Do you love the 80s? The decade that brought us big hair, Madonna, and neon colors? Want to bring some of that nostalgia into your designs but can’t find the perfect font? Well, fear not! This article is full of fonts that will have you reminiscing about those good old days of Miami Vice, Knight Rider, Atari, and the original Nintendo. From rock n’ roll fonts to hand-drawn lettering, these are amazing retro fonts for your throwback design needs. Enjoy!
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The Best 80s Fonts
If you’re looking for typefaces ideal for your digital projects, these are our top recommendations. These fonts are great for adding that old-school style (Stephen King, sci-fi, DeLoreans, and more) that everyone loves or just an extra bit of character!
Many of the fonts showcased here are available at Envato Elements. If you love fonts, and I know you do, Envato Elements is the best resource out there. A subscription gives you access to unlimited downloads of more than 16,000 high-quality fonts, plus millions of other design resources like photos, videos, templates, and more. Learn more about Envato Elements here.
Outrunner
Outrunner is a retro script font that’s perfect for your throwback designs. It includes lowercase, uppercase, numbers, punctuation, alternates, and diacritic. Be sure to experiment with the alternates for the best results. Outrunner is a very versatile font that can be used anytime you need script fonts, not exclusively for retro designs.
Bayshore
This 80s-inspired monoline script font is awesome for posters, packaging, music videos, and whatever projects need a retro touch. Bayshore is more than just a font. The package comes with a large collection of glyphs, end swashes, underline swashes, and a set of 10 neon glow Photoshop actions that were created to be used with the font. Place it on a dark background and use the actions to create a genuine glow effect.
Last Dance
Last Dance looks like a font that would have been used for 80s record or cassette album covers, or possibly a movie poster. It’s a script or handwritten font that has an awesome vintage touch. The package includes lowercase letters, uppercase letters, two alternate versions, symbols, and a web font. Use this for your own music and media designs for look that is authentic to the era.
Thunderstorm
If you like 80s design, you’ll love Thunderstorm. This handmade brush font includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, punctuation, multilingual support, alternates, and a web font. You’ll love the alternates that add some extra character, as well as a collection of swooshes that are perfect for decorating a background.
Revive 80
This collection of eight fonts inspired by the 80s is a perfect choice if you do a lot of retro and vintage design. You’ll love having this collection of fonts in your arsenal. The package includes retro style typefaces with a variety of different styles, plus web fonts.
1980
1980 is a blocky, pixelated font that has a definitive 80s feel to it. It comes with a few different variations and weights, as well as a web font.
No Signal
What’s more symbolic of the 80s than VHS tapes? While we didn’t love glitches at the time, the glitch effect is now a trendy way to remember the era. No Signal makes it easy to incorporate glitch effects into your 80s designs. It’s perfect for use with large text and analog backgrounds, like retro poster designs.
Hot Rush
Hot Rush is a high-quality font duo, designed to be used together. There is a sans serif version, along with a script typeface. The script font is all caps, plus an alternate version of each letter. The sans font comes in regular and striped (somewhat similar to Blade Runner), plus italic versions of each. You’ll love having this pair of fonts ready and waiting to be used together.
Endless Sunrise
Endless Sunrise is a hand-made script font inspired by style of the 80s. It’s perfect for retro title designs, music albums, posters, book covers, and more. It includes uppercase, lowercase, numbers, punctuation, plus underlines and alternate versions of the 80s letters. The alternates and underlines design elements are what make Endless Sunrise really special. Include them in your designs and you’ll get an authentic hand-drawn look with a vintage style. A web font is also included.
Neoncity
Obviously, Neoncity was inspired by the flashing lights of the 1980s. The package comes with the regular font and a script version, as shown in the preview image below. It also comes with numbers, punctuation, and multilingual support. It’s perfect if you’re trying to recreate the look of 80s movies.
Futuristic
Futuristic is a fun vaporwave, synthwave, retrowave styled retor futuristic font that will take you back to the 80s. It’s great for designing posters, t-shirts, and anything else that needs some 1980s flair. Futuristic is all-caps.
Arcade Machine
This nostalgic font was obviously influenced and inspired by the video games and arcade games that made the 80s so special. With sharp angles, It’s ideal for flyers, posters, t-shirts, logos, and more. You’ll get uppercase and lowercase letters, plus ligatures.
Retro Video Game
Video Game provides plenty of nostalgia reminiscent of Atari and other video games from the 80s. Whatever your favorite game is, you’ll love being able to use this style at any time. It includes uppercase letters, numbers, and a collection of 17 pixel Martians that are perfect for completing your retro designs. A web font is also included.
Custle Guard
This pixelated font was inspired by 8bit video games. It’s perfect for your fun retro designs. This is an all-caps font.
Horsemen
Horsemen is an awesome dark-themed font inspired by horror artwork. If you need a font for an 80s t-shirt, poster, comic, or game cover, Horsemen is an excellent choice. There are two variations: Horsemen Regular and Horsemen Slant (plus web font versions).
Heatwave
Heatwave is a fun brushstroke font created for 80s-themed designs. It include uppercase letters, numbers, punctuation, and a web font. You’ll also get alternates for every letter to add some options.
Copper
Copper was inspired by the metallic sheens of movie logos from the 1980s. This angular typeface is ideal for your own retro posters, flyers, and other designs. It’s an all-caps font with the lowercase keys used for alternate versions of the uppercase letters. The download includes a web font.
Starlight Drive
Starlight Drive is a signature font with a retro feel, but versatile enough to be used in a modern design. It includes a collection of 20 swashes, plus ligature, and end characters that all work to give it an authentic script look. Multilingual support is included.
Raskhal
Raskhal is another brush font, and it was inspired by neon lights. This all-caps font is ideal for use with large text in posters, ads, social media images, and more.
Derryl Script
Derryl Script is a bold script display font that’s ideal for use with large text. Use it for designing t-shirts, signage, branding, posters, and more. It comes with a web font, which adds to the versatility.
Rodagear Script
Rodagear Script, which was inspired by neon lights, is perfect for movie titles, packaging, branding, posters, and more. It includes lowercase and uppercase letters, and it’s best when used for large text.
Free 80s Fonts
Now that we’ve looked at a selection of the best options, let’s also take a look at some that are available for free download. Anytime you’re using freebies, be sure to check the license details. Many free fonts cannot be used for commercial purposes.
Good Times
Good Times is a techno headliner font that has a definite 1980s feel, and could be used for science fiction movies. The are 15 varieties of the full font, but Good Times Regular is the only one available for free. It is an all-caps font.
Alien Encounters
Alien Encounters is a sci-fi font that includes striped and solid variations. Each comes in regular, italic, bold, and bold italic.
Commando
Commando is free for personal use, but you’ll need to purchase a license to use it for commercial projects. It’s ideal for game covers, posters, and other 80s-inspired designs.
Road Rage
Road Rage, created by Youssef Habchi, is free only for personal use. It’s a beautiful brushstroke font that is ideal for creating an authentic 80s look with your designs.
Indelible
Indelible is from the same designer that created Road Rage. This is another beautiful brush font that is free only for personal use.
Conclusion
When we think of 80s design style, we’re influenced by common elements seen in the art created for movies, music, and book covers from a decade we love. Whether you’re looking for inspiration or a typeface to use in your own design, the resources here are sure to help.
Some are elegant fonts, while others are fun and playful. With the retro design trend continuing to increase in popularity, you’ll find plenty of uses for them. The best 80s fonts will not only make your designs authentic, but having them in your arsenal and ready to go will save you countless hours.
