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Best Fonts for T-Shirts: Free & Premium Picks

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Choosing a font is the most important part of creating a t-shirt design that looks good and that you or your customers will be excited to wear.

With thousands of fonts to choose from, you may find yourself wondering where to begin when it comes to choosing the right font for your t-shirt design.

Discover how to pick the best t-shirt fonts for your designs with this article. It's packed with tips and includes a list of our current favorite fonts to get you started. Let's dive in!

display of the best t-shirt fonts
Best T-Shirt Fonts Photo by The Design Hippo


Best Fonts for T-Shirts

With such a wide range of fonts to choose from, it can feel a little overwhelming to spend a lot of time searching the internet for the perfect font to use in your design.

Luckily, we've done the hard work for you. The list of fonts below are some of the most popular fonts creators and designers currently love.

Check them out below to find the perfect one for your next t-shirt design project.

Montana

Best T-Shirt Font Overall

display of a t-shirt design on a mockup made using Montana font
Design made using Montana | The Design Hippo

Montana is a stunning cursive font that comes in a smooth version.

It's a versatile two-for-one font that's an excellent choice for a wide range of designs and will give your shirt a personal handwritten touch.

Retro Magic

Most Popular Font for T-Shirts

display of a t-shirt design on a model made using Retro Magic
Retro Magic. Image Credit: Creative Fabrica

Retro Magic is a cute font that will make any vintage-inspired design pop.

The bold letters are easy to read, which makes this font an ideal choice for t-shirt graphics that use quotes or short phrases.

Berson Dream

Best T-Shirt Font for Cricut

collage of designs made using Berson Dream
Designs made using Berson Dream. Image Credit: Creative Fabrica

Berson Dream is an elegant font family of three complementary fonts in script and sans-serif styles. The extras include ligatures, swashes, and ornaments.

The smooth style of the letters means that this text will be easy to cut using your cutting machine and will also be easy to work with during the weeding process.

College

Best Font for Names

model wearing a jersey with the name on the back
Personalized name design made using College | The Design Hippo

College is (as the name suggests) a collegiate-style font that's an ideal choice for school and sports-inspired shirt designs.

From team jerseys to class t-shirts, this font gives any shirt design a spirited look.

Autogate

Best Font for Logos

collage of logos made using Autogate Duo
Logo designs made using Autogate Duo. Image Credit: Creative Fabrica

Autogate is a font duo consisting of a script font and a sans-serif font that perfectly balances each other out. That's why it's the top pick for creating t-shirt logos.

Both fonts also come with smooth and textured variations. Whether your shirt's design is classic and sleek or rustic and rugged, the fonts will fit perfectly into the shirt's overall look.

Audacity

Best Font for Text

collage of typography designs made with Audacity Duo
Typographic designs made using Audacity Duo. Image Credit: Creative Fabrica

Audacity is a font duo that includes a rough sans-serif font and a hand-lettered script font that balances each other out perfectly.

It's a solid choice for designs made up mostly of text because the fonts can be arranged to create beautiful messages that are also easy to read.

Blackport

Best for T-Shirt Printing

collage of t-shirt designs made using The Blackport Family
T-Shirt designs made using the Blackport family | The Design Hippo

Blackport is a font family consisting of five unique fonts. The bold, clean lines of the letters make this font ideal for almost any method of t-shirt printing.

Whether you're a DIY enthusiast making shirts for a personal project or a professional working in an industrial setting, this font pack is perfect for t-shirt printing at all levels.

Forest Camp

Best for Vintage T-Shirt Designs

display of vintage t-shirt designs made with Forest Camp
Vintage style t-shirt designs made using Forest Camp. Image Credit: Creative Fabrica

Forest Camp is a vintage-style font duo that comes in six different styles and includes alternates for all uppercase letters.

The overall aesthetic of this font is perfect for vintage t-shirt design because the slim design of each character makes it easy to arrange the text around images or illustrations.

The result is a shirt design that looks like a vintage poster.

Edo

Best Font on Canva

display of a t-shirt design made using Edo on Canva
T-shirt design made using Edo on Canva | The Design Hippo

The Edo font in Canva is a bold brush font that's perfect for t-shirt designs with a grunge aesthetic.

This all-caps font is best suited for designs with single words or short phrases because using too many words can make the design difficult to read.

If you find that this is the case for your design, consider pairing this font with a simple sans-serif to balance it out.


What to Look for in a Font for T-Shirts?

Choosing the right font for your t-shirt is the key to ensuring your design looks its best. Here’s what you should look for when selecting your t-shirt font:

  • Readability: The most important characteristic of the font you choose is its readability. You want to make sure that people can read your design, so avoid overly decorative fonts and choose fonts that are bold, clear, and easy to read.
  • Print Quality: You also want to ensure that your font will look good when printed on a shirt. Use bold, clear, and legible fonts so that you'll have a high-quality print for your shirt.
  • Design Style: When choosing a font, think about the overall aesthetic of your design and the message your design is sending. By matching the style of the font to your shirt, you’ll ensure that your final product looks great.

Frequently Asked Questions

What style of font is best for t-shirts?

The style of font that’s best for your shirt will depend on the style of your shirt, but overall, the best fonts for t-shirts are fonts that are legible and look good when printed on fabric.

Whether you decide to use a serif, sans-serif, or script font, make sure the font you choose has clean lines and is easy to read.

What font do colleges use for t-shirts?

Colleges usually stick to traditional collegiate-style fonts, so if you’re designing t-shirts for a school, using a font that fits this look is best.

Look for fonts that feature bold and blocky letters in a sans-serif style or with minimal serifs. Use outline or shadow versions of fonts to add depth and a dynamic, classic look to your t-shirt designs.

What is the best font for vintage t-shirts?

For vintage t-shirt designs, the best fonts to use are fonts that evoke a nostalgic feel. Popular types include grunge, retro serif, and classic handwritten script.

A vintage typeface such as Forest Camp will help you achieve the old-school style you're going for.

What is the best font for t-shirt printing?

The best font for t-shirt printing depends on several factors, including the theme of the design, the printing method, the fabric used, and legibility.

Bold and clean fonts are best suited for making shirts that feature names, numbers, or logos. Meanwhile, a script style is perfect for quotes or to add a more personal touch to t-shirts.

What is the easiest font to read on a shirt?

The easiest fonts to read on a shirt are either sans-serif or serif fonts. These fonts are a popular choice because they look best on any type of text that may be used in a design, whether the text is large or small.

Script or decorative fonts are difficult to read in small text, so if you use them, make sure they are used only in large text or in the biggest area of your design.


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Lacey Morris

Lacey Morris is a freelance graphic designer and writer based in Austin, Texas. With a knack for making the complex seem simple, she crafts fun, practical graphic design guides and Cricut tutorials. When she's not typing away, she enjoys creating digital designs for small businesses and Etsy shops.

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