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 →
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.
- Insignia → A Futura-derived geometric built on the same Bauhaus compass-and-ruler logic that shaped Insignia, with pointed apexes and monoline strokes. It drops Brody's cut-through cross-strokes and quirky capitals, so it reads calmer and works at text sizes, with nine weights where Insignia offers only Roman.
- 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.
- Neou → A Futura-style geometric built on the same circular skeleton as Neou, with a full weight axis from hairline to black. Its lightest and heaviest instances cover Neou Thin and Neou Bold directly, and the in-between weights give you the text range Neou never had.
- 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.
- Thicker → A Futura-derived geometric sans with nine weights up to Black and matching italics, matching the vintage geometric proportions Thicker shows in its lighter weights. Jost keeps true circular bowls and pointed apexes, so it reads as classic Bauhaus rather than the squared, sports-oriented drawing of Thicker.
- TT Lakes → A Futura-derived geometric sans with perfect circles and pointed apexes, available as a variable font with a full weight range. It matches the geometric construction behind TT Lakes and its mid-century reference points. Jost is a single-width family, so you lose the condensed and compressed cuts that define the paid superfamily.
- 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.
- 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.
- Futura Now → A free geometric sans drawn directly from Paul Renner's 1920s model, the same source Futura Now revisits. Circular bowls, pointed apexes and tall ascenders all match, and it ships as a variable font. It is a touch narrower and more mechanical than Futura Now's softened, humanist-leaning curves.
- Shorai Sans → A Futura-rooted geometric with pure circular bowls and sharp apexes, representing the strict geometric end of the register Shorai Sans softens. Choose it when you want the clean outlines without the hand-drawn warmth; its light weights in particular echo Shorai's Ultra Light airiness.
- Acherus Feral → A Futura-rooted geometric with pointed apexes on A, M, N, V and W, the very letters Acherus Feral redraws for a harder edge. Jost's variable weight range and true italics match the breadth of a 20-style family, though its lowercase runs smaller and more classical than Feral's contemporary proportions.
- Crossten Soft → A Futura-inspired geometric sans with pure circles and sharp apexes, available as a variable font with italics. It covers the same geometric foundation and full weight range, but trades Crossten Soft's softened, friendly character for a stricter, more classical geometric voice.
- Mark Pro → A free interpretation of the 1920s German geometric sans that FF Mark also draws on, with the same pointed apexes and round bowls. It keeps a smaller x-height closer to Futura, so it feels more classical and a little less comfortable in long text than Mark.
- TT Commons → A Futura-derived geometric that shares the pointed, constructed feel of TT Commons' original diamond-shaped ovals and lowered capitals. It is more rigidly geometric and less neutral in long text, so it suits identity work and display sizes better than dense paragraphs.
- Futura 100 → Drawn directly as a Futura-inspired geometric sans, with the same round o, pointed apex A and M, and single-storey a. It is the closest free match to Renner's skeleton and is variable from thin to black, but it offers no optical text sizes and covers far fewer scripts.
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