# Puritan font

> A humanist sans by Ben Weiner with old-style figures and slightly narrow letters, in Regular and Bold with italics.

Puritan is a humanist sans serif that Ben Weiner began drawing as a typography student, with gently narrow letters and old-style numerals. Puritan comes in Regular and Bold, each with an italic, four styles in all, with a basic Latin character set. Puritan is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and suits text, captions and plain headings.

## Facts

- Classification: [Sans Serif](https://trendhub.net/fonts/category/sans-serif)
- Designed by: Ben Weiner
- License: SIL Open Font License 1.1 (https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/)
- Styles: 4 (Regular 400, Bold 700; with italics)
- Variable font: No
- Glyphs: 237
- Character sets: latin
- Last updated: 2025-09-10
- Official source: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Puritan
- Page: https://trendhub.net/fonts/puritan
- Tagged for: Body text, Editorial

## About Puritan

Puritan is a sans serif typeface with humanist proportions and a slightly narrow build. Its designer, Ben Weiner, writes that he drew it while studying sans serif type on the typography course at Reading University, as his own response to the grotesque, geometric and humanist strands he was learning about, and that he entered it in a type design contest in October 1999. In the specimen strokes thin a little at the joins, capitals are narrower than the round lowercase, and the numerals are old-style figures that rise above and drop below the x-height. The family has two weights, Regular 400 and Bold 700, each with an italic, four styles in total, and is not a variable font. Each font has 237 glyphs covering the basic Latin set. Puritan is published under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 with Puritan as a Reserved Font Name.

## License

SIL Open Font License 1.1. Copyright (c) 1999-2010 Ben Weiner (ben@readingtype.org.uk), with Reserved Font Name Puritan

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

- **Body text in print and on screen**: Regular with its italic and Bold with its italic give the four styles a text setting usually needs.
- **Text with dates and figures**: Old-style numerals sit among lowercase letters, so years and amounts do not interrupt a paragraph.
- **Captions and notes**: The slightly narrow letters save width in small blocks of text.
- **Plain headings**: Bold provides a darker heading in the same shapes as the text.

## Things to know

- **Old-style figures by default**: Numerals vary in height. For tables that need figures of equal height, test before committing.
- **Basic Latin only**: The subset is Latin, without Latin Extended.
- **A student-era design**: The designer describes Puritan as an early learning project and says himself that it may be flawed.

## FAQs

### Is Puritan free for commercial use?

Yes. Puritan is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1: it may be used in personal and commercial work, modified and redistributed. It cannot be sold by itself, and a modified version must keep the same license and cannot use the Reserved Font Name without permission.

### Who designed Puritan?

Puritan was designed by Ben Weiner, who is named in the copyright notice. He describes it as a project from his time studying typography at Reading University.

### How many weights does Puritan have?

Puritan has two weights, Regular 400 and Bold 700, each with an italic, for four styles.

### Is Puritan a variable font?

No. Puritan is not a variable font; it comes as four static files.

### Which languages does Puritan support?

Puritan includes the letters needed for English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch and the Nordic languages. Its character set is basic Latin.

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