Design your way

Papyrus is one of the most famous, but also one of the most misused fonts. Created in 1983 by Chris Costello, the Papyrus font was created as a versatile font, but its main use at the start was as a font in Microsoft software. It was often praised for the natural feeling and the vibe that it brings. In this article, we will take a look at fonts similar to Papyrus that you can use for your projects.

It is a roman calligraphic typeface with rough edges, high strokes, and some curves that are highly irregular. This gives it a natural, warm feeling and makes it a popular font in many fields.

Costello is a graphic and web designer who vowed to create a font that would become popular in graphic design. Since its inception, the Papyrus font was initially popular in Microsoft software, but has evolved and is now often seen in video games and TV shows. Most notably, the font has recently been spotted in the highly-popular indie game Undertale, which came out in 2015.

Papyrus Becomes Popular

Papyrus and Costello can mainly thank Microsoft and their type director, Robert Norton, for the implementation of Papyrus into Microsoft Office. This started in 1997 when Papyrus was introduced into Microsoft Office’s growing list of interesting fonts. Norton was, at the time, looking to extend the library of fonts, and Papyrus was seen as an interesting font that would widen the choice pallet within Office. Papyrus came pre-installed with Microsoft Office, and that still remains the case until today.

This gave Papyrus a platform to rise in popularity. It is today used in thousands of interesting projects and is available to almost a billion of different users. That means that fonts similar to Papyrus have also grown in popularity; we will take a look at some of them here.

In addition to Microsoft, Papyrus was also implemented in some projects of MacOS, which makes it even more popular – an additional 130 million users can use it nowadays. Papyrus has become so popular due to its ability to remain artistic while also having the natural quality to it. It has also been used in Avatar, but in a large variety of different projects, especially with businesses that want that natural feeling to their projects.

Fonts Similar to Papyrus

Film Cryptic

One great alternative is this Film Cryptic font, and you can also use it in your projects as an alternative to Papyrus.

Plato

One of the best fonts similar to Papyrus. You can download and use it now for your projects.

Humana Sans ITC

Designed by the British designer Timothy Donaldson, the Humana Sans ITC font is one of those fonts similar to Papyrus,which is also a very versatile choice. This font can be used to bring some extra creativity and personality to the projects, which Donaldson wanted to achieve with this font. It was designed with a broad-tipped pen, and it is famous for its versatility.

ITC Tempus Sans

The ITC Tempus Sans also belongs to a category of fonts similar to Papyrus that were designed by British designers. This font is the work of Phil Grimshaw, a British designer, who wanted to draw roman capitals with a pen – a fountain pen is used here to create rugged edges with a classic feel to it, which makes it slightly different to roman typefaces.

Yummy Cupcakes font

This font is a handwritten alternative to Papyrus, and it brings a playful quality to the table. It was designed by Vanessa Bays, and you can use it now for your projects.

Myriad Tilt

G&G

There is an interesting bit of history behind this font. It is one of the most interesting fonts similar to Papyrus. It is based on the handwriting of Charles and Henry Greene, two architects from the early 20^th century. The handwriting used in making this font was Greene’s handwriting from his plans for The Gamble House in Pasadena. The font uses both uppercase and lowercase letters, but it is the lowercase letters that create real magic with this font.

Lithos

This is another famous font on this list. It has a Greek quality to it, as it was based on writings seen on Greek temples honoring gods and heroes of Ancient Greece. This is a very geometric font with very basic shapes, which gives us a special feeling.

It combines these basic shapes with more complex, irregular developments of the font, which makes it appropriate for many uses. The font was very popular since its inception, and there was a version that derived from it, the Lithos Pro font, which featured support for the Greek language.

Smooth Papyrus

As the name suggests, this font is a smoother version of the Papyrus font. It was meant to decrease the number of times the Papyrus font was misused, and it makes the font slightly more versatile by making it a bit smoother. It manages to keep the charm and the quality of the original font while also increasing its viability in a variety of different ways – it looks less lazy than the original Papyrus font.

Wheat

Wheat produces a crusty texture that makes it quite similar to Papyrus. It is hand-written, which gives this font also a very natural look. A comforting font, you can use it in many different ways for your projects.

Nelson

The Nelson font is a very rustic and old-school font that reminisces us of the Western movies. It has that vintage look to it, which inspires a feeling of sophistication when you look at it. It is mostly used in restaurant menus and food packaging but is also used on roadside ads often.

Oxida

This is another handwritten, calligraphic font that gives the viewers a feeling of rustiness, but also one of elegance. It is mostly used in larger sizes and is often seen in culinary books and designs, posters, covers, and more.

Origins

The Origins font has a classic feel to it, due to the fact that it is handwritten on a parchment paper. It is a very sophisticated alternative to Papyrus and is appropriate for many instances. You can combine interesting capital letters with ascending and descending letterforms, which makes it great for projects related to food, wine, travel, history, and much more.

Baker Signet

This font is known because the bold version of the font is used for Coke’s logo. It is subtle, but also brings a classical quality which makes it very unique and very desired.

Mont Rose

Mont Rose is one of those fonts similar to Papyrus that brings a very feminine quality to the table. It is very sophisticated and friendly, while also remaining very feminine and sexy. This font is especially popular as it brings support for many languages, and it contains more than 600 different glyphs.

Duffy Script

Designed by Amanda Duffy, a Canadian illustrator, the Duffy Script is a great alternative to the Papyrus font. The different variations of the font make it a very interesting font, and you can use it for many different instances.