Are you looking for the best serif fonts? If you are, then we’ve got you covered!
For many designers, when it comes to designing a clean and elegant logo for a company, using a Serif font in their designs helps to add a little bit of flair, class & sophistication to the brand.
A serif font is easily identified by the “little feet” that appear at the ends of the letters being used. Searching for Serif fonts can lead you down the proverbial rabbit hole with all of the options there are to choose from.
To offer a bit of help, we wanted to focus on ten of our favorite Serif fonts you can use when branding or designing a logo with a clean and sophisticated look.
Now, you may have your own favorite Serif font and it may or may not appear on our list, but we recommend taking a closer look at the options presented here, some of which are revivals of the classics, ensuring your logo has a unique character to it.
Who knows, you may find a new font that you end up using for years to come.
See here for the best sans-serif fonts for clean & minimal logo design as well as the top fonts professionals use.
10+ Best Serif Fonts for Beautiful Logo Design & Branding
- Hermann
- Recoleta
- Blacker
- ITC Lubalin Graph
- Linotype Didot
- Begum
- ITC Caslon No. 224
- Sabon
- Bookmania
- Gabriela Stencil
For the full list, scroll on.
Also see Best Modern Serif Fonts and Best Round Serif Fonts
UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS: 50 Million+ Fonts & Design Assets
Download all the Serif Fonts you need and many other design elements, available for a monthly subscription by subscribing to Envato Elements. The subscription costs $16.50 per month and gives you unlimited access to a massive and growing library of over 50 million items that can be downloaded as often as you need (stock photos too)!
19+ Best Serif Fonts for Modern, Stylish & Beautiful Designs
Below we list the most beautiful serif fonts and aesthetic serif fonts so you can the best serif font for your needs!
We feature modern serif fonts, bold serif fonts, and popular serif fonts so you have a wide range to choose from.
1. Hermann
Designed in 2018 by Diego Aravena and Salvador Rodriguez, the Hermann font family is one of the design teams’ most readable fonts available so far. Looking at the works of Herman Hesse and Aldous Huxley for inspiration, the team found the concepts of duality, surrealism, and wildness frequently appeared, fueling the design process.
Designed to not only be an accurate font when it comes to legibility but can also present a feeling of being wild and bold. Available in ten different variations including italic and bold, the Hermann font is inspired by the novels of the 20th century and their worlds, taking its name from one of the most prolific authors of that era.
2. Recoleta
Like a melting pot, Recoleta combines many different aspects from fonts of the past to create something new, fresh, and with a modern flavor. By taking the soft and gentle shapes found in the Cooper font and the fluid angled strokes in Windsor, designer Jorge Cisterna has blended together a beautiful and familiar font that looks amazing in a logo or on a business card, giving them a look that’s unique
Available in a variety of weights, this font gives you the options you need to choose the best typographic color for whatever project you’re working on. While body text works well with a lighter weight, if you’re writing headlines, heavier weights are ideal.
The Recoleta font can make any design stand out like in the Waves to Wilderness logo.
3. Blacker
A wedge serif type font, Blacker was designed to be a take on the “evil serif” typeface genre. The high contrast, sharp wedge serif design was created by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Andrea Tartarelli who were looking to evoke the proportions of fonts used in the 1970s.
Using the Latin alphabet, Blacker features an extended character set that covers more than seventy languages, including Russian Cyrillic. Small caps, fractions, alternate forms, four sets of figures, as well as superior and inferior figures, and discretionary ligatures are all features of the Blacker font family.
4. ITC Lubalin Graph
While it is technically a slab-serif font, the ITC Lubalin Graph font helps convey a no-nonsense look, that while strong, can be perfect for a modern design, especially with lighter weights.
ITC Lubalin Graph is a 1974 design that is based on an earlier sans serif font that was designed by Herb Lubalin, ITC Avant Garde. The character shapes may be identical between the two designs although Lubalin Graph adds a slab serif feature.
Designed to look good in applications from headlines to packaging, this is an extremely versatile font family.
