Are you in love with Oswald’s clean, modern style? Are you wondering what font is similar to Oswald that you can use in your next project?
Today, we’re going to look at the history and characteristics of the Oswald font family and then share a few cool fonts similar to Oswald that you’ll just love from Envato Elements and GraphicRiver.
Oswald Font History
Oswald is a free, open-source sans-serif font available from Google Fonts. It was designed in 2011 by Vernon Adams, who was inspired to rework the classic style of the ‘Alternate Gothic’ sans serif typefaces to better fit the pixel grid of standard digital screens.
It is designed to be used freely across the internet by web browsers on computers and other mobile devices and is also included in the Adobe Fonts library, making it easily accessible to designers.
Oswald was updated continually by Adams until his untimely death in 2014. After that, it was updated in 2016 by Kalapi Gajjar and Alexei Vanyashin to support languages that use the Cyrillic script, and again in 2019 with a variable font weight axis.
Oswald Font Characteristics
Oswald is a clean, modern, condensed sans serif that is known for its simplicity and legibility. These characteristics have made it one of the most popular fonts for professional designers and dabblers alike. Oswald type is available in seven weights, from extra light to heavy.
Common Uses for the Oswald Type
Characteristics like clean lines and legibility make Oswald perfect for use in both body text and headlines. It excels, however, when used for advertisements, portfolios, and signage.
17 Fonts Similar to Oswald
Now that you know more about the history and characteristics of the Oswald sans serif font, let’s look at a curated selection of fonts similar to Oswald from Envato Elements and GraphicRiver.
Mriya Grotesk (OTF, TTF, WOFF, EOT, SVG)
If you love the simplicity and clean lines of Oswald, Mriya Grotesk is a font most similar to Oswald that you need to consider as a great alternative. The type comes in four weights—light, regular, bold, and heavy—and is an excellent choice for body text, headlines, logotypes, branding, and more.
Kanetin Beautiful Sans Serif Font (OTF, TTF, WOFF)
How about Kanetin when you are looking for a font similar to Oswald Bold? With the full complement of upper and lowercase characters, numerals, and punctuation, this is a great choice for your next advertising or branding project.
Celesta Sans Serif Font (OTF, TTF, WOFF, EOT, SVG)
A clean and minimalist sans serif, Celesta offers regular, medium, semibold, bold, and extra bold weights, each with an oblique version. Check out the wide selection of preview images showing Celesta in use both as a display font and for body text, so you’ll have a good idea of how the font works in real life.
Ashdon Sans Serif Font (OTF)
Ashdon Sans shares the clean legibility of Oswald, so if you are looking for a font similar to Oswald bold, regular, and light, look no further than Ashdon Sans.
Industrial Sans Typeface (OTF, TTF)
Industrial is just what you need when you’re looking for an Oswald sans serif font alternative with softer curves. The type comes in three weights, so you can use it for body text or projects that demand enlarged type, like posters, signage, and more.
AS Grammatika (OTF)
Whether you need a font similar to Oswald bold or light, AS Grammatika has you covered. It offers five different weights from light to heavy, each with an oblique version.
Devina Rodent Sans Serif Font Family (OTF, TTF, WOFF, EOT, SVG)
With its clean style and wide range of variations across nine weights, Devina Rodent is a great Oswald type alternative. Use it for a wide variety of projects from stationery to logos, magazine or book covers, website headers, branding, and more.
Albori Sans-Serif (OTF)
With slightly more curves than Oswald, Albori is a choice to consider when you are looking for Oswald with a bit extra. This contemporary OpenType font is great for both display text and body text, and it supports both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets.
Exensa Grotesk (OTF, TTF, WOFF, EOT, SVG)
Exensa Grotesk is a great choice when you are looking for a font most similar to Oswald with all five weights included. That’s because Exensa offers light, regular, bold, extra bold, and black weights that you can use in just about any project your heart desires.
Articulat CF (OTF)
Looking for Oswald bold font alternatives? How about Articulat, an excellent modern font with clean, bold lines that’s terrific when you need to create text that commands attention. Articulat comes with ten weights, obliques, alternates, and multilingual support.
Neohead Condensed Sans Serif Font (OTF)
Neohead is another great choice when you are looking for an Oswald bold font lookalike. This modern, minimalist, condensed font offers perfectly balanced spacing, making it both functional and readable in small or large sizes.
Bobcat Modern Typeface (OTF, TTF, WOFF, EOT, SVG)
Sleek and simple, Bobcat is a modern and minimal Sans Serif typeface that’s a great alternative for Oswald type.
Bergman Sans Font (OTF, TTF)
Like the Oswald font family, Bergman Sans is carefully designed for high legibility and clarity. It offers upper and lowercase characters, numbers, punctuation, and full multilingual capabilities. This font is good for logo design, movies, books, magazine titles, and other projects where a strong display font is needed.
Tessan Sans Modern Typeface (OTF, TTF, WOFF, EOT, SVG)
Tessan Sans is a modern sans serif headline typeface offered in light, regular, and bold. Like Oswald, it’s a great choice for display text for a wide range of projects.
Prox (OTF, TTF, WOFF, EOT, SVG)
This contemporary sans serif typeface is well suited for setting text in both large and small sizes. It has a slightly squarer proportion than Oswald but is nevertheless a great alternative.
Bamba Grotesk Sans Serif Font (OTF, TTF, WOFF, EOT, SVG)
Bamba Grotesk offers the same versatility as the Oswald font family, so when you are looking for a font most similar to Oswald, this is a great choice. Bamba offers upper and lowercase characters, ligatures, alternate characters, fractions, slashed zero, pro kerning, and more.
Maleo Nova Sans Serif Font (OTF, TTF, WOFF, EOT, SVG)
Let’s round off our list of fonts similar to Oswald with Maleo Nova, a high-impact display typeface that would make an unforgettable title, poster, or magazine cover. It’s the perfect choice when you want to make a bold statement.
Choose Your Favourite Oswald Font Alternative
In this article, we’ve explored the history and characteristics of the Oswald font family, and we’ve gone through a list of fonts similar to Oswald. Follow the links to check them out at Envato Elements and GraphicRiver and download your favourite.
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