Free Alternatives to Microsoft Fonts Part 1: Papyrus

Typography can be a tricky beast to master. It has a history going back to Gutenberg and his letterpress, and has more complications and established conventions than the IRS. Choosing the proper type face (or font) can make graphic work come alive and communicate its message, or doom it to the hell that is the draft pile.

Starting in the mid-'90s, Microsoft started releasing quirky fonts with Windows and Office. Small business owners everywhere rejoiced in that they had fonts to make their own logos, signage, brochures, and other promotional materials. However, people have a bad habit of using whatever fonts come pre-installed on their computers, no matter how inappropriate for the context they are. In this ongoing series, we're going to examine these default fonts and suggest free alternatives that will give your designs the proper voice they need to communicate your message.

Papyrus is one of the fonts that has been heavily abused. Its over-use has striped away all mean it can convey. It has been used for everything from book covers, iPhone apps, bakery menus, apartment signs, video game covers, and more. Even McDonald's has succumbed to the inappropriate use of Papyrus. There is an entire Flickr photo pool devoted to real-life examples where this font has been used and abused. It seems that with the recent "green" movement, Papyrus has been the de-facto font for all thing natural or earthy.

But people, it doesn't have to be this way. There are many sites out there that have oodles of free fonts available for download. I've searched high and low, and found some great free fonts to use as a substitute for Papyrus.

Bodini Hand

Bodini Hand is a take on an old typewriter that's seen its share of wear and tear. This slab serif type face has a weathered look and uneven strokes. This would be the perfect type face for something that needs to look vintage, but still natural and substantial.

Clerica

Clerica is a little bit fancier, with its swooshes on some caps and the ascenders of the lower case letters. This one would be perfect in situations where a bit of down-to-earth elegance is needed, such as menus for a high-end natural foods restaurant.

Film Cryptic

Film Cryptic and Licinia Aged (below) are the closest you can get to Papyrus without actually taking the leap into boring overuse. It has a bit of a playful feel with the curved descenders on the Ys and Gs, and has some handwriting characteristics with the slighty curvy Ls. This would be a nice font substitutions for the more casual settings of Papyrus.

1543 Humane Jensen

1543 Humane Jensen is a beautiful serif font with nice text figure numbers. People who love typography often say ampersands are their favorite character, and Jensen has a nicely distressed one.

Licinia Aged

As I said above, along with Film Cryptic, Licinia Aged is the closet you can get to Papyrus without actually using it. It has a bit of a calligraphic feel to it, with the hard strokes on the start of letters, and a lovely semi-double barrel lowercase G. This typeface could use a little reduction in the letter spacing to make it really nice.

Old Rubber Stamp

Old Rubber Stamp lives up to its name in that it looks like it was a big "PAID" stamp made by an old man wearing an accountant's visor while doing bookkeeping. The letters are very worn and distressed, giving it a very natural feel. I can picture this one fitting right in on brown paper bag packaging.

Poma

Poma has the feel as if it was written with a Sharpie (my writing instrument of choice!). It has very nice attention to line weights on the up and down strokes. The only downside to this font is it is all capital letters which somewhat limits its use. I can see this one on outdoor signs where readability is a must.

LL Rubber Grotesque

Despite its name, LL Rubber Grotesque is anything but. It is a nice condensed sans-serif font with a slightly distressed look. It looks slightly like it came from a rubber stamp, which the wide letter spacing reinforces.

Do you have any other great fonts you like to use in your designs to convey nature, earthy things, or in ancient contexts? Leave more suggestions in the comments.