Mulish Font: History, Pairings and How to Use It

Mulish is a free minimalist sans serif first drawn by Vernon Adams in 2011 and later completed by Jacques Le Bailly. It runs from ExtraLight 200 to Black 900 with italics, and its variable weight axis reaches 1000. It is a clean, quiet choice for headings and body text, and a free stand-in for Proxima Nova and Avenir.

Where Mulish Came From

Vernon Adams drew the first version of Mulish in 2011 as a minimalist sans serif for both display and text. He refined it until 2014, adding weights, support for more Latin languages and tighter spacing and kerning, much of it based on feedback from hundreds of users. After Adams passed away, Jacques Le Bailly completed the work in 2017, in collaboration with Adams’s wife Allison, an artist who holds the trademark on the family name. In August 2019 it gained a variable weight axis.

Mulish is released under the SIL Open Font License, so anyone can use it on websites, in apps and in print without paying. Older projects may know it as Muli, the name it carried on Google Fonts before it became Mulish.

What Mulish Looks Like

Mulish is a minimalist sans with simple shapes, round bowls and almost no contrast between thick and thin strokes. The curves feel geometric, but the letters are not as wide as Montserrat, so lines of text stay compact and even. The mood is clean, light and calm.

In the lighter weights Mulish looks airy and refined, which suits large, quiet headings. At 400 it is comfortable for paragraphs, and the bolder weights stay smooth without looking heavy or rough. It covers Latin, Cyrillic and Vietnamese, so it can carry multilingual sites.

Weights and Styles

Mulish comes in eight named weights, from ExtraLight 200 to Black 900, each with a true italic. It is a variable font, and its weight axis runs from 200 all the way to 1000, so you can go a step heavier than Black for very bold display text.

For most sites, 400 works for body text, 600 for labels and 700 or 800 for headings. Light 300 is worth using for large, calm display lines. Try Mulish at 700 for headings and 400 for text.

Where Mulish Works Best

Mulish suits websites that want a clean, modern look without much personality getting in the way: business sites, software products, blogs, online shops and portfolios. Its light weights fit beauty, fashion and wellness brands, and it works well for resumes. Because it is so quiet, a more expressive heading font can give the page its character while Mulish carries the body text.

Fonts That Pair Well with Mulish

Mulish pairs well with serifs that have some contrast, which give the page warmth and a clear difference between headings and text. Elegant display serifs suit fashion and lifestyle sites, while sturdy text serifs suit blogs and editorial pages. There is no Mulish pairing page on this site yet, so these links show partners that work and similar pairings with a clean sans body:

• Source Serif 4, a calm serif for headings or body
• Newsreader, an editorial serif with character
• Montserrat, wide geometric headings over Mulish text
• Playfair Display and Source Sans 3, a high-contrast serif over a clean sans
• Cormorant Garamond and Lato, an elegant serif over a light sans

Mulish as a Proxima Nova and Avenir Alternative

Proxima Nova and Avenir are paid sans fonts that are common on websites and in branding. Mulish shares their clean, even strokes and simple, round shapes, and its light, calm tone sits especially close to Avenir. It gives a polished look for free, with a full range of weights and italics.

For more free options, see the Proxima Nova alternatives and the Avenir alternatives.

How to Use Mulish on Your Site

Load Mulish from Google Fonts with the CSS in the Use This Font panel, then set it as the font for the whole page. List system-ui and sans-serif after it, so text still looks clean while the font loads. Request only the weights you need to keep the download small. If an older theme still loads Muli, switch it to Mulish so you get the current version of the design.

Frequently Asked Questions

Quick answers about Mulish.

Is Mulish Free for Commercial Use?

Yes. Mulish is released under the SIL Open Font License, so you can use it on commercial websites, in apps, in logos and in print without paying or asking permission.

Is Mulish the Same as Muli?

Yes, in origin. Mulish is the current name of the font Google Fonts used to list as Muli, and it includes later updates such as the variable weight axis.

What Is the Best Font to Pair with Mulish?

A serif with some contrast makes the best partner. Try Source Serif 4 or Newsreader for headings over Mulish text, or use Mulish for everything and switch weights for headings.