13 fearsome free fonts for Halloween

Halloween fonts will come in useful later this month, when the spookiest day of the year is upon us. Perfect for ghoulish party invites or terrifying banners, our selection of fonts give you the chance to let your dark side loose. Without the ideal level of spooky, your completed design might not get everyone screaming. 

We've rounded up 13 of our favourite fonts, the more gruesome the better. These are all free and can be used for commercial projects. Too scary for you? Try our collection of non-Halloween free fonts.

01. Double Feature

Free Halloween fonts: Double Feature

Come up to the lab and see what's on the slab (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

It's hard to beat The Rocky Horror Picture Show for a bit of Halloween viewing, and if you want that Rocky Horror vibe for a design then Double Feature should do nicely. Based on the Rocky Horror title font with plenty of dripping blood, it's ghoulishly bold and free for both personal and commercial use.

Free Halloween fonts: Double Feature

SAY IT! (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

02. Nosferotica

Free Halloween fonts: Nosferotica

Get that sexy vampire look with Nosferotica (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

For a sexy, vampiric vibe, get your teeth into Nosferotica. A horror font designed by Sinister Fonts, it's a terrifyingly tall and thin serif, and while it's all-caps, the lowercase set is more bottom-heavy while the uppercase is top-heavy – mix them up for an unsettling effect. It's free for personal and commercial use.

03. Buffied

Free Halloween fonts: Buffied

In every generation there is a chosen font (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

If all this vampire talk's getting a bit much, here's the antidote: a font inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Created by GemFonts, Buffied is modelled on the Buffy title font, comes with an upper and lowercase set, and it's free both for personal and commercial use.

04. Halloween Spider

Free Halloween fonts: Halloween Spider

Halloween Spider's more scared of you than you are of it (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

Feeling arachnophobic? Stay away from this eight-legged font, then. Halloween Spider is a bold brush script with nice thick strokes, and adorned with both spiders and spider webs. Try layering it in different colours and cutting out the spiders and webs in the top layer to add to the effect. It's free for personal and commercial use.

05. Fiddums Family

Fiddums Family font screenshot

CLICK-CLICK (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

Created by BoltonBros, Fiddums Family is gloriously gothic and inspired by the creepiest, kookiest clan of them all, the Addams Family. Featuring some excellently ornate touches, including some seriously over-the-top swashes, it's a freeware font that's good for personal and commercial use.

06. Vintage Halloween

Vintage Halloween font example

All the spooky imagery you need in dingbat form (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

As well as standard fonts, we've also found some handy dingbat fonts that'll make it easy to populate a design with plenty of ready-made Halloween imagery. First up is Vintage Halloween from Woodcutter, with a stack of useful pumpkins, bats, spiders, skeletons and more, all fully vectorised and free for personal and commercial use.

07. Freaky Halloween

Freaky Halloween font example

...and a little more (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

A more stylised dingbat font, Freaky Halloween features 26 glyphs covering most of the Halloween bases, rendered in a minimal, cut-out fashion. Perfect for designs with a more simple look, it's free for personal and commercial use.

08. Wild Wood

Wild Wood font example

Don't go into the Wild Woods alone (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

There are few things scarier than being alone in the woods at night, especially if you've seen The Blair Witch Project. And if you want to evoke that creepy forest feeling, Wild Wood, with its letterforms sprouting gnarled branches, ought to do the job. It's free for personal use.

09. Spiderfingers

Spiderfingers font image

Another font to frighten arachnophobes with (Image credit: Sinister Fonts)

Ideal for Halloween designs or maybe for death metal album covers, Spiderfingers features tall, grungy letterforms that taper down to viciously sharp points. Designed by Sinister Fonts, this is another freeware font you can use for both personal and commercial work.

10. Ink and Bones

Ink and Bones font example

Now hear the word of the Lord (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

Nothing says Halloween like a spooky skeleton, and if that's the sort of feel you're after then Ink and Bones does exactly what it says on the tin. Its hand-drawn letters and symbols are built out of bones, and while it's all-uppercase, the lowercase letters are solid strokes while the uppercase set is highlighted by some outlined bones. It's free for personal and commercial use.

11. Castle Dracustein

Castle Dracustein font example

Stay away from the creepy castle (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

Mix up your horror brands with this sinister font from, appropriately enough, Sinister Fonts. Perfectly evoking the look of vintage horror movie posters, Castle Dracustein is another Halloween font that tapers down for a striking visual effect, and its eroded edges just add to the creepiness. It's free for personal and commercial use.

12. Hallowen

Hallowen font example

Please don't write in (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

No, that isn't a typo. Hallowen is a spooky outline serif font by Peter Olexa, and it wouldn't look out of place on the poster for a Tim Burton film. It's an all-caps font with a set of smaller glyphs in the lower case, and it really comes alive if you alternate between them, and it features some lovely spiral terminals for added visual interest. It's free for personal use only.

13. Ill October

Ill October font example

A final helping of demonic dingbats (Image credit: Jim McCauley)

Finally, here's one last set of Halloween dingbats. Featuring plenty of skulls, spiders, snakes and more besides, Ill October is another minimal dingbat font packed with glyphs that look like they've been carved into a pumpkin, and it's free for personal and commercial use.

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Jim McCauley

Jim McCauley is a writer, performer and cat-wrangler who started writing professionally way back in 1995 on PC Format magazine, and has been covering technology-related subjects ever since, whether it's hardware, software or videogames. A chance call in 2005 led to Jim taking charge of Computer Arts' website and developing an interest in the world of graphic design, and eventually led to a move over to the freshly-launched Creative Bloq in 2012. Jim now works as a freelance writer for sites including Creative Bloq, T3 and PetsRadar, specialising in design, technology, wellness and cats, while doing the occasional pantomime and street performance in Bath and designing posters for a local drama group on the side.