The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Free font
Overpass
A free alternative to Interstate.
About Overpass
Overpass is Look Withrington's 2011 open-source sans, commissioned by Red Hat as an interpretation of the FHWA Highway Gothic alphabets used on road signage. That origin shows in every letter: the proportions, the terminal angles, and the plainspoken utilitarian rhythm all descend from lettering drawn to be read at speed from a moving car, then adapted for screen and print use.
Interstate was drawn from the same source, which puts Overpass in an unusual position among free alternatives — the two share a skeleton rather than a passing resemblance. Whatever Interstate contributes by way of infrastructural, no-nonsense authority, Overpass arrives at from the same starting point, which makes it the clear first choice for that brief. Wayfinding, transit and civic material, technical documentation, and interfaces that want a functional voice are all natural ground for it.
- Designer
- Delve Withrington
- Released
- 2011
- Available at
- Google Fonts →
- Featured on
- 1 paid font page
Overpass is also a free alternative to…
Display + body that work together
Quiet type that does the work
The display sets the register; the body follows through. When both halves of a pair pull in the same direction, the design disappears and the words come forward.
Modern · Editorial Overpass + Crimson Pro
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 + Overpass