The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Free font
Libre Franklin
A free alternative to Chirp.
About Libre Franklin
Libre Franklin is Impallari Type's open-source revival of Morris Fuller Benton's Franklin Gothic, released in 2016 across nine weights with italics. It redraws the American gothic for contemporary publishing: rational, neutral letterforms with understated clarity at body sizes and real punch when set large.
For Franklin Gothic itself this is the answer, full stop — the literal free revival, no license fee. Because Whitney and Chirp both draw on the same American gothic stock, Libre Franklin is also the closest free match for Whitney's newsy, institutional tone and for the sturdiness underneath Chirp. Graphik's editorial register arrives through the same lineage, and the nine-weight range with italics makes it a dependable substitute for Sharp Grotesk across editorial and corporate settings.
- Designer
- Impallari Type
- Released
- 2016
- Available at
- Google Fonts →
Libre Franklin is also a free alternative to…
- Chirp → An open-source revival of Franklin Gothic, the American gothic ancestor behind Chirp's DNA — punchy in headlines, sturdy in text.
- Founders Grotesk → A revival of Franklin Gothic, so it shares the American-grotesque warmth that Founders Grotesk also draws on. More even and predictable than Founders, which makes it the safer pick when you need the grotesque flavour to hold up across long editorial text.
- Franklin Gothic → The literal free revival — an open-source interpretation of Benton's 1902 original in nine weights. If you want Franklin Gothic without a license fee, this is the answer, full stop.
- Graphik → Shares Graphik's editorial DNA via the American gothic tradition — a contemporary revival of Morris Fuller Benton's 1912 Franklin Gothic, redrawn for publishing with understated clarity at body sizes.
- GT America → A revival rooted in Morris Fuller Benton's Franklin Gothic — the American Gothic side of GT America's ancestry, made directly. Closest structural match for the warmer, slightly narrow grotesque forms; reach for it when you want the American rather than the Swiss half.
- National 2 → A revival of Franklin Gothic — the American grotesque tradition that runs parallel to the Akzidenz roots National 2 draws on. Reach for it when you want that sturdy, slightly editorial grotesque weight at headline sizes.
- Sharp Grotesk → Draws on the same American-European grotesque lineage, delivering rational, neutral text and headline typography across nine weights with italics — a dependable substitute for Sharp Grotesk in editorial and corporate settings.
- Whitney → An open revival of Franklin Gothic, the same American gothic stock Whitney draws on; nine weights with italics, and the closest free match for Whitney's newsy, institutional tone.
- Amazon Sans → A revival of Morris Fuller Benton's Franklin Gothic, the face Amazon's previous wordmark was based on before the custom alphabet replaced it. Its sturdy American gothic lowercase, round bowls and modest contrast sit closest to the Amazon letterforms, though it runs wider and lacks the straightened spur on the a.
- Newport Gothic → A revival of Morris Fuller Benton's Franklin Gothic, the American gothic model that Newport Gothic's name and plain forms gesture toward. It gives the same unfussy register in nine weights with italics, so it covers headings and body text where the two-style original cannot.
- Grotesque No.3 → A revival of Morris Fuller Benton's Franklin Gothic, the American contemporary of Miller & Richard's Grotesques, with the same heavy, slightly irregular grotesque construction. Good stand-in for the bold display cuts; its double-storey g and broader proportions read a touch more American than British.
- Trivia → A Franklin Gothic revival that brings the same old-school grotesque warmth Štorm contrasts with cold sans-serifs. Its wider, more American proportions and heavier default color set it apart from Trivia's Central European restraint, but it fills the same titles-and-advertising role.
- Trade Gothic → A revival of Morris Fuller Benton's Franklin Gothic, the American gothic that Trade Gothic's normal widths are most often compared with. It matches the plain, slightly narrow grotesque character at text and headline sizes, but it is a single-width family with no condensed cuts of its own.
- Arial Nova → A revival of Morris Fuller Benton's Franklin Gothic with nine weights and italics, offering the same robust industrial tone Arial Nova retains from its grotesque ancestry. The forms are noticeably heavier in the darks and more American in proportion, trading Arial's neutrality for more visible personality.
Display + body that work together
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.
Modern · Editorial Libre Franklin + Source Serif 4
Quiet type that does the work
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 Playfair Display + Libre Franklin