The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Free font
Public Sans
A free alternative to Aktiv Grotesk.
About Public Sans
Public Sans is the US Web Design System's neutral grotesque, drawn by Dan Williams and released free in 2019 for federal government interfaces. It's a studiedly plain workhorse — even color, unfussy letterforms, and no stylistic agenda — built to carry dense, functional text and documents clearly.
That plainspoken neutrality is exactly why it works as a free alternative to institutional grotesques like Arial, Franklin Gothic, and Graphik. It fills their workhorse role without the licensing or the baggage, which makes it a safe default when restraint matters more than personality.
- Designer
- Dan Williams (USWDS)
- Released
- 2019
- Available at
- Google Fonts →
- Featured on
- 15 paid font pages
Public Sans head to head
Public Sans is also a free alternative to…
- Aktiv Grotesk → Less contemporary than Aktiv Grotesk's polished cuts, but the same neutral grotesque foundation at body sizes. The right pick when restraint matters more than identity.
- Akzidenz-Grotesk → The US Web Design System's neutral grotesque. Workhorse-grade — the same plain-Jane voice as Akzidenz at body-text sizes, with permissive open-source licensing for commercial use.
- Aptos → The US government's neutral workhorse grotesque — plainspoken, evenly colored, and built for dense functional text, much like a Microsoft Office default aspires to be.
- Arial → Strong, even, and studiedly neutral — built for government interfaces and documents, it fills Arial's institutional role without Arial's baggage.
- Franklin Gothic → The U.S. government's open-source sans, forked from Libre Franklin and tidied for interfaces; Franklin's bones with slightly more neutral, screen-friendly manners.
- gg sans → Derived from Libre Franklin and often cited as a free Whitney stand-in — useful if you're matching Discord's pre-2022 look.
- Graphik → The US Web Design System's neutral grotesque. Drawn explicitly to be a workhorse without identity — exactly Graphik's stated intent. The right pick when neutrality is the brief.
- Gotham → The US Web Design System's neutral grotesque. Less geometrically pure than Gotham, but the same quiet workhorse register at body-copy sizes — and explicitly licensed for any government or commercial use.
- Helvetica → The US Web Design System's neutral grotesque. Workhorse-grade — the same plain-Jane voice as Helvetica at body-text sizes, with no surprises and a permissive open-source licence.
- Neue Haas Grotesk → The US Web Design System's neutral grotesque. The same plain-Jane workhorse register as Neue Haas Grotesk at body-text sizes, with permissive open-source licensing.
- SF Pro → The US government's open-source neutral grotesque, slightly narrower and plainer than Inter. Its no-nonsense evenness lands close to SF Pro Text in running UI copy.
- Söhne → The US Web Design System's neutral grotesque. Less sharply contemporary than Söhne, but occupies the same space at body-text sizes — when restraint matters more than identity.
- Univers → The US Web Design System's neutral grotesque. Univers's engineered, no-personality voice at body-text sizes — and explicitly licensed for any use.
- Whitney → The U.S. government's neutral gothic, forked from Libre Franklin and tuned for interfaces and dense information — institutional by literal mandate, like Whitney was by commission.
- Suisse Int'l → A stripped-back neo-grotesque built for the U.S. government design system, so neutrality and legibility are the whole brief. Plainer and less distinctive than Suisse Int'l, which is exactly why it works when the type should recede.
Display + body that work together
A grammar of empty space
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 Public Sans + Crimson Pro
Quiet type that does the work
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.
Editorial · Modern Playfair Display + Public Sans