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Instrument Sans

A neo-grotesque variable sans made for the Instrument brand, with width and weight axes and 12 stylistic sets.

Sans Serif 8 styles · variable by Rodrigo Fuenzalida, Jordan Egstad OFL

Download family 385 KB Type your own text

Instrument Sans is a variable sans serif created for the Instrument brand and credited to Rodrigo Fuenzalida and Jordan Egstad. Instrument Sans has four weights from Regular 400 to Bold 700 with italics, a width axis from 75 to 100 and 12 stylistic sets. It is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and suits brand and interface text.

Instrument Sans font preview card
Preview drawn by trendhub from the font files.
Designers
Rodrigo Fuenzalida, Jordan Egstad
Classification
Sans Serif
License
SIL Open Font License 1.1
Styles
8 4 weights, with italics
Variable font
Yes Width 75–100, Weight 400–700
Glyphs
501
Languages checked
24 see the list
Last updated
version 1.000;gftools[0.9.28]
Used for
Body textInterfacesBranding

Official source: Google Fonts. Facts on this page were read from the font files and the source’s published data.

Try Instrument Sans

Sample text

Type over the sample to test your own words. The preview loads a Latin subset of Instrument Sans; the download contains the complete files.

Instrument Sans font specimen: alphabet, numerals and weights
Instrument Sans specimen: alphabet, numerals and weights. Image drawn by trendhub from the font files.

Weights and styles

  • Regular 400Instrument Sans Regular Italic
  • Medium 500Instrument Sans Medium Medium Italic
  • SemiBold 600Instrument Sans SemiBold SemiBold Italic
  • Bold 700Instrument Sans Bold Bold Italic

Instrument Sans is a variable font: the download holds the whole weight range in one file per style, and the named weights above are positions on that range.

About Instrument Sans

Instrument Sans is a sans serif family drawn as the typeface of the Instrument brand. It starts from the neo-grotesque model: strokes are even, curves are close to round and terminals are cut cleanly, while details such as the tail of the Q, which crosses into the bowl, add a little play. The family is variable on two axes: weight, from 400 to 700, and width, from 75 to 100. That gives four weights, Regular, Medium, SemiBold and Bold, each with an italic, 8 styles in total, and every one of them can be narrowed to three quarters of its normal width. Twelve stylistic sets replace commonly used characters with alternate shapes. The fonts contain 501 glyphs for Latin and Latin Extended. Rodrigo Fuenzalida and Jordan Egstad are credited as designers, and the family was added to Google Fonts in 2023.

Where Instrument Sans works

Brand typography
Twelve stylistic sets swap common characters for alternates, so a brand can settle on its own set of letter shapes.
Marketing websites
Regular for paragraphs and SemiBold or Bold for headings come from the same variable file.
Compact navigation and buttons
The width axis narrows labels towards 75 where horizontal space is short.
Slides and pitch documents
Four weights with italics are enough for titles, body copy and emphasis without a second family.

Glyphs

!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~¡¢

Latin and Latin Extended characters in the preview subset; the complete family has 501 glyphs.

Language support

The family contains the core letters these languages are written with:

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese
  • Italian
  • Dutch
  • Swedish
  • Norwegian
  • Danish
  • Finnish
  • Icelandic
  • Catalan
  • Turkish
  • Polish
  • Czech
  • Slovak
  • Hungarian
  • Romanian
  • Croatian
  • Slovenian
  • Lithuanian
  • Latvian
  • Estonian

Character sets found in the files: latin, latin-ext. The language list is a check of required letters against the font, not a promise of typographic quality in each language.

License

SIL Open Font License 1.1Copyright 2022 The Instrument Sans Project Authors (https://github.com/Instrument/instrument-sans)

What the license allows

  • 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.

This is a short summary, not legal advice. The license text decides: read the full OFL text. A copy is included in the download.

Fonts that pair with Instrument Sans

Instrument Serif Display

Instrument Serif was made for the same brand as a condensed display serif, so it takes the headline while Instrument Sans sets the text.

Suggestions come from simple rules on the records: a contrasting classification and enough weights to carry body text. They are a starting point, not a verdict.

Use Instrument Sans on the web

Download the family and host the files on your own site, then declare them in CSS. Please do not link to the files on trendhub.net: preview files here are subsets and their addresses change.

CSS, self-hosted
@font-face {
  font-family: "Instrument Sans";
  src: url("/assets/fonts/InstrumentSans-Italic-VariableFont_wdth%2Cwght.ttf") format("truetype");
  font-weight: 400 700;
  font-style: italic;
  font-display: swap;
}
@font-face {
  font-family: "Instrument Sans";
  src: url("/assets/fonts/InstrumentSans-VariableFont_wdth%2Cwght.ttf") format("truetype");
  font-weight: 400 700;
  font-style: normal;
  font-display: swap;
}

body {
  font-family: "Instrument Sans", sans-serif;
}

Or load it from the official source. Google Fonts serves Instrument Sans with this markup:

HTML, Google Fonts

Things to know

Nothing lighter than Regular
The weight axis runs from 400 to 700. Light and Thin styles do not exist.
Width runs from 75 to 100
The family can be condensed but not extended beyond its normal width.
Stylistic sets need OpenType support
The 12 alternate sets are switched on through OpenType features, for example font-feature-settings in CSS.
Latin only
The 501 glyphs cover Latin and Latin Extended; Vietnamese, Cyrillic and Greek are not included.

FAQs

Is Instrument Sans free for commercial use?

Yes, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. Instrument Sans may be used in personal and commercial projects, modified and redistributed; it cannot be sold on its own, and a modified version keeps the same license.

Who designed Instrument Sans?

Instrument Sans is credited to Rodrigo Fuenzalida and Jordan Egstad and was made for the Instrument brand. The font's credits name fragTYPE as manufacturer.

How many weights does Instrument Sans have?

Instrument Sans has four weights, Regular 400, Medium 500, SemiBold 600 and Bold 700, each with an italic.

Is Instrument Sans a variable font?

Yes. Instrument Sans is a variable font with a weight axis from 400 to 700 and a width axis from 75 to 100.

Which languages does Instrument Sans support?

Instrument Sans includes the letters needed for English and other Latin-script languages such as French, German, Polish, Czech and Turkish. Vietnamese, Cyrillic and Greek are not covered.

What fonts pair well with Instrument Sans?

Instrument Sans has a sibling made for the same brand, Instrument Serif, a condensed serif for large headlines.

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