70s Fonts
1970s type is soft, round and heavy: fat display faces, swashy serifs and groovy shapes inspired by psychedelia and Cooper Black. These free fonts recreate the look.
By Mohamed Farhan · Updated Oct 19, 2026
01Caprasimo
Best for: Logos and headlinesA free take on the soft, chunky Cooper Black look that defined 70s ads and album covers. Caprasimo captures the soft, chunky, rounded serif style of Cooper Black, with bulbous terminals that look friendly and nostalgic.
02Shrikhand
Best for: Posters and packagingA bold, curvy display face with a strong retro personality. Shrikhand is a bold, curvy display face influenced by Gujarati lettering, with an italic flow that feels instantly retro.
03Righteous
Best for: Music and eventsRounded, art-deco-meets-70s display letters. Righteous mixes rounded geometric forms with art deco touches, useful when you want a lighter retro feel than Cooper-style faces.
04Chango
Best for: TitlesExtra-heavy, fun shapes for big, punchy titles. Chango is extremely heavy and rounded, ideal for short, punchy titles and logos.
05Sansita Swashed
Best for: Labels and merchSwashy, bouncy letterforms with a groovy feel. Sansita Swashed adds playful swashes to a bold sans, great for labels, stickers and merch.
06Fraunces
Best for: Editorial headlinesA soft, 'wonky' old-style serif inspired by 70s display serifs. Fraunces is a variable 'old-style soft serif' inspired by early 20th-century faces like Windsor; its softer, wonkier settings feel very 70s.
A short history of 70s fonts
1970s typography was shaped by phototypesetting, which made it cheap to set type very large and very tight. Designers pushed letters together until they touched, and soft, heavy display faces like Cooper Black, ITC Avant Garde, Windsor and ITC Souvenir appeared everywhere, from album covers and food packaging to TV titles. The decade's psychedelic and counterculture influences added swashes, curves and warm earthy colors to the mix.
Compare at a glance
| Font | Best for | License | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caprasimo | Logos and headlines | Free (open source) | Aa Gg 123 |
| Shrikhand | Posters and packaging | Free (open source) | Aa Gg 123 |
| Righteous | Music and events | Free (open source) | Aa Gg 123 |
| Chango | Titles | Free (open source) | Aa Gg 123 |
| Sansita Swashed | Labels and merch | Free (open source) | Aa Gg 123 |
| Fraunces | Editorial headlines | Free (open source) | Aa Gg 123 |
How to use 70s fonts
70s fonts work for food and drink packaging, retro merch, music and festival posters, cafes and vintage-inspired brands. Use one heavy display face for headlines and logos, set tight, and pair it with a simple sans for everything else. Warm palettes of mustard, burnt orange, olive and brown complete the look.
How to choose between them
- Caprasimo if you need logos and headlines. A free take on the soft, chunky Cooper Black look that defined 70s ads and album covers.
- Shrikhand if you need posters and packaging. A bold, curvy display face with a strong retro personality.
- Righteous if you need music and events. Rounded, art-deco-meets-70s display letters.
- Chango if you need titles. Extra-heavy, fun shapes for big, punchy titles.
- Sansita Swashed if you need labels and merch. Swashy, bouncy letterforms with a groovy feel.
- Fraunces if you need editorial headlines. A soft, 'wonky' old-style serif inspired by 70s display serifs.
Tested font pairings
A chunky retro headline over a clean modern sans keeps the look playful but readable.
Curvy display type with a simple grotesque for posters and menus.
One variable family: soft and wonky for headlines, calmer for text.
Add it to your site
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Caprasimo&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">.heading {
font-family: "Caprasimo", sans-serif;
}Pairing and tips
Pair a heavy 70s display face with a simple sans like Work Sans or DM Sans so the body stays readable.
- Use warm 70s colors: mustard, burnt orange, olive and chocolate brown.
- Tighten letter-spacing on soft fat fonts so letters almost touch, a classic 70s move.
- Keep 70s fonts for headings; they are too heavy for paragraphs.
Each font at a glance
- Caprasimo is a display face best for logos and headlines. Fallback stack: "Caprasimo", sans-serif. It pairs well with DM Sans.