5. Linotype Didot
Designed by Adrian Frutiger, the Linotype Didot font pays respect and tribute to one of the most important print shops and font foundries in France during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Didot family were active designers as well as printers, typeface designers, inventors, intellectuals as well as publishers during this era.
Frutiger’s Linotype Didot design is a sensitive interpretation of the French Modern Face Didot font and gives any text you use, a classic and elegant feel and at the same time paying respect to the original Didot family.
A truly stylish serif font, perfect for logo design, branding and fashion.
6. Begum
A Latin display serif typeface with contrast, the Begum font family has an ultra-contemporary appearance and shares DNA with other Anglo-Dutch font types such as Caslon, Fleischmann, or Times, with a slightly exotic feel.
Designed by Manushi Parikh, the Begum font truly shines when used with texts of a shorter length, article introductions that are multiple lines, and even on packaging.
7. ITC Caslon No. 224
Designed in 1983 for the International Typeface Corporation by Ed Benguiat, ITC Caslon 224 was designed to be a modern-day interpretation of the Caslon typeface.
With eight font weights ranging from Standard to Standard Black Italic, ITC Caslon 224 has a large x-height, a very high contrast between thin and thick strokes, and also provides transitions between the different weights smoothly.
8. Sabon
In the 1960s, a new typeface was requested by the German Master Printers’ Association to be designed and produced identically on both Linotype and Monotype machines in order for both the text and technical composition would match. Jan Tschichold was commissioned to use Claude Garamond’s classical and serene Roman font and design a new version.
Sabon succeeds although its bold and italic styles are limited by Linotype casting machine requirements. This forces the character widths to match between different styles and also gives the italic typeface its characteristic narrow f.
9. Bookmania
With 10 styles, 658 swashes, and a multitude of expert features, Bookmania is a font that any logo design can benefit from.
Designed by Mark Simonson in 2011, the Bookmania font type has all of the features that you may expect to appear when using a modern digital font family. As a revival of the Bookman Oldstyle, designed in 1901, and the Bookman font family from the 1960s, the Bookmania font family has the features that you need to make your logo design excel.
10. Gabriela Stencil
Designed by Antonio Mejia in 2016, Gabriela Stencil has a unique character while being part of a classic font family. Well-suited for headlines & fancy logos, the font emphasizes the modern and elegant personality that the font features and has been inspired by the style found with the Didone typefaces from the 19th century.
Also ideal for branding, short text, and publishing projects, Gabriela Stencil is a highly readable font with an x-height sized at 50% of the cap height, along with short ascenders and descenders. Available in six styles, the font family contains a 433-character set that supports over 200 different languages.
UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS: 400,000+ Fonts & Design Assets
All the Serif Fonts you need and many other design elements are available for a monthly subscription by subscribing to Envato Elements. The subscription costs ~$16.50 per month and give you unlimited access to a massive and growing library of 400,000+ items that can be downloaded as often as you need (stock photos too)!
11. Bridesmaid
Bridesmaid font is a new product and is also named Britain Rough Serif Font. This font is suitable for fun-themed, and classic vintage-themed projects. This font is also suitable for posters, apparel, badge, labels, and emblems.
12. Darius
Darius is a keen-edged serif font, intended for headlines and bold typography. If you’re looking for a quotation poster, magazine cover, or the occasional lawyer logo, Darius wouldn’t make a bad first choice.
Download all the Fonts you need and many other design elements, available for a monthly subscription by subscribing to Envato Elements.
Get unlimited access to a massive and growing library of 14 Million+ items.
13. Montage Serif Font
The Montage Serif font works best with Cricut, Silhouette, Photoshops, Illustrator, Procreate, InDesign, and Canva Pro. This font looks subtle and elegant, so it works for clean and classy logos, titles, and headlines.
14. Sundays Modern Serif Font
The Sundays Modern Serif Font draws inspiration from fonts like Baskerville. This font has a modern and classic touch that you can use for magazines, catalogs, mastheads, logos, and headers. This font features subtle curves and minimal serifs, which gives the font an elegant look.
