The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Free font
Marcellus SC
A free alternative to Copperplate Gothic.
About Marcellus SC
Marcellus SC is Astigmatic's 2011 small-caps companion to Marcellus, a caps-and-small-caps serif with restrained flare serifs and a distinctly inscriptional bearing. Its reference point is a Roman inscription rather than an engraving plate: lighter and more classical in tone than the engraved faces it substitutes for, with open proportions and cleanly cut terminals.
The cap-and-small-cap structure is the reason it works where most free alternatives don't — it matches Copperplate Gothic's architecture directly, a feature nearly every other option lacks. It also gives the inscriptional weight of Trajan Pro in a small-caps setting, which sits far more comfortably alongside body text. Useful for editorial titling, mastheads, and credits where full caps would dominate the page. Free through Google Fonts.
- Designer
- Astigmatic
- Available at
- Google Fonts →
- Featured on
- 2 paid font pages
Marcellus SC is also a free alternative to…
- Copperplate Gothic → A caps-and-small-caps face with restrained flare serifs, directly matching Copperplate's cap/small-cap structure — the feature most alternatives lack. It is lighter and more classical in tone, closer to a Roman inscription than an engraving.
- Trajan Pro → The small-caps companion to Marcellus — gives the inscriptional weight of Trajan in a SC setting that pairs more naturally with body text. Useful for editorial titling where pure all-caps would dominate.
Display + body that work together
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.
Display · Editorial Marcellus SC + Lora
Letters that hold their nerve
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.
Display · Editorial Marcellus SC + Source Serif 4