- Shrikhand is a display face best for posters and packaging. Fallback stack: "Shrikhand", sans-serif. It pairs well with Work Sans.
- Righteous is a display face best for music and events. Fallback stack: "Righteous", sans-serif. Pair it with a neutral sans for body text.
- Chango is a display face best for titles. Fallback stack: "Chango", sans-serif. Pair it with a neutral sans for body text.
- Sansita Swashed is a display face best for labels and merch. Fallback stack: "Sansita Swashed", sans-serif. Pair it with a neutral sans for body text.
- Fraunces is a serif best for editorial headlines. Fallback stack: "Fraunces", serif. Pair it with a neutral sans for body text.
Readability and accessibility
Many 70s fonts include decorative faces that trade readability for character. A good rule is to use expressive type for a few words at large sizes and a plain, readable font for anything people need to read carefully, such as instructions, prices and form labels.
Keep text contrast at 4.5:1 or higher, set body text at 16px or larger, and keep line lengths between roughly 45 and 75 characters. Avoid all caps for long passages and do not rely on a font's style alone to communicate meaning. If your audience includes people with dyslexia or low vision, test with real users and offer generous line spacing, which helps more than any single typeface.
Colors and layouts that suit this style
70s type shines on warm backgrounds with mustard, burnt orange, olive and brown, combined with rainbow stripes, sunbursts, rounded shapes and slightly grainy textures that recall printed posters and album sleeves.
Common mistakes
- Setting heavy display fonts too small, where the counters fill in.
- Using cool modern colors, which makes the type look out of place.
- Leaving default letter-spacing; authentic 70s headlines are set tight.
Recommended sizes
- Display faces (Caprasimo, Shrikhand, Righteous, Chango, Sansita Swashed): use at 32px (2rem) and above, ideally for one or two lines. Below that, details fill in and readability drops.
- Serif faces (Fraunces): readable from about 14px for interface text, 16 to 18px for long reading, and any larger size for headings.
Licensing and commercial use
Every font on this page is free and open source on Google Fonts. Most use the SIL Open Font License, and a few use the Apache License; both allow commercial use in websites, apps, logos, print and products. You can self-host the files, modify them and bundle them in software, but you cannot sell the fonts on their own.
For logos, a free font is fine legally, but remember that others can use the same font. If the logo is a long-term brand asset, consider customizing the letterforms so it is distinctive.
Loading fonts without slowing your site
- Load only the weights and styles you actually use. Each extra weight is another file to download.
- Use font-display: swap (included in the Google Fonts link above) so text shows immediately in a fallback font and swaps when the web font arrives.
- Add preconnect hints for fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com, or self-host the files on your own domain for the fastest, most private loading.
- Prefer variable fonts when available: one file can cover every weight.
- Define a sensible fallback stack, such as "Caprasimo", sans-serif, so the layout looks right even before the font loads.
See Caprasimo in a full design
Generate a landing page or app screen set in this font with Inspo AI, then swap fonts and colors with a prompt.
Sources and further reading
- Google Fonts · Every font on this page is available here for free.
- SIL Open Font License FAQ · What the most common Google Fonts license allows.
- Google Fonts FAQ · Licensing and commercial use of Google Fonts.
- MDN: font-family · How font stacks and fallbacks work.
More font guides
Questions people ask
What font was popular in the 70s?
Cooper Black, ITC Avant Garde, Windsor and swashy display serifs were everywhere in 70s advertising and album art.
Is there a free Cooper Black?
Cooper Black itself is old enough that some versions are widely available, but Caprasimo is a free Google Font with the same soft, chunky style.
What colors go with 70s fonts?
Mustard yellow, burnt orange, olive green, brown and cream are the classic 70s palette.
What is the Cooper Black font?
Cooper Black is a heavy, soft serif designed by Oswald Cooper in the 1920s. It became iconic in the 1970s on album covers, packaging and signage.
How do I make a 70s style poster?
Use a heavy rounded display font set tight, warm earthy colors, simple shapes like sunbursts or stripes, and a slightly grainy texture.
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