2013 Font of the Year

Overall Font of the Year Proxima Nova

Was there ever any doubt? It's everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. In headers and body, big and small, websites and apps. And for good reason. It's elegant, simple and - above all - readable. Jolly good show, Proxima Nova.

Used at a median size of 25px for headers and 16px for body text.

  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use

Header Font of the Year Futura PT

It's been a staple with designers for decades; geometric and striking, particularly in caps... and that's how everyone has been using it this year.

Used at a median size of 25px with a range of 13px to 156px.

  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use

Body Font of the Year Open Sans

If you're not using Proxima Nova for your body text there's a good chance you've gone with Open Sans instead. Easily readable at almost any size and a favourite of the technorati.

Used at a median size of 15px with a range of 12px to 24px.

  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use

Honourable Mention Lato

Delicate in its lightest weight yet assertive in black. Softer than Futura but still serious. It sees a lot of action, and rightly so.

Used at a median size of 20px for headers and 18px for body text.

  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use
  • Proxima Nova in use

Notes on the 2013 review

This year the median size for headers was 27px and 16px for body text. Nice and big all around. Readability wins.

All the winners are sans serif fonts... but only by a whisker. Adelle narrowly lost out to Lato for the honourable mention.

670 samples were posted to Typ.io this year, featuring 459 fonts. The font of the year calculations are based on 244 of these samples - the ones with enough metadata available to tell font size and use (basically, those posted via the Chrome extension rather than the now-defunct bookmarklet).