2016 has been one of the best years for type design in decades. The lettering craze has pushed a lot of illustrators towards digitizing their work. There’s a ton of great font software available these days. And with typography now recognized as one of the most important aspects of a website, everyone wants in on the act.

In past years we’ve seen a few narrow trends dominating, but so far this year it’s very diverse. There’s fewer crazy experimental typefaces around, but also fewer staid sans-serifs; everyone’s meeting somewhere in the middle. Today I’ve compiled a list of the best free fonts that have been released, or received a major update, since the start of the year. There’s plenty to get stuck into, lots of really useful workhorses, and one or two playful inclusions. Browse through, try them out, and as always if you use them in a project, let us know!

Fibon Sans

Cloud Sans

Qanelas Soft

Maquinada

Nocturno BG

Moderan

Antre

Patrona

Cataleya

Reckless

Cenotaph

Maxwell

Slabbo

Peach Tea

Balans

Kust

Tapas ES

Suelta

Tattoo

Water Plant

Kiwi

Pangram (Personal Use)

Elder

No Fancy Name

Bluegrass Outline

Mosk

Gamer

Mi Teiyng Script

Meteora

Rombomb

Hadron Sans

Savone

Yozakura

Neptune Harbour

Dirty Lines Script

Fela

Turum

Leoscar

Chocoleta

Fvriosa

Fifty Five

PhotoCab

Lemour Serif

Tavolga

Orkney

Heyro

Original

Iceland

Outsiders

New York

Brooks

Elixia

Allison

Hasta Grotesk

Trocchi Sans

Blanka

Sukar

Yunus

Gutenberg

Gotu

Geoglyph

Stereo (Personal Only)

Bajern

Blern

Apricity

Bitter HT

Adi Sans

Hovel

Ordnung

LeParisien

Norwester

Mister Rooster

Bebop Slab

Polt

36 Days of Type

Ambarella

Duwhoers

Cajito

La Tour

Coves

Okomito

Jeboy (Personal Only)

Arc

Surco (Trial Only)

Monogram Rounded

Queulat

Syabab Brush

Números

Sedici

Jellee

Alien Child

Muller Narrow

Three

Ginebra

Andis

Erial

Mercurial

Kayak

Tommy Lee