Font Friday

Onest (free font)

Onest seems smooth, clean and reassuring. The geometric sans-serif typeface Onest set on a mobile phone in the body text, the navigational labels, and a pull quote taken from the typeface’s specimen that reads: „Letters in words are like people in society, all different and not always cooperative.”

Sans-Serif typeface

designed by Andrey Kudryavtsevfoir
for the Moldovan government

7 Styles

Thin to Black

Licenses for web/print/app:

Free

Best for

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

Specialty

This free sans-serif typeface is a great mix of being useful and interesting, while the stylistic alternates make it flexible enough for a broad range of applications.

Get Onest

My thoughts on Onest

Onest is a free typeface designed by Andrey Kudryavtsevfoir for the country of Moldova. The soft, a bit squarish design, gives it a lot of character, combined with a few particular letter shapes like the curved y, the simple u, or the k with a crossbar.

In larger text Onest looks friendly The squarish, rounded shapes contribute to that open and reserved while showing more character than Arial or Montserrat a few Symbols and arrows Speaking Romanian, Russian, Gagauz, Ukrainian, Bulgarian Закінчити війну
Broad eastern language support, and symbols make Onest very appealing

The typeface is living between popular styles. Next to default Arial and seen enough Montserrat, Onest shows the influences of both, while marking its own spot.

This is between styles. Arial is quite restrained and narrow, Onest is neither very restrained nor super geometric, Montserrat is quite geometric and wide
Next to Arial and Montserrat you see that Oenst seems softer, but not too soft, restrained, but not too cold.

I love the stylistic alternates that make Onest a font of all trades 😉. But especially for app or UI design, this comes handy. When activated, certain characters become more distinct, so they will work better in smaller sizes.

In small sizes the stylistic alternates increase legibility, making it ideal for UI design.
The default characters and stylistic alternates of Onest

In some cases, that curved y could be too much – or even annoying. Then you can swap it out by activating another stylistic set. For body text, it is great to have this option, showing again, how versatile Onest can be. Many thanks to Kryštof for recommending this typeface to me!

The y is too soft and the double-story a is too strict? Changing it shifts the mood.
Stylistic set 2 shifts towards a more conservative mood.

What do you think of this week’s typeface? Write it in the comments! Also, if you have a suggestion for an upcoming Font Friday 😉.

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4 Comments

  1. Wow … The Moldovan government has high ambitions for this typeface! It is very interesting seeing how they talk about it. The potential emotional/psychological impact of typefaces is fascinating.

    Reply

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