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Font Friday

Rowan (free font)

Rowan seems stylish, classy, and never dusty. The serif typeface Rowan set on a mobile phone in the body text and a pull quote. The pull quote by Inga Plönnigs was taken from an interview on Future Fonts and reads: “I always liked to work with rules and restrictions, and find the best solution within boundaries.”

Serif typeface

designed by Inga Plönnigs
from Indian Type Foundry

Variable Font

1 axis: weight

10 Styles

5 weights: Light to Bold
with matching italics

Licenses for web/print/app:

Free

Best for

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

Specialty

A free serif typeface, that conveys a certain warmth and sophistication. Classy in its appearance for modern and versatile use cases.

Get Rowan

My thoughts on Rowan

The stylish free serif font Rowan is delightful for several reasons. It has something traditional, warm and classy. But not in a dusty or old-fashioned way, it seems fairly sophisticated and contemporary. The moderate contrast and slightly edgy design contribute to that, giving it a unique, but not distracting appearance. All that with the capabilities of a variable font.

Rowan is classy, but not dusty. Delighting in light italic. Working ideally for display text, but mostly made for body text. Bold is too striking? You can seamlessly adjust the weight by using the variable font, and making it 650 instead of 700. Maybe that's better suited for you use case. And, it's nice to have options.
Using the variable font, you can seamlessly adjust the weight until it fits best

When it comes to evaluating if a typeface is suited for a certain application, a good approach is to see how it performs versus other popular choices. Comparing it to Times New Roman, it becomes evident how uneven, spotty and unsuited this overused classic is. Especially for body text and on the web. Rowan appears sturdier, and more readable.

Rowan appears more even when compared to Times New Roman: You see best how Rowan feels, when you compare it to other serif typefaces for body text. Popular Times New Roman is much more contrasting, seems smaller, spotted and uneven. The caps are also a bit thicker, More Striking. Not pleasant to read. Rowan is very much balanced.
Times New Roman simply sucks: You see best how Rowan feels, when you compare it to other serif typefaces for body text. Popular Times New Roman is much more contrasting, seems smaller, spotted and uneven. The caps are also a bit thicker, More Striking. Not pleasant to read. Rowan is very much balanced.

But when compared to the popular Google Font Merriweather, Rowan suddenly almost seems delicate and tender, while the bold text stands out stronger among the Regular weight. So between these two overused extremes, Rowan claims a more unique and practical middle ground.

Rowan appears more lively when compared to Merriweather. You see best how Rowan feels, when you compare it to other serif typefaces for body text. Popular Merriweather is much sturdier, maybe it even seems a bit duller. Also, bold text is not that contrasting among the regular weight. With Rowan it stands out much more.
Merriweather seems simpler. You see best how Rowan feels, when you compare it to other serif typefaces for body text. Popular Merriweather is much sturdier, maybe it even seems a bit duller. Also, bold text is not that contrasting among the regular weight. With Rowan it stands out much more.

An adorable little feature are the stylistic alternates that remove the top-serifs of certain ascenders, turning them in to swelling flairs at the top of the stems. I can imagine this being useful for headings or other display text. For long reading text, I recommend avoiding it.

Default with top-serifs Alternates with swelling flairs. In the alternates, also the italic show that feature

Quick side note, Rowan was designed by Inga Plönnings, the same brilliant woman behind Magnet (the typeface on this site used for headings and captions). So if you need a traditional but not dated typeface for your next copy or headings, Rowan definitely is a good way to go.

Many thanks to Lorcan, who is also a valued Patron of Pimp my Type, for suggesting Rowan to me. If you found a great typeface for an upcoming Font Friday, write it in the comments 😉.

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6 Comments

  1. TNR is elegant while Rowan (what a nice name) is a noble, modern guy with an attitude and grounded.
    I don’t like Italics though.

    With quirky top serifs, it’s so compact when we look at a whole word. Fav letter, little y!

    I’m happy that PimpMyType as a personal brand is finally growing, well-deserved. I dream of becoming a small ⚙ of it once it grows into a world-famous brand 🤩

    Reply

    1. Haha, that’s so lovely from you, Jana! Well, you are part of it since … since the tiny seed. Now it’s a small seedling 😉.

      Reply

  2. Thanks for the shout out!

    Inga Plönnigs is also responsible for another free font on Fontshare, the bright sans-serif Plein. I also really like how her edgy Messer looks on Future Fonts. I would be interested to hear what you think of it .. maybe a future choice 🙂

    Reply

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