Font Friday #107

Fauna One (free font)

Fauna One is airy, elegant & friendly. The free font Fauna one in the headline and copy set on a mobile phone. A pull quote set in all caps says: “Creating big impact with little resources.”

Slab Serif typeface

from Google Fonts
designed by Eduardo Tunni

1 Style

Regular

Best for

  • Headings (display text)
  • Long reading text (body text)
  • User Interfaces (functional text)

License

Free

Specialty

A little know Google Font, conveying a certain softness and friendliness. Ideal for headings, display text and larger body text,

Get Fauna One

My thoughts on Fauna One

Fauna One by Argentinian type designer Eduardo Tunni is a hidden gem I discovered on Google Fonts. This dynamic, linear, semi slab serif, conveys an organic, airy and friendly vibe for your project. The narrow proportions make it space-saving and ideal for crisp headings, the large x-height, and open apertures makes it easy to read in copy.

The larger you set Fauna One, the more elegant it feels with tender, soft & sometimes onesided serifs THAT ALIGN NICELY IN ALL CAPS Fauna One is quite compact in its proportions, seeming light and friendly In smaller sizes than 18 px it becomes too light and hard to read, as you can see here
The larger, the better. For anything below 18 px, I would avoid Fauna One.

Taking a closer look at the details, you will soon discover what creates this clean impression. The serifs were taken away completely or just in parts at some places. Also, some connections were opened, while some terminals are softly bent.

Showing outward facing onesided serifs with the lettesr A, w and N. Showing open connections with the letters R, B and P. Showing softly bent terminals at the h, i and m, and open apertures at the a, s and e.
So many gorgeous details give Fauna One an organic, open, even a bit of minimalistic impression at times.

The catch with Fauna One is, that it only comes in one style. Don’t set it below 18 px or 12 pt font size, or it will become too delicate and harder to read. And, if you want to highlight parts of your text in bold, you might want to pair it with another typeface. One way to go is choosing a sans-serif, see my pairing with rational Arimo and dynamic Hind, both free fonts as well. Depending on your choice, it can result in something very contrasting or more harmonious (learn more about pairing fonts).

Because Fauna One comes with a single weight and style only, you might need a companion for bold text? One idea I have for you is Arimo or Hind. You probably will have to change the font size, so it fits the x-height of Fauna One. A contrasting pair - Fauna One at 22 px, with Arimo Bold at 24.5 px font size This blends in more - Fauna One at 22 px, and Hind SemiBold at 25 px font size
Two free font pairs for Fauna One: Arimo is more contrasting, while Hind blends in.

So even though, Fauna One only comes in a single style, has no additional OpenType features or other bells and whistles, I find it refreshing and challenging to as much as possible with this typeface. So embrace limitations to spark creativity.

Font Pairings with Fauna One

Fauna One is a dynamic, linear semi-slab serif typeface, performing best in headings and a little body text. Combine it with one of my suggestions for your specific use cases, like UI design.

Fauna One (free)
Fauna One (free)
  • Headings
  • Copy
AR One Sans (free)
AR One Sans (free)
  • Headings
  • Copy
  • UI Text

Learn more about pairing typefaces using the Font Matrix.

What do you think of this week’s typeface? Let me know in the comments, and share it with me when you used it in a project!

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