sliced-off 't' — in a friendly grotesque with a full weight range, though it runs slightly wider.
- Atlas Grotesk → The closest free match — a grotesque built on classic Swiss bones but drawn with open apertures and a distinctly friendly warmth, exactly Atlas's trick. Its variable weight range and true italics make it a credible drop-in for both text and display.
- Chirp → A friendly grotesque that reads comfortably at paragraph sizes, close to Chirp's tone in running text.
- Coinbase Sans → A grotesque with the same restrained warmth Coinbase Sans layers over its mid-century skeleton — excellent in both headings and paragraphs.
- Founders Grotesk → A clean contemporary grotesque with a full variable weight range. It smooths away most of Founders Grotesk's awkward charm, so reach for it when you want the grotesque proportions in a calmer, more neutral voice for interface and body copy.
- JetBrains Sans → A clean, well-spaced grotesque with a full weight range that reads effortlessly in long-form docs — a strong match for JetBrains Sans in body-text roles.
- Larsseit → Formerly HK Grotesk — the font every similarity tool surfaces first for Larsseit. A subtly geometric grotesque with the same low contrast and neutral-but-friendly temperament, making it the closest all-round free match across weights.
- OpenAI Sans → A classic-grotesque revival with noticeably warmer, softer curves than Inter — closer to the rounded humanity OpenAI Sans layers over its geometry. Works from signage weight down to interface text.
- Spotify Mix → Covers the humanist-grotesque side of Mix's blend — warm curves and subtle stroke flicks rather than pure geometry. A good body-text partner where Mix's display quirks would be too much.
- Universal Sans → A versatile modern grotesque that covers the softer, friendlier settings the Universal Sans system can produce — a good body-text partner if you use Space Grotesk or Geist for display.
- Amazon Sans → A clean, contemporary grotesque with soft terminals and even stroke weight, available in nine weights with italics. At bold it builds a tidy lowercase logotype in the same plain, approachable register as Amazon Sans, though its proportions are more geometric and it lacks the Franklin-derived warmth of the mark.
- MD System → A warm, slightly rounded grotesque with nine weights and italics that shares MD System's friendly take on an otherwise rational sans. It comes in a single width, so Narrow and Condensed layouts need a separate family or tighter tracking.
- Basis Grotesque → A neutral grotesque with a generous x-height and modest contrast that lands near Basis in texture at body sizes. It is cleaner and more contemporary, with fewer period quirks, so it works when you want the behaved side of Basis rather than its Akzidenz heritage.
- Grotesque No.3 → A contemporary grotesque that, like Founders Grotesk, smooths early 20th-century sans serif forms into a large modern family with multiple weights. Captures the compact apertures and even rhythm of the register, but it is noticeably more neutral and less quirky than the hand-cut No.3.
- Non Sans → A clean grotesque with even stroke weights and a neutral, functional tone close to Non Sans's reliable reading rhythm. It is lighter in overall colour and more rounded at the terminals, so it feels friendlier where Non Sans feels solid and businesslike.
- Trivia → A rounded, early-grotesque revival whose open counters and soft terminals echo Trivia Grotesk's friendly register. It is lighter in the heavy weights and lacks Trivia's small caps and oldstyle figures, but the nine weights make it a workable substitute for titles and posters.
- Untitled Sans → A neutral grotesque with a weight range from Thin to Black and italics, close in proportion and rhythm to Untitled Sans in running text. Hanken Grotesk has a slightly narrower set and marginally more geometric rounds, giving it a cleaner, less deliberately ordinary tone than Sowersby's design.
- Arial Nova → An open-source grotesque in nine weights with italics that has the same plain, even-textured character Arial Nova aims for in extended text. It is a touch warmer and rounder than Arial, and it has no condensed companion, so it covers the standard-width half of the family.
- Open Sauce One → A clean modern grotesque that leans slightly toward geometric construction. That gives it the same calm, brand-friendly tone Open Sauce One brings to Aeonik-style layouts. Its rounder bowls make it a bit softer and more geometric in display sizes.
- Open Sauce → A plain contemporary grotesque with the same mix of interface and editorial uses as Open Sauce One. Its forms are slightly more geometric and its texture lighter, so it suits clean branding work better than the denser, compact Open Sauce Sans.
Display + body that work together
The shape of a working week
A pairing is a relationship: one voice speaks first, the other answers, and the contrast between them sets the tone for the whole page.
Modern · Editorial Hanken Grotesk + Lora
A grammar of empty space
Crisp, even strokes give the display its punch. Quiet serifs underneath stay readable across thousands of words — used together by editors at the kind of paper that still prints corrections.
Editorial · Modern Fraunces + Hanken Grotesk