The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Free font
Jost
A free alternative to ITC Avant Garde Gothic.
About Jost
Jost is Owen Earl's open-source reinterpretation of Renner's Futura, released in 2017 with sharp geometric points, circular bowls, narrow widths, and a variable weight axis. Its x-height has been enlarged for the screen, which is the main departure from the 1920s original and the reason it stays readable at sizes a strict revival would not survive. Contrast stays low throughout, so the monoline character holds across the whole range.
That makes it the closest free match to Futura itself and a credible substitute across the German geometric family — Kabel, Century Gothic, ITC Avant Garde Gothic, and Verlag. It is most convincing in all-caps headlines and lighter weights, where the pointed apexes do the work. Cooler and more European in accent than Google Sans or Nexa, Jost suits upscale branding where a rounder geometric would read too friendly.
- Designer
- Owen Earl
- Available at
- Google Fonts →
- Featured on
- 12 paid font pages
Jost is also a free alternative to…
- ITC Avant Garde Gothic → Strictly speaking a Futura revival rather than an Avant Garde one, but the two share the same 1920s geometric DNA, and Jost's crisp circular bowls and pointed apexes read convincingly in Avant Garde territory. A variable font with a full weight range.
- Century Gothic → A free take on 1920s German geometric design with a full variable weight range, so it covers the light-to-bold spectrum Century Gothic offers. It runs a little cooler and more Futura-like, but the family depth makes it the most practical substitute for real projects.
- Cera Pro → A modern Futura-inspired geometric sans with low contrast, circular bowls, and pointed apexes — the same elemental-shape DNA as Cera Pro, but rebuilt with a larger x-height for screens. A variable weight axis makes it a flexible, precise substitute.
- Futura → Owen Earl's modern reinterpretation of Renner's Futura. Sharp geometric points, narrow widths, faithful proportions — the closest free match in this list, especially convincing in all-caps headlines and lighter weights.
- Google Sans → A Futura-inspired geometric redrawn for the screen, sharing Google Sans's circular DNA but with a cooler, more European accent. Strong in headlines and short labels.
- Kabel → An open-source take on the German geometric sans of the 1920s — closer to Futura than to Kabel, but from the same moment and movement. The most practical choice here, with a full variable weight range.
- Lemon Milk → A Futura-inspired geometric sans; its medium and bold caps carry the same clean, engineered look Lemon Milk borrows from the geometric tradition.
- Netflix Sans → A Futura-inspired geometric with a distinctly Johnston-like flavor — it covers the exact 'Gotham meets Johnston' territory Netflix Sans was designed to occupy. Its variable weight axis handles both hero titles and captions.
- Nexa → Purer and more classically Futura-like than Nexa, with narrower proportions — but the same geometric DNA, and its tall elegance suits upscale branding where Nexa might read too friendly.
- Quiche Sans → Monoline rather than high-contrast, but its light weights share Quiche Sans's geometric skeleton and tall elegance, and its full variable range makes it the most practical workhorse of this set.
- Verlag → A modern take on 1920s German geometric sans design in nine weights with italics — the same Futura-adjacent skeleton Verlag refines, and the most complete free family in this style.
- Uber Move → A Futura-derived geometric that captures the early-twentieth-century roots Uber Move draws on. Differs with a single-story "a" and more classical geometry, so it leans more purely Futura than grotesque — the pick when you want the geometric DNA over the exact letterforms.
Display + body that work together
Pages that earn the read
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.
Modern · Editorial Jost + EB Garamond
Letters that hold their nerve
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 DM Serif Display + Jost