# Fraunces font

> A soft-serif variable family with four axes, among them Softness and Wonky, in nine weights with italics.

Fraunces is a soft-serif typeface designed by Phaedra Charles and Flavia Zimbardi of Undercase Type. It ships as variable fonts with four axes (weight 100 to 900, optical size 9 to 144, Softness and Wonky) and has 18 styles including italics. Fraunces is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and suits headlines, editorial titles and packaging.

## Facts

- Classification: [Serif](https://trendhub.net/fonts/category/serif)
- Designed by: Undercase Type, Phaedra Charles, Flavia Zimbardi
- 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: Yes (opsz 9–144, wght 100–900, SOFT 0–100, WONK 0–1)
- Glyphs: 683
- Character sets: latin, latin-ext, vietnamese
- Last updated: 2025-09-10
- Official source: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Fraunces
- Page: https://trendhub.net/fonts/fraunces
- Tagged for: Headlines, Branding, Editorial, Packaging, Retro

## About Fraunces

Fraunces is an Old Style soft-serif typeface whose official notes trace its manner to typefaces of the early 20th century. In the specimen the heavy weights show swollen, rounded serifs, ball-shaped terminals on a, c, f and r, and a slight lean in letters such as h, n and m, while the light weights turn thin and sharply contrasted. The variable fonts carry four axes: weight from 100 to 900, optical size from 9 to 144, Softness from 0 to 100, which governs how inky the shapes look, and Wonky, a switch that swaps the leaning letterforms in and out. Roman and italic each have nine named weights, 18 styles in total, across 683 glyphs covering Latin, Latin Extended and Vietnamese. Phaedra Charles and Flavia Zimbardi, the two partners behind Undercase Type, designed Fraunces under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

## License

SIL Open Font License 1.1. Copyright 2018 The Fraunces Project Authors (https://github.com/undercasetype/Fraunces)

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

- **Magazine and blog headlines**: The optical size axis reaches 144, so large titles can use the finer, higher-contrast drawing intended for display sizes.
- **Food and drink packaging**: Raising Softness towards 100 rounds the serifs and joins, which gives labels set in the heavy weights an inked, printed look.
- **Brand wordmarks**: The Wonky axis swaps the leaning h, n and m for upright forms, so one name can be set in a quirky or a calmer voice.
- **Pull quotes and intros**: Nine italic weights with ball terminals set a quotation apart from the roman text around it.
- **Posters**: Black 900, with its swollen serifs and tight counters, holds a short line at poster size.

## Things to know

- **The weight axis defaults to 900**: Opening the variable file without choosing a weight shows Black, as in the specimen heading; set the weight explicitly for text.
- **Wonky is on by default**: The Wonky axis has two positions, 0 and 1, and its default is 1. Set it to 0 for the upright forms of the affected letters.
- **Two variable files**: The download holds one variable file for the roman and one for the italic, each with all four axes.
- **No Cyrillic or Greek**: The character sets are Latin, Latin Extended and Vietnamese only.

## FAQs

### Is Fraunces free for commercial use?

Yes. Fraunces is published under the SIL Open Font License 1.1, which allows use in personal and commercial work, modification and redistribution. The font cannot be sold on its own, and modified versions stay under the same license.

### Who designed Fraunces?

Phaedra Charles and Flavia Zimbardi of Undercase Type are the designers of Fraunces. The license notice names The Fraunces Project Authors.

### How many weights does Fraunces have?

Fraunces has nine named weights, from Thin 100 to Black 900, each with an italic, which makes 18 styles. The weight axis also allows any value in between.

### Is Fraunces a variable font?

Yes. Fraunces has four variable axes: weight (100 to 900), optical size (9 to 144), Softness (0 to 100) and Wonky (0 or 1).

### What do the Softness and Wonky axes in Fraunces do?

Softness changes how rounded and inky the letter shapes of Fraunces look. Wonky switches a set of deliberately leaning or flagged letterforms on and off.

### Which languages does Fraunces support?

Fraunces includes the letters needed for English and other Latin-script languages such as French, German, Spanish, Turkish, Polish and Vietnamese. Cyrillic and Greek are not included.

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