Commercial · Sans serif · Colophon Foundry
Basis Grotesque
Basis Grotesque is a licensed font from Colophon Foundry: $60.00 USD, 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. Basis Grotesque is a licensed font and there is no file here to show it in; the foundry’s page has the real specimen.
- Designer
- Colophon Foundry
- Styles
- 16
- Classification
- Sans serif
- Price
- $60.00 USD (Complete family of 16 fonts: $768.00 USD) — as printed, read 2026-09-05
A grotesque first drawn in a single Regular for the redesign of photography magazine Hotshoe, then extended from Light to Black; inspired by Akzidenz and early Monotype grotesques but drawn to be more behaved.
Free alternatives to Basis Grotesque
Suggested, not measured
Typecase measures fonts from their outlines. Basis Grotesque 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 Work Sans webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Work Sans.
same classification
A grotesque built from early grotesque models with a broad weight range like Basis; looser.
Quiet luxury, approachable
The Inter webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Inter.
commonly substituted
A neo-grotesque commonly used as a free stand-in for Basis-style branding; more uniform.
Quiet luxury, approachable
The Archivo webfont did not load here — this is a fallback face, not Archivo.
same classification
A grotesque with a comparable range of weights; narrower.
Own Basis Grotesque? 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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