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Oswald

About

Oswald is a reworking of the classic style historically represented by the 'Alternate Gothic' sans serif typefaces. The characters of Oswald were initially re-drawn and reformed to better fit the pixel grid of standard digital screens. Oswald is designed to be used freely across the internet by web browsers on desktop computers, laptops and mobile devices.

- Since the initial launch in 2011, Oswald was updated continually by Vernon Adams until 2014. Vernon added Light and Bold weights, support for more Latin and Cyrillic languages, tightened the spacing and kerning and made many glyph refinements throughout the family based on hundreds of users' feedback.
- In 2016 the Latin part of the family was updated by Kalapi Gajjar to complete the work started by Vernon.
- In January 2019, it was updated with a variable font Weight axis.
- In July 2023, the font was upgraded with a Cyrillic character set expansion, and the rendering of math symbols was improved.

To contribute, see github.com/googlefonts/OswaldFont

Designers

Vernon practiced typeface design from 2007 to 2014. A lifelong artist, during this time he eagerly explored designing type for the cloud-based era. His work spans all genres, from lively script faces to workhorse text families and operating system UI. Vernon graduated with an MA in Typeface Design from the University of Reading and lives in California. His designs are mostly published as open source Google Fonts and his favorite projects include Oxygen Mono, Monda, and Bowlby One. Follow his story at www.sansoxygen.com.

Website | Instagram

Choosing type

When you have some text, how can you choose a typeface? Many people—professional designers included—go through an app’s font menu until we find one we like. But the aim of this Google Fonts Knowledge module is to show that there are many considerations that can improve our type choices. By setting some useful constraints to aid our type selection, we can also develop a critical eye for analyzing type along the way.

Oswald - Google Fonts