The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Free font
Quicksand
A free alternative to Brandon Grotesque.
About Quicksand
Quicksand is a rounded geometric sans drawn by Andrew Paglinawan in 2008 and distributed through Google Fonts. Circular shapes and soft round terminals give it a friendly, faintly toy-like geometry, and it runs lighter and airier than most faces in the category — an airiness that reads as refinement at display sizes and as fragility in long text.
The soft-terminal language is Brandon Grotesque's, and Quicksand is strongest in the all-caps display settings where Brandon's rounded touch is most visible. Underneath sits a skeleton close to Kabel's, with the angled cuts of the 1927 Klingspor original swapped for round ends, which pushes the whole thing toward contemporary-startup rather than Weimar geometry. Against Speedee it offers a lighter, more refined route to the same circular mood. Set it large and in caps, and the rounded geometry does most of the work.
- Designer
- Andrew Paglinawan
- Released
- 2008
- Available at
- Google Fonts →
- Featured on
- 3 paid font pages
Quicksand is also a free alternative to…
- Brandon Grotesque → Quicksand uses the same soft-terminal language as Brandon, with rounded geometric forms. Strongest in all-caps display where Brandon's rounded touch is most obvious.
- Kabel → A rounded geometric that trades Kabel's angled cuts for soft round terminals, keeping the friendly, slightly toy-like geometry. It reads more contemporary-startup than 1927 Klingspor, but the underlying skeleton is close.
- Speedee → A geometric rounded sans that is lighter and airier than Speedee, but shares its circular shapes and soft terminals — best for a more refined take on the same mood.
Display + body that work together
The shape of a working week
A pairing is a relationship: one voice speaks first, the other answers, and the contrast between them sets the tone for the whole page.
Headlines, written under pressure
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.
Editorial · Modern Playfair Display + Quicksand