The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Free font
Marcellus SC
A free alternative to Amagro.
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 →
Marcellus SC is also a free alternative to…
- Amagro → A small-caps variant of Marcellus, a face modelled on Roman inscriptional lettering with flared, chiselled strokes. It gives the same inscriptional register as Amagro in a calmer, more restrained voice, and the small-caps lowercase adds a second size of capital that Amagro lacks.
- 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.
- Cresci Exemplar Pro → A small-caps version of Astigmatic's Marcellus, built on classic Roman inscriptional proportions with slightly flared serifs. It gives the all-capitals titling look of Cresci Exemplar Pro at a smaller scale in text, and the lighter, more open drawing makes it the better choice where the heavier stone-cut feel is too much.
- PF Monumenta Pro → Astigmatic's Marcellus is a Roman inscriptional serif with a softer, more calligraphic stroke than Monumenta's chiselled cut. The SC version replaces the lowercase with small capitals, so it sets all-caps headings the way Monumenta does while adding a gentler, bookish tone.
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.
Editorial · Modern Marcellus SC + Inter
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.
Modern · Editorial Manrope + Marcellus SC