- 20 Free Filipino Fonts for Your Pinoy Inspired Designs
20 Free Filipino Fonts for Your Pinoy Inspired Designs
Looking for fonts to level up your Pinoy aesthetic? We got you.
From fonts resembling Pinoy street signs to odes to provinces we love dear, these Filipino fonts are sure to amplify your Pinoy aesthetic designs. As a country with a very strong visual culture, these allow us to celebrate typography as an art form that celebrates our people and our country through our everyday designs. In this article, get to know 20 free Filipino fonts available on Canva, ready to use for any of your designs.
This font captures the aesthetic of Filipino sign painting, typically seen on jeepney sign boards and with street vendors. The first known Filipino-inspired font, BBT Martires is named after Trece Martires in Cavite (named after the 13 Martyrs of the town), where the font artist John Misael is from. This font is playful and casual, reflecting the fun and humorous nature of Filipinos. You can use this font for any headings, signages, or text overlay for your Instagram post designs(opens in a new tab or window). This font would also be great to use for creating visuals for your next home business, perfectly capturing the entrepreneurial spirit of Filipinos.
Quiapo is another brush-style typeface giving an ode to Filipino sign fonts, referencing the seamless brush strokes of this Filipino hand drawn font. The font captures the tedious and precise craftsmanship of a Filipino street sign artist, usually painting each letter or character with one stroke. Created by Quezon City based artist Aaron Amar(opens in a new tab or window), this font is very easy to read, perfect for quote graphics like the quote plaques you keep re-reading when stuck in EDSA traffic.
A nod to the neon signs on the streets of Manila, this bold typeface makes a huge impact at first sight. This font style, typically seen on the windshields of city and provincial buses in the Philippines, is usually handmade with stencils painted with bright colors over a black background to ensure the visibility of the sign whether it’s day or night. The powerful effect of this font, with its variation of round and curved edges, make it great for one liners or catchphrases in any design asset.
This brush-style font allows you to use Baybayin with ease for any of your make. The delicate handwritten style of this font, created by Lloyd Zapanta(opens in a new tab or window), creates a personalized feel on any of your designs. This makes it perfect for teaching guides that spread the use of our pre-colonial language, or even just for practicing your baybayin writing skills using any of Canva’s pre-made templates.
Kundiman is a traditional Filipino way of serenading, usually used to woo or express admiration for a loved one. Taking this sense of passion and desire from the art form, the team at Serious Studio(opens in a new tab or window) created this romantic font perfect for personal invitations(opens in a new tab or window), as a title font, and for social media cover photos.
Anahaw takes after its namesake leaf, with every font stroke resembling a leaf’s shape. Like the Anahaw leaf, which is used for a variety of functions (from a food wrapper to a fan!), this font is also multi-purpose. Created by Hanken Design Co(opens in a new tab or window)., it can be a fun addition as text overlays on images(opens in a new tab or window) or title fonts to liven your presentations(opens in a new tab or window), and it can also be used for your next school project’s posters.
Dangwa is a flower market in Manila, and this typeface, created by Aaron Amar(opens in a new tab or window), honors its namesake through its curvy and soft features. Another ode to Filipino sign makers and their craft, Dangwa even has a special ñ character in its package. Great for flyers(opens in a new tab or window) and infographics, Dangwa can make your visuals feel light and soft, like fresh flowers delivered from Dangwa.
This typeface by Aaron Amar is reminiscent of old handwriting styles seen in Philippine government emblems, seals, and documents. The calligraphic style of the font makes any text look formal yet inviting. This font transports your design to a time with no typewriters, computers, or printers, great for posters(opens in a new tab or window) on a Filipino history project as a body text font.
Created by Aaron Amar who also created Kawit, Dangwa, Quiapo and Cubai, this condensed typeface references gothic serif typefaces found on Pinoy tombstones. Furgatorio captures a gothic and grunge vibe that works great for a themed poster or flyer.
This minimalist typeface brings together elegance and simplicity perfect for text overlays, editorial spreads, or the title font for your next business card. Though this font doesn’t reference Filipino visual culture, it amplifies the talents of Aaron Amar, who’s other fonts and design pay an ode to the rich visual identity of the Philippine streets.
LL Baguio, created by Lloyd Zapanta, aims to preserve the typography found on Philippine broomsticks, which are often weaved by Baguio locals for export locally and internationally. This typeface would usually read “Baguio City” to reference the origin of the brooms and subtly show off the region’s talent. This font is great for texts on minimalist posters, with its pixel-like aesthