Free font alternatives

Free alternatives to Druk

Druk is a commercial grotesque from Commercial Type. Commercial; licensed from Commercial Type. Below are the 8 closest free, open-licensed families in the BrandSweets library, ranked by our published, deterministic score — classification, measured proportions, traits, role, language and variable support. Each one is shown in its own face and is free to self-host.

Druk is a trademark of its owner, named here only to identify the typeface. We do not host, embed or distribute it; “similar” means similar classification and proportions, nothing more.

  1. #184% matchcurated picksansOFL-1.1 · Vernon Adams
    Anton

    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

    Heavy condensed grotesque with Druk's brutal headline density.

    Show score breakdown
    Classification×0.35
    100%
    Same class: grotesque, display.
    Metrics×0.25
    77%
    x-height 0.73 vs 0.65 for Druk (noticeably different); both condensed width; both low stroke contrast.
    Traits×0.20
    80%
    Shares bold, condensed, industrial, monoline (4 of 5 traits).
    Role×0.10
    50%
    Both suit display; Anton is not tagged for heading.
    Language×0.05
    67%
    Covers latin, latin-ext; lacks cyrillic.
    Variable×0.05
    100%
    Static instances, like Druk.
    Family gate
    Same family: sans.
  2. #282% matchcurated picksansOFL-1.1 · Ryoichi Tsunekawa
    Bebas Neue

    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

    Condensed caps with a similar tall, tight rhythm.

    Show score breakdown
    Classification×0.35
    100%
    Same class: grotesque, display.
    Metrics×0.25
    80%
    x-height 0.70 vs 0.65 for Druk (close); cap height 0.70 vs 0.74 for Druk (close); both condensed width; both low stroke contrast.
    Traits×0.20
    67%
    Shares bold, condensed, industrial, monoline (4 of 6 traits).
    Role×0.10
    50%
    Both suit display; Bebas Neue is not tagged for heading.
    Language×0.05
    67%
    Covers latin, latin-ext; lacks cyrillic.
    Variable×0.05
    100%
    Static instances, like Druk.
    Family gate
    Same family: sans.
  3. #377% matchcurated picksansOFL-1.1
    League Gothic

    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

    Condensed gothic revival with Druk's compact wood-type feel.

    Show score breakdown
    Classification×0.35
    100%
    Same class: grotesque, display.
    Metrics×0.25
    77%
    x-height 0.55 vs 0.65 for Druk (noticeably different); cap height 0.73 vs 0.74 for Druk (near-identical); both condensed width; both low stroke contrast.
    Traits×0.20
    60%
    Shares condensed, industrial, monoline (3 of 5 traits).
    Role×0.10
    25%
    Both suit heading; League Gothic is not tagged for display.
    Language×0.05
    67%
    Covers latin, latin-ext; lacks cyrillic.
    Variable×0.05
    100%
    Static instances, like Druk.
    Family gate
    Same family: sans.
  4. #488% matchsansOFL-1.1 · Vernon Adams, Kalapi Gajjar, Cyreal
    Oswald

    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

    Show score breakdown
    Classification×0.35
    100%
    Same class: grotesque.
    Metrics×0.25
    68%
    x-height 0.58 vs 0.65 for Druk (noticeably different); cap height 0.81 vs 0.74 for Druk (noticeably different); both condensed width; both low stroke contrast.
    Traits×0.20
    80%
    Shares bold, condensed, industrial, monoline (4 of 5 traits).
    Role×0.10
    100%
    Both suit display, heading.
    Language×0.05
    100%
    Covers all of Druk's subsets (cyrillic, latin, latin-ext).
    Variable×0.05
    100%
    Static instances, like Druk.
    Family gate
    Same family: sans.
    View Oswald specimen →Pairings →200 · 300 · 400 · 500 · 600 · 700
  5. #585% matchdisplayOFL-1.1
    Staatliches

    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

    Show score breakdown
    Classification×0.35
    100%
    Same class: grotesque, display.
    Metrics×0.25
    79%
    x-height 0.70 vs 0.65 for Druk (close); cap height 0.70 vs 0.74 for Druk (close); both condensed width; both low stroke contrast.
    Traits×0.20
    60%
    Shares condensed, industrial, monoline (3 of 5 traits).
    Role×0.10
    100%
    Both suit display, heading.
    Language×0.05
    67%
    Covers latin, latin-ext; lacks cyrillic.
    Variable×0.05
    100%
    Static instances, like Druk.
    Family gate
    Same family: sans.
  6. #678% matchsansOFL-1.1 · Nathan Willis
    News Cycle