15. Hughe Serif Font Family
The Hughe Serif Font is a classy-looking font. This serif font is ideal for logos, posters, brochures, presentations, quotes, invitations, movie titles, magazines, book covers, branding, Halloween, Christmas, and Thanksgiving cards, packaging design, and many more creative projects.
This font features four styles such as regular, light, round, soft, and bold. This serif font contains uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation, and special characters. The Hughe Serif font family has OTF and TTF file formats. This serif font also supports multilingual characters.
16. Floreal Serif Font
Floreal is a sophisticated, modern, and fancy serif font with a hint of fashion. For websites, magazines, business cards, logos, tags, or any other broadcasting objectives, floral produces the greatest results.
Regular and true italic are the two fonts available in floral. It has elements like ligatures that help elevate and distinguish your project. This typeface has strong typographic legibility and has a good range for those with dyslexia.
17. Ferly Serif Font
Ferly is a magnificent, delicate font with multilingual support. A very adaptable font, Ferly produces the best results in both large and small sizes. The ideal applications for this font include magazine headings, advertising campaigns, home décor designs, product packaging, and adding attractive text to any backdrop image.
Ferly offers the finest results for promoting expensive and ostentatious goods like jewelry, diamonds, etc. The uppercase, punctuation, symbol, and number features of Ferly are available.
Our Favorite Serif Fonts
Still undecided? Below we’ve hand-selected our favorite 12 serif fonts from the list.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a serif font?
Serif fonts are classic, elegant fonts popularized by their use in mainstream media. Serif fonts are characterized by their sleek, thin lines paired with broad strokes and endings that have a flair at the tips. Due to the common use of these fonts, they’ve acquired an impression of elegance and trustworthiness in the branding world.
What is the best serif font overall?
Hermann is the best serif font overall. Unlike the usual standard serif fonts, Hermann is a font that is dynamic and has a flair to it.
What are the most popular serif fonts?
What are some of the good modern serif fonts for branding?
What is the best stencil serif font?
Gabriela Stencil is the best stencil serif font to use for clean logo design.
What is the difference between a traditional font and a contemporary font?
While traditional serif fonts are classy yet stiff, contemporary fonts are more adventurous. For example, Sabon, although an elegant traditional font, is less dynamic when compared to a font like Hermann.
What should I do when using Serif font?
The following are ideal actions you can follow while using serif fonts:
- It's a classic move to use serif fonts with sans serif. For example, you can pair serif headings with sans serif for body content in digital environments.
- Establishing a clear hierarchy is vital in printing materials. Prefer serif fonts for all your branded printing materials.
- Logo creates an identity for your brand. Having a professional yet attractive logo for your business is mandatory and you may use serif fonts to achieve this goal.
What Shouldn’t I do when using Serif font?
It's also important to know what not to do when using serif fonts for your logo design.
- When going for long-form content, it’s best to avoid serif fonts.
- Serif fonts give you a clean and elegant look, so if you want a modern and futuristic logo, then you must avoid using Serif fonts.
What does a Serif font say about your brand?
Serif fonts best suit companies who want their brand to look serious, established, and reputable. The distinctive characteristics of serif fonts give the viewers a feeling of trustworthiness, confidence, and elegance.
Can I use only one Serif font for overall designs?
You can prefer a serif font that has different weights and styles, such as thin, light, thick, bold, semi-bold, extra bold, etc. These variations make your design versatile and convey different messages.
Best Serif Fonts for Clean & Modern Logo Design Summary
Using a clean and stylish serif font in your logo design not only makes it sophisticated but can also add a bit of exciting flair to your design.
There are so many different, well-designed serif fonts that are available for any graphic designer to use.
We hope that our list of the ‘best professional serif fonts for logo design’ can provide you with some options you might not have considered before and inspires you.
More Top Font Compilations
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- The Top 100 Best Fonts Of All Time
Do you have a favorite serif font that you use in your logo designs?
Let us know in the comments below.
Infographic: What your Logo’s Font Says About Your Brand
Thanks to Brand Marketing Blog for the below infographic.
Really nice article, We are going to use these tips for future designs of our clients.