Get that handcrafted look for your designs, with the best free stencil fonts around.
(Image credit: Adrienne Bresnahan via Getty Images)
The best free stencil fonts can look great on flyers, posters and more. They're designed to look like stencil artwork, in which a template to create an outline. This is a familar technique used everywhere from military and government settings to quickly and clearly label objects, to street art by the likes of Banksy (also see our pick of the best free graffiti fonts).
When it comes to typography, there's a wealth of stencil fonts online for creatives to use in their designs. We've scoured the internet to find free fonts in a stencil style that can help you get that authentic, handcrafted feel. Remember to always check the terms of the licence before you use them. Some of these stencil fonts may be free for personal or non-profit use only, while others may be available to use freely for commercial use as well.
The best free stencil fonts
01. VAL Stencil
This bold stencil font is available as free download from Fontfabric
This bold stencil font is available as free download from independent type foundry Fontfabric. This inspirational, fun design comes complete with 215 characters and is great for posters, logos, packaging and more.
This army-inspired font will give your designs attitude
This army-style inspired font was created by type designer Billy Argel. Like many of Argel's cool designs, Toy Soldiers is free for personal use. A single weight font made up of purely uppercase letters, this free stencil typeface will add serious attitude to your designs.
AG Stencil is free for both personal and commercial use
AG Stencil was created by creative director Yong of visual communications company Somewhere Else. The design was originally created for an unfulfilled identity project, and Yong now offers the typeface free, for both personal and commercial use.
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Replicate those old school plastic letter stencils with Unconform Round
Want to replicate those old school plastic letter stencils? Then Unconform Round may be just what you're looking for. Featuring a full set of uppercase letters and numbers, this typeface is great for giving your designs that retro feel.
A single weight, free stencil font, Capture it was designed by Koczman Balint. Operating under Magique Fonts, this is one of many type designs created by Balint. Complete with a full set of uppercase letters, numbers and special characters, Capture it is available as a free download, with donations to the author, as always, gratefully received.
The regular weight is available as a free download
Stela UT is a layered font influenced by the stencil form. It was designed by independent Spanish graphic design studio Wete, who love all things typography and editorial, and comes in a number of layers. The studio is offering up the regular weight as a free download.
Scriber Stencil is a single weight, free stencil font consisting of 250 characters, manual kerning and a Euro symbol. Designed by Newcastle creative director Jonathan Hill, Scriber is a gorgeous take on the stencil format. Hill also has a wide range of other fonts on his website.
Play with these puzzle-like letters with the playtime stencil font
The Playtime Typeface is a font with five different styles - regular, bold, rounded, rounded bold, and cutouts. It works like a puzzle: you can seamlessly slide the the type together and experiment with some truly unique figures. This free stencil font was designed by John Skelton.
This bold, free stencil font was created by type designer Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts. Larabie explains: "Gunplay is a hard-nosed stencil font inspired by the poster for the 1972 Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw film, The Getaway."
Free for personal use only, this cool DOCK 51 font was created by Imagex Fonts. One of over 200 designs by the company, this font includes a full set of uppercase letters, numbers 0-9 and various special characters.
Developed by typeface designer Otto Maurer, this free stencil font includes a full set of uppercase letters, numbers and special characters. Maurer has also made this download free for both personal and commercial use.
Designer Vic Fieger is the man behind this free stencil font. The busy artist has over 60 designs available for download on the archive of free fonts Dafont. This Boston Traffic design is available for both personal and commercial use.
Typeface designer Dieter Steffman has over 120 fonts available to download on Font Space and many more on his website. This particular free stencil font, created in 2003, is available for both personal and commercial use.
This cool Sistemas font design was created by type designer Manuel Lage. This is one of 15 typefaces developed by Lage, which collectively have amassed over 1.7 million downloads. This particular design is free for both personal and commercial use.
For all your top secret documentation, check out this classic military stencil design by Koczman Bálint of Magique Fonts. With over a million downloads, this typeface is free for both personal and commercial use.
This Urban Sketch typeface, created by designer Nils von Blanc, was inspired by Ray Larabie and his Gunplay font. A popular free stencil font, it has amassed nearly 900,000 downloads since its release. It's free for personal use only.
Designer Mickey Rossi is the man behind this stylish free stencil font. Rossi has multiple type designs available for download on Urban Fonts. This particular creation is available for both personal and commercial use.
Vernon Adams of New Typography is the designer behind this classic stencil font. The free stencil font, which includes a full set of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters, is available for both personal and commercial use.
Type designer Billy Argel has created numerous different fonts, many of which he generously offers as a free download for artists to use in their personal work, including this fun, vibrant cinema-inspired font. Commercial licenses for this full font (including a cool sketch version) are available from the designer.
Octin Stencil was designed by Ray Larabie of Typodermic Fonts. Larabie comments on his creation: "This font is a tough headliner in seven weights: light, book, regular, semi-bold, heavy and black. Octin Stencil is perfect for police, sports, prison, construction, school or military themes." This typeface is free to download, but donations to the author will be gratefully received.
LeArchitect is the creation of the late type designer Manfred Klein. Based in Frankfurt, Klein worked as a typesetter and in advertising for decades before he became involved in creating typefaces. Many of his creations freely available to download online, including this army-style, free stencil font.
This thin font by graphic designers VNBC is one of 24 designs, which, collectively, have amassed nearly half a million downloads. This typeface includes a simple set of uppercase letters, numbers and the odd special character. It's free, but donations to the author can be made at the time of download.
San Francisco-based Jeff Canham is an artist, graphic designer and traditional sign painter. He is also the man behind this bold stencil font Kaiser. The free download includes a full set of uppercase characters and a selection of special characters.
Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.
