Defining what makes a graffiti font isn't as easy as you wold think. That's because the word ‘graffiti’ today means something very different to what it did a few decades ago. Once associated with ugly, scrawled obscenities and inner-city blight, the rise of creative, attractive and thoughtful street art has brought it into firmly in the mainstream.
Its influence can be seen across numerous creative disciplines, from album art to advertising, as we discussed in our article 6 ways street art is influencing design. As part of this renaissance, there’s a wealth of themed graffiti fonts to use in your typography projects.
In this post, we've collected together the best free fonts with a graffiti influence, from spraypaint, splatter and stencil styles to brush lettering, handmade approaches and beyond. Enjoy!
01. Scare Arms
Don't be afraid; you're already dead
Put the frighteners on in time for Halloween with this graffiti font from Chequered Ink. It's an all-caps, horror-inspired offering with a scratchy, eroded look to it, making it ideal for drumming up some scares, and it's free for personal use.
02. Grizzly Attack
Get busy with the grizzly
If grizzly bears decided to try their paws at graffiti by scratching directly onto the wall with their claws, then it might look something like this striking script font by Rometheme. It's all-caps, with numerals and a decent selection of extra characters.
03. Inner City
A bit of colour really brings Inner City to life
Mike Wolf's Inner City is a great way to give your artwork a bit of a solid look; its letters and numerals are drawn in 3D, but with a playful graffiti style that's guaranteed to jump off the page. Spend a bit of time colouring it and the results are even more eye-catching.
04. The Graffiti Font
The Graffiti Font is bright, fun and cartoony
Mike Karolos, aka Smirap Designs, is a UK-born designer and who currently lives in Athens, Greece. He has a special love for typographic illustration, and he’s been kind enough to share this cool cartoonish font, simply titled The Graffiti Font, with the community.
There’s a black and white version and a coloured version, and the file you download contains the font is in png format (note: it’s not a keyable font). The Graffiti Font is free for personal and commercial use.
05. The Graffiti Font 2
The Graffiti Font 2 is available in both colour and monochrome
Mike Karolos’ The Graffiti Font has proved so popular that he’s made another one. And again, it’s free to download. This monochrome, comic book-style font is also available in both black and white and colour, and free for personal and commercial use.
06. Crevice Stencil
Crevice Stencil is edgy yet elegant
A stencil font that steers an original path between ornate and edgy, Crevice Stencil is a free font created for the community by Bath design studio Chequered Ink. You can use this font for free in personal projects, but if you want to use it for commercial purposes you’ll need to purchase a licence.
07. Mersey Cowboy
Get messy with Mersey Cowboy
Another font from Chequered Ink, this one’s more closely aligned with the splatter side of graffiti. Mersey Cowboy is a great choice if you want your type to look messy and chaotic, but still very readable. Again, this graffiti font is free for personal use, but you’ll need to shell out for a licence to use it commercially.
08. Katastrofe
Katastrofe is a free font with streetwise attitude
Lying somewhere between the splatter and stencil styles of graffiti, Katastrofe is the work of Danish designer Jakob Fischer, aka pizzadude. This demo font is great for giving your typographical designs a grungy, handmade look. Note that this graffiti font is only free for use in your personal projects.
09. Nebulous
Nebulous takes a grungy approach to stencil-style typography
Nebulous is a decorative free font that brings a touch of distressed sci-fi chic to the stencil font category. Created by Brazilian designer Pobrenerd, this font is free for both personal and commercial use.
10. Black Top
Black Top provides an artful take on scrawled graffiti
If you’re looking for that artfully scrawled look, then handwritten graffiti style font Black Top could be the answer to your prayers. Brought to you by SixAbove Studios, a creative agency from Connecticut, USA, it includes alternates, ligatures and bonus elements. Note that this font is free for personal use only.
11. Punishment
Punishment walks on the wilder side of graffiti culture
Homing in on the scarier side of the stencil graffiti style, Bath design studio Chequered Ink presents Punishment. This free graffiti font has a raw, slightly aggressive feel, inspired in part by Marvel’s The Punisher. This font is free for personal, but not commercial use.
12. Free Graffiti Font
Free Graffiti Font takes an original approach to street-style typography
Graffiti can come in all shapes and sizes, and here’s one of the most inventive free fonts we’ve seen in a long time. Free Graffiti Font was created by Belarus designer Vladislav Uljanov and is suggested as a decorative element for posters and other designs. Access to the font is totally free.
13. Humger
Humger brings a gritty flavour to old-school stencil fonts
Heavily influenced by old-school stencilling, Humger is a gritty, uppercase, narrow textured typeface. It was created by Lebanese designer Wassim Awadallah, who's offering it up for free for use in both personal and commercial projects.
14. Sloppy Paint
Sloppy Paint is fluorescent, fun and downright fabulous
Sloppy Paint looks exactly like it sounds, replete with happy, day-glo colours and fat, cartoony shapes. Created by Japanese game designer Darrell Flood, aka dadiomouse, this graffiti font is free to to download for your personal use only.
15. Thickedy Grunge
Thickedy Grunge is free only for personal use
Another great font that looks exactly as its name suggests. Created by Bath design studio Chequered Ink, it’s free for personal use, but if you want it for a commercial project you’ll need to buy a licence.
16. Fibre
All-caps font fibre is earthy and authentic, yet still easy to read
Fibre is a handwritten, all-caps font with a wild and scratchy feel to it. At the same time, the kerning and font metrics have been designed to provide a clean and easy reading experience, so it's not a case of style over substance. Created by Latvian studio Wild Ones Design, this font is free for personal use in return for your email address.
17. Westfalia
Westfalia is a laid-back brush script with a messy feel
Westfalia is a brush sans font with an earthy, hand-drawn feel. The messy edges and varied line thickness give it a laid-back vibe. Designed by Canada’s Rambler Creative, this font is free for personal and commercial use.
18. Grafipaint
Grafipaint provides a childlike take on graffiti lettering
Grafipaint is a handwritten graffiti font with a markedly childlike feel. The work of American type designer Lewis Bauer, this font looks a bit like it was written in Microsoft Paint. It’s free to download for both personal and commercial use.
19. Metro Grunge
Metro Grunge is fizzing with DIY energy
Metro Grunge is a free font from Peter Olexa, a freelance designer from Bratislava, Slovakia. Fizzing with the energy of the underground (both metaphorical and actual), this font is free for both personal and commercial use.
20. Extreme Travel
Extreme Travel Font makes inventive use of splatter effects
Extreme Travel Font is a grungy graffiti-style font created by Colombian graphic designer and illustrator Luis Jaramillo. It comes with an inventive look that’s basically white lettering stencilled out of a spray-painted, splattery background. This demo font is available to download for free for personal use only.
Next page: 20 more awesome free graffiti fonts
