The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Free font
Inter
A free alternative to Aktiv Grotesk.
About Inter
- Designer
- Rasmus Andersson
- Released
- 2016
- Available at
- Google Fonts →
- Featured on
- 7 paid font pages
Inter is also a free alternative to…
- Aktiv Grotesk → Inter and Aktiv Grotesk share the same modernist refinement of the Helvetica / Akzidenz tradition — neutral construction, sharper terminals, screen-tuned proportions. The free workhorse for any project that would otherwise license Aktiv.
- Akzidenz-Grotesk → Modern grotesque drawn for screens, with the same neutral construction principles Akzidenz-Grotesk pioneered. The most-cited free option in this tradition, especially for digital interfaces — and the most heavily downloaded sans on Google Fonts for a reason.
- Graphik → Inter and Graphik share the same design philosophy — a typeface designed to "disappear" into the content. Similar structural overlap in body text, where both produce the even typographic colour editorial art directors prize.
- Neue Haas Grotesk → Inter shares the same 1957 neo-grotesque DNA Miedinger drew — strictly horizontal and vertical terminals, neutral construction — but rebuilt for screen-rendering with a generous x-height. The closest free workhorse to the Schwartz revival.
- Helvetica → The most-recommended Helvetica alternative for screens. Inter's terminals are strictly horizontal and vertical (the defining Helvetica gesture) but with a larger x-height and more open apertures, designed from the ground up for digital reading.
- Söhne → Same modernist grotesque DNA as Söhne, screen-tuned and battle-tested. The natural starting point — Inter and Söhne share the Akzidenz / Helvetica lineage that Klim cites as Söhne's reference.
- Univers → The neo-grotesque DNA Univers and Helvetica share — clean construction, horizontal/vertical terminals — translated into a screen-tuned modern variable family. Inter is the default starting point for any Univers-adjacent web project.
Display + body that work together
Letters that hold their nerve
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 Inter + EB Garamond
Pages that earn the read
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 Bodoni Moda + Inter