# Barlow font

> A low-contrast grotesk shaped by California's road signs and license plates, in nine weights with italics.

Barlow is a grotesk sans serif by Jeremy Tribby with low contrast and slightly rounded corners, modelled on the lettering of California's highway signs, car plates, buses and trains. Barlow has nine weights from Thin to Black with italics, 18 styles, and is the normal width of a three-width superfamily. It is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

## Facts

- Classification: [Sans Serif](https://trendhub.net/fonts/category/sans-serif)
- Designed by: Jeremy Tribby
- License: SIL Open Font License 1.1 (https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/)
- Styles: 18 (Thin 100, ExtraLight 200, Light 300, Regular 400, Medium 500, SemiBold 600, Bold 700, ExtraBold 800, Black 900; with italics)
- Variable font: No
- Glyphs: 680
- Character sets: latin, latin-ext, vietnamese
- Last updated: 2025-09-11
- Official source: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Barlow
- Page: https://trendhub.net/fonts/barlow
- Tagged for: Body text, Interfaces, Branding, Signage

## About Barlow

Barlow is a grotesk sans serif whose strokes are close to uniform and whose ends are softened by a small radius. Its designer, Jeremy Tribby, who leads the project, took its character from the visual language of California's public realm: the state's vehicle plates, highway signage, buses and trains. In the specimen the capitals are fairly narrow and straight-sided, the lowercase is tall, and the figures are simple and open. Barlow is the normal width of a superfamily that also includes Barlow Semi Condensed and Barlow Condensed. It has nine weights from Thin to Black, each with an italic, 18 styles in static files, and it is not a variable font. Each font has 680 glyphs for Latin, Latin Extended and Vietnamese; Vietnamese was added in December 2018. The license is the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

## License

SIL Open Font License 1.1. Copyright 2017 The Barlow Project Authors (https://github.com/jpt/barlow)

Allowed:
- Use the fonts in personal and commercial work, in print, on the web and in apps.
- Modify the fonts and build new versions from them.
- Redistribute the fonts, on their own or bundled with software, as long as the license text and copyright notice go with them.

Conditions:
- The fonts cannot be sold by themselves.
- A modified version must stay under the same license and cannot use a Reserved Font Name without the copyright holder's permission.
- The authors' names cannot be used to promote a modified version without permission.

Summary only, not legal advice. Full text: https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/

## Where it works

- **Product interfaces**: Even strokes and a tall lowercase keep Regular and Medium clear in buttons, lists and settings screens.
- **Wayfinding and transport information**: The design is modelled on highway signs and vehicle plates, lettering made for reading at a glance.
- **Brand systems with three widths**: Barlow, Barlow Semi Condensed and Barlow Condensed share nine weights, so a brand can cover text, labels and headlines with one design.
- **Website body text**: Regular with its italic sets paragraphs, and SemiBold or Bold marks headings without a second family.
- **Presentations and reports**: Thin and ExtraLight work for large numbers and titles, while Black anchors a cover slide.

## Things to know

- **Static files, no variable font**: The download has 18 files, one for each weight and italic.
- **Normal width of a superfamily**: The narrower Barlow Semi Condensed and Barlow Condensed are separate families.
- **No Cyrillic or Greek**: The 680 glyphs cover Latin, Latin Extended and Vietnamese.

## FAQs

### Is Barlow free for commercial use?

Yes. Barlow is published under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, which allows personal and commercial use, modification and redistribution. The fonts cannot be sold on their own, and modified versions stay under the same license.

### Who designed Barlow?

Barlow was designed by Jeremy Tribby, who leads the project. The copyright notice names The Barlow Project Authors.

### How many weights does Barlow have?

Barlow has nine weights, from Thin to Black, and an italic for each, which makes 18 styles.

### Is Barlow a variable font?

No. Barlow is not a variable font; its 18 styles are separate static files.

### What inspired the design of Barlow?

Barlow draws on the public lettering of California: its shapes echo the state's number plates, road signs, buses and trains.

### What fonts pair well with Barlow?

Barlow pairs directly with Barlow Condensed and Barlow Semi Condensed, the two narrower widths of the same superfamily, which have matching weights.

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Source: https://trendhub.net/fonts/barlow (trendhub)