Fonts for comic typesetting

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The app's own default: quiet, even color, and a real bold and italic — which dialogue needs, because emphasis inside a line is the commonest thing in a balloon.

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Not on Google Fonts — see the link for a specimen.

What most of scanlation is set in (the current cut is Anime Ace 2.0) — an even, slightly condensed hand that stays legible small and has a real italic.

Free for comic work; may not be redistributed

Not on Google Fonts — see the link for a specimen.

The standard dialogue face in English manga publishing — wider and warmer than Anime Ace, with a matching italic and small caps.

Commercial license, per style about $49 a style

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Rounder and more obviously drawn by hand. Suits a lighter, funnier series where Comic Neue reads a little neutral.

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A caption is a different voice from speech, and the cheapest way to say so is the same family at a different weight — Regular against the balloon's Bold.

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A narrator who is a character: a diary, a letter, a recollection. Do not use it for long captions; it is tiring past a couple of lines.

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A pen-written face with real Japanese glyphs as well as Latin, so a caption keeps the page's hand when it sits over untranslated signage.

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Italic. A thought is the same voice leaning — the convention every reader already knows, and the one that costs nothing.

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A softer, airier hand for a series whose thoughts are meant to feel private rather than merely unspoken.

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When the thought bubbles are long enough to want a face of their own rather than a slant of the speech one.

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Italic, the same as a thought bubble — lee's own call when the type was split off, so nothing already typeset moves. A flash balloon is SPOKEN, though, so a face that reads as ornate rather than as unvoiced is worth trying.

OFL 1.1

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A flourish in the letters to match the flourish round them. Suits the flattering, delighted lines these balloons usually hold.

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Rounder and warmer, and upright — for a series where the italic reads as a thought however it is labeled.

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The app's default. Drawn rather than merely heavy, and narrow, so a long shout still fits the burst it is sitting in. It is also the sound effect face, so a shouted line and a drawn sound look alike - the burst round the one of them is what tells them apart.

OFL 1.1

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A shout is announced by the BURST it sits in before it is read, so the face only has to sound raised - this is a fifth heavier than the speech face and full width with it, which reads as the same voice louder. Pick it to keep shouts and sound effects apart.

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Heavy, tight and drawn. The default until 2026-08-28, and worth reaching for on the one line in a chapter that really is a bellow - it is too much for every angry or urgent line.

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Between the two: rounder and heavier than Jua without Luckiest Guy's cartoon weight.

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Rounder and fatter. Good for comedy shouting, where Luckiest Guy reads as anger.

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A condensed sans rather than a comic face: for a shout that is meant to sound flat and hard rather than cartooned.

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Regular, set small. A whisper is the balloon's own voice with the volume down, and changing the face as well says something the panel did not.

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Thin and wobbly, which reads as under-the-breath at a size where Comic Neue still reads as ordinary speech.

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A quick, light hand. Holds up smaller than most comic faces before the counters close.

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Speech with no balloon round it is still speech. Same face, and let the missing balloon do the work.

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Handwriting that sits on artwork without looking typeset — which is the whole difficulty with text that has no balloon to own it.

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Soft and rounded, with Japanese glyphs, for a page where the loose lines are meant to feel scribbled in.

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Narration over art has to survive whatever is behind it; an even face with a keyline round it does that better than a lively one.

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A written narrator's voice that still holds a long line — and it has the Japanese glyphs if the narration quotes any.

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A fine, upright pen hand. Quieter than Caveat over busy artwork.

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The app's default. An aside is the same character at half volume, and the cheapest way to say so is the speech face set small - a second hand in the margin is a second voice.

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A mutter is a note in the margin, and this is the face for saying so out loud. The default until 2026-08-28.

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Smaller and shakier, for the asides that are meant to be almost too small to read.

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A marker-pen hand with Japanese glyphs — the closest free face to the way these are usually scrawled in the original.

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Signage is PRINTED, not spoken, and a condensed sans is what printing looks like — which is the one thing a comic face cannot say.

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Narrower still, all-caps only. For shopfronts and banners where the line has to fit a real width.

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When the sign is meant to look official — a notice, a warning, a document.

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The one with a lowercase, for signs that carry a sentence rather than a word.

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The app's default for this type, and the safe answer for a small label in the corner of a panel: a display face at eleven points is just harder to read.

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The app's default for sounds: drawn, condensed, and it survives being stretched to fill a box, which is what an effect gets asked to do.

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Heavy Japanese display with Latin to match — the nearest free face to the weight of a drawn katakana effect.

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Built for signage and vertical setting, so it holds together at the angles effects get set at.

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Rounder and softer, for the small comic sounds — a plop, a squish.

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An impact effect is the loudest thing on the page and this is the heaviest of these — with Japanese glyphs, so it can sit beside whatever was not erased.

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Lighter and narrower, and the one to reach for when the effect has to cross a whole spread without burying the artwork.

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Blunt, square and enormous. For mechanical impacts — a door, an engine, a gunshot.

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Striped, so the effect reads as drawn rather than set. Best very large, where the stripes are visible.

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Outlined with a 3D shadow built into the glyph, for the one effect a page is built around.

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The app's default for background sounds: a quick hand that stays readable at the sizes these get set at.

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A marker hand with Japanese glyphs, for the little scratchy ones.

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Thin, fast, and it leans — which is what a small background sound looks like when it is drawn rather than placed.

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Rounder, for the soft ones: a rustle, a breath, a footstep.

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