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.
- #184% matchcurated picksansOFL-1.1 · Vernon AdamsAnton
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Heavy condensed grotesque with Druk's brutal headline density.
Show score breakdownScore 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.
- #282% matchcurated picksansOFL-1.1 · Ryoichi TsunekawaBebas Neue
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Condensed caps with a similar tall, tight rhythm.
Show score breakdownScore 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.
- #377% matchcurated picksansOFL-1.1League Gothic
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Condensed gothic revival with Druk's compact wood-type feel.
Show score breakdownScore 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.
- #488% matchsansOFL-1.1 · Vernon Adams, Kalapi Gajjar, CyrealOswald
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Show score breakdownScore 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.
- #585% matchdisplayOFL-1.1Staatliches
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Show score breakdownScore 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.
- #678% matchsansOFL-1.1 · Nathan WillisNews Cycle
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Show score breakdownScore 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.
- #777% matchsansOFL-1.1 · Vernon AdamsAntonio
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Show score breakdownScore 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.
- #876% matchdisplayOFL-1.1Anybody
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow
Show score breakdownScore 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.
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.
https://mcp.brandsweets.com/fonts/mcpclaude mcp add --transport http brandsweets-fonts https://mcp.brandsweets.com/fonts/mcp
›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.
@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.