# Corben font

> A round, wide display serif by Vernon Adams in Regular and Bold, with soft bracketed serifs and ligatures.

Corben is a display serif by Vernon Adams with wide, round letters, soft bracketed serifs and ligatures. Corben comes in two weights, Regular 400 and Bold 700, without italics, and holds 542 glyphs for Latin and Latin Extended. Corben is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and is made for headlines, titles and short display lines.

## Facts

- Classification: [Display](https://trendhub.net/fonts/category/display)
- Designed by: Vernon Adams
- License: SIL Open Font License 1.1 (https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/)
- Styles: 2 (Regular 400, Bold 700)
- Variable font: No
- Glyphs: 542
- Character sets: latin, latin-ext
- Last updated: 2025-09-10
- Official source: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Corben
- Page: https://trendhub.net/fonts/corben
- Tagged for: Headlines, Posters, Retro, Bold

## About Corben

Corben is a display serif built from broad, round curves. In the specimen the capitals are wide, the bowls of C, G and O are close to full circles, and the serifs flow out of the stems through soft brackets instead of sharp corners. The Regular has moderate stroke contrast; the Bold is far heavier, with thick stems, thin joins and tight counters, so the two weights look like a quiet and a loud version of the same lettering. The official notes describe a web-friendly display font with ligatures and a hint of classic display lettering. There are two static files, Regular 400 and Bold 700, and no italics. The 542 glyphs cover Latin and Latin Extended, including the letters for Turkish, Polish, Czech and Romanian. Vernon Adams designed Corben, which is published under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

## License

SIL Open Font License 1.1. Copyright (c) 2010, 2011 by vernon adams (vern@newtypography.co.uk), with Reserved Font Name Corben.

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

- **Blog and magazine titles**: The Regular's round, wide letters give article titles a soft, bookish tone at sizes where the bracketed serifs can be seen.
- **Poster lines of a few words**: Bold 700 packs thick stems and small counters into a dense word shape that carries a short poster line.
- **Menus, labels and shop names**: Round bowls and soft serifs echo classic display lettering, a tone that fits café menus, jar labels and shopfront names.
- **Heading plus standfirst**: Bold for the heading and Regular for the line beneath give two levels from one family, though without an italic.

## Things to know

- **Two weights, no italic**: Corben has Regular 400 and Bold 700 as separate static files. Neither has an italic.
- **The Bold is much heavier than the Regular**: In the specimen the Bold's counters are small and its joins thin, so it needs large sizes; the Regular stays open at smaller ones.
- **Latin and Latin Extended only**: Corben has no Cyrillic, Greek or Vietnamese subset.

## FAQs

### Is Corben free for commercial use?

Yes. Corben is published under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, which allows personal and commercial use, modification and redistribution. The font cannot be sold on its own, and modified versions stay under the same license and may not use the Reserved Font Name Corben without permission.

### Who designed Corben?

Corben was designed by Vernon Adams, who is also named in the copyright notice of the license.

### How many weights does Corben have?

Corben has two weights, Regular 400 and Bold 700. There are no italics.

### Is Corben a serif or a display font?

Corben has serifs, but it is classed as a display font: the official notes describe it as display lettering for the web, and its wide, round forms are meant for titles more than paragraphs.

### Which languages does Corben support?

Corben includes the letters needed for English and other Latin-script languages such as French, German, Spanish, Turkish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Romanian.

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