Abril Fatface Font: History, Pairings and How to Use It

Abril Fatface is a free, high-contrast display serif designed by Veronika Burian and José Scaglione of TypeTogether and released in 2011. Google Fonts carries one very heavy style, Regular 400, made for large headlines. It pairs best with a clean sans serif for body text, such as Lato, Poppins or Source Sans 3. Because it is a display font, use it for headings and choose a text font for paragraphs.

What Kind of Font Is Abril Fatface

Abril Fatface is a fat face: an extra-heavy version of the Didone, or modern, serif style. Didones have strong vertical stress, very thin hairlines and serifs, and thick main strokes, which gives them their crisp, high-contrast look. Fat faces push that contrast as far as it goes. The style first appeared in early 19th-century Britain, when printers needed letters that could be read from across the street on posters and handbills.

TypeTogether says Abril Fatface was inspired by the heavy titling fonts used on advertising posters in 19th-century Britain and France. The result keeps the drama of those posters but with cleaner curves and more even color, so it looks current rather than antique. Its round, ball-ended letters and tight spacing give headlines a confident, slightly glamorous feel.

Who Designed Abril Fatface

Abril Fatface comes from Abril, a larger type family that Veronika Burian and José Scaglione designed for newspapers, magazines and digital media. TypeTogether, their independent foundry, released Abril in 2011, and the family won Typographica’s Best Typefaces of 2011 and a gold prize at the 2012 European Design Awards.

The full Abril family is commercial and includes text weights for reading, display weights for headlines and matching italics. Abril Fatface is the one display style that TypeTogether made free under the SIL Open Font License. It sits between the Extrabold and Black display weights, which is why it looks so heavy even though it is labeled Regular.

When to Use Abril Fatface

Abril Fatface is a headline font. It looks its best large, at roughly 32 pixels and up on screen, where its thin hairlines have room to show. It works well for magazine and blog titles, posters, book covers, menus, product packaging, event and wedding invitations, and short logos or wordmarks. A single line of Abril Fatface can carry a whole layout, so it usually needs little else in the way of decoration.

Avoid it for body text, buttons and small labels. At small sizes the thin strokes break up and the heavy ones fill in, and long passages become tiring to read. Use it in title case or sentence case rather than long runs of capitals, and give headlines a slightly tight line height of about 1.1 to 1.2 so stacked lines read as one unit.

The Best Fonts to Pair with Abril Fatface

Because Abril Fatface is so loud, the best partners are quiet. A clean sans serif with a normal x-height is the classic choice, and a calm text serif works for more traditional pages. Each pair below is set in its own fonts, so you can see the contrast as you read.

Abril Fatface Font Pairings at a Glance

The six pairings above, side by side. Abril Fatface is used at its only weight, 400, in every case.

Fonts Similar to Abril Fatface

If you like the look but want a little less weight, or a slightly different flavor, these free Google Fonts are close relatives. Each one is shown with Lato as the body font so you can compare them directly.

How to Use Abril Fatface on Your Website

Abril Fatface is free on Google Fonts, so you can load it with a single line in your site’s head. Open a pairing above and select Use These Fonts on its page to copy the exact code for that pair, including the CSS for headings and body text.

One detail matters more with Abril Fatface than with most fonts. It has only one weight, so set your headings to font-weight: 400. Many themes make headings bold by default, and when a font has no bold, the browser fakes one by thickening the letters, which smudges the thin hairlines. The same goes for italics: Google Fonts has no Abril Fatface italic, so avoid italic headlines or the browser will slant the letters artificially.

Using Abril Fatface in Canva, Google Docs, Word and Figma

Abril Fatface is built into Canva’s font list, so you can choose it from the font menu with no upload. In Google Docs, open the font menu, choose More fonts and search for Abril Fatface. Figma includes Google Fonts by default, so it is available there too.

For Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or other desktop apps, download the font from Google Fonts, install the file on your computer, then restart the app. If you share the document with others, they need the font installed too, or export a PDF to keep the look intact.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about the Abril Fatface font.

Is Abril Fatface Free for Commercial Use?

Yes. Abril Fatface is released under the SIL Open Font License, which allows personal and commercial use, including logos, websites, printed products and designs you sell. The only thing you cannot do is sell the font files on their own.

Does Abril Fatface Have Bold or Italic Styles?

Not on Google Fonts. The free version has one style, Regular 400, which is already about as heavy as a Black weight. Italics and other weights exist in the commercial Abril family from TypeTogether.

Is Abril Fatface a Serif Font?

Yes. It is a high-contrast display serif in the Didone tradition, specifically a fat face, the extra-heavy poster style that became popular in 19th-century Britain.

Can You Use Abril Fatface for Body Text?

It is not a good idea. Abril Fatface is designed for large sizes, and its thin strokes and heavy weight make paragraphs hard to read. Pair it with a sans serif such as Lato or Source Sans 3 for body text instead.

What Font Is Similar to Abril Fatface?

DM Serif Display is the closest lighter alternative, and Playfair Display at weight 900 is the closest match in darkness. Bodoni Moda and Gloock are also good high-contrast choices, all free on Google Fonts.