Commercial · Serif · Commercial Type
Austin
Austin is a licensed font from Commercial Type: $700, styles from $50, as printed on the foundry or reseller’s page on 2026-09-05. The 3 open-licence families below are suggested in its place, each with the basis for the substitution.
The name above is set in a fallback face. Austin is a licensed font and there is no file here to show it in; the foundry’s page has the real specimen.
- Designer
- Paul Barnes
- Classification
- Serif
- Price
- $700, styles from $50 (One-time fee for perpetual use) — as printed, read 2026-09-05
- Trial
- The foundry offers a trial download.
Designed for Harper's & Queen, a loose revival of Richard Austin's late 18th-century types for John Bell: a narrow modern serif with the sheen of 1970s New York magazine typography.
Free alternatives to Austin
Suggested, not measured
Typecase measures fonts from their outlines. Austin is not on this machine, so these were chosen by what is known about it — classification, lineage, common use — and each is labelled with that basis. Open one to see its measured character and neighbours.
Quiet luxury, approachable
The Playfair Display webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Playfair Display.
same classification
A transitional-modern display serif with high contrast, comparable to Austin's Bell-derived forms; wider than Austin.
Quiet luxury, approachable
The Libre Bodoni webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Libre Bodoni.
same classification
A modern serif with strong contrast for display; more Italian Didone than Austin's British modern.
Quiet luxury, approachable
The Bodoni Moda webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Bodoni Moda.
same classification
A Didone with optical sizes for display; its vertical stress is stricter than Austin's.
Own Austin? Point the app at the file and this list becomes measured: every open family ranked by how close it actually is, with the difference named. The file never leaves your machine.
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