    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

    Show score breakdown
    Classification×0.35
    100%
    Same class: grotesque.
    Metrics×0.25
    75%
    x-height 0.52 vs 0.65 for Druk (far apart); cap height 0.74 vs 0.74 for Druk (near-identical); both condensed width; both low stroke contrast.
    Traits×0.20
    60%
    Shares condensed, industrial, monoline (3 of 5 traits).
    Role×0.10
    25%
    Both suit heading; News Cycle is not tagged for display.
    Language×0.05
    100%
    Covers all of Druk's subsets (cyrillic, latin, latin-ext).
    Variable×0.05
    100%
    Static instances, like Druk.
    Family gate
    Same family: sans.
  7. #777% matchsansOFL-1.1 · Vernon Adams
    Antonio

    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

    Show score breakdown
    Classification×0.35
    100%
    Same class: grotesque.
    Metrics×0.25
    77%
    x-height 0.73 vs 0.65 for Druk (noticeably different); both condensed width; both low stroke contrast.
    Traits×0.20
    60%
    Shares condensed, industrial, monoline (3 of 5 traits).
    Role×0.10
    25%
    Both suit heading; Antonio is not tagged for display.
    Language×0.05
    67%
    Covers latin, latin-ext; lacks cyrillic.
    Variable×0.05
    100%
    Static instances, like Druk.
    Family gate
    Same family: sans.
    View Antonio specimen →Pairings →100 · 200 · 300 · 400 · 500 · 600 · 700
  8. #876% matchdisplayOFL-1.1
    Anybody

    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow

    Show score breakdown
    Classification×0.35
    100%
    Same class: grotesque, display.
    Metrics×0.25
    59%
    x-height 0.59 vs 0.65 for Druk (close); cap height 0.68 vs 0.74 for Druk (noticeably different); normal width vs condensed for Druk; both low stroke contrast.
    Traits×0.20
    40%
    Shares industrial, monoline (2 of 5 traits).
    Role×0.10
    100%
    Both suit display, heading.
    Language×0.05
    67%
    Covers latin, latin-ext; lacks cyrillic.
    Variable×0.05
    100%
    Static instances, like Druk.
    Family gate
    Same family: sans.
    View Anybody specimen →Pairings →100 · 200 · 300 · 400 · 500 · 600 · 700 · 800 · 900
mcpConnect your agent — find Druk alternatives live
live endpoint

Point any MCP client at the shared fonts endpoint and your agent gets the same ranked list with every axis score — find_alternatives, list_commercial_fonts, list_fonts and suggest_fonts, read-only, no key.

endpointhttps://mcp.brandsweets.com/fonts/mcp
claude mcp add --transport http brandsweets-fonts https://mcp.brandsweets.com/fonts/mcp
try this prompt

find a free alternative to Druk for a bold brand

Want the agent to remember your picks and write them into a living brand? Create a free BrandSweets workspace.

Use Anton instead

Anton is the top-ranked alternative to Druk (84%) and is free to self-host under OFL-1.1. Drop these @font-face rules into your CSS — the .woff2 files are served straight from BrandSweets.

css
@font-face {
  font-family: "Anton";
  font-style: normal;
  font-weight: 400;
  font-display: swap;
  src: url("https://fonts.brandsweets.com/anton/anton-400.woff2") format("woff2");
}

/* Usage */
.heading { font-family: "Anton", sans-serif; }

What we compare Druk on

Class
grotesque, display
x-height
0.65
Cap height
0.74
Width · contrast
condensed · low
Traits
condensed, bold, industrial, editorial, monoline
Roles
display, heading
Languages · variable
latin, latin-ext, cyrillic · no

≈ proportions are publicly documented approximations of the regular cut, not measured by us. Open-font metrics are measured from the files. Full formula and thresholds: methodology. Machine-readable: alternatives.md

Questions

Is Druk free?
No. Druk is a commercial typeface from Commercial Type. Commercial; licensed from Commercial Type. The fonts listed here are free, open-licensed alternatives you can download, self-host and use commercially.
What is the closest free alternative to Druk?
Anton scores 84% against Druk on our published formula. Heavy condensed grotesque with Druk's brutal headline density. It is licensed OFL-1.1, so it is free to self-host.
How are these alternatives ranked?
By a fixed, published score — 0.35 classification, 0.25 measured proportions (x-height, cap height, width, stroke contrast), 0.20 traits, 0.10 role, 0.05 language coverage, 0.05 variable support — after a family gate: specialist families (blackletter, script, glyphic, stencil, monospace) only list same-family fonts, and any cross-family match is capped at 0.2. No model or vote; the same inputs always give the same ranking. Hand-curated picks are labelled and listed first.

Build a brand around Anton

Turn the pick into a full identity — colors, type roles, logo, and agent-readable tokens your future sessions already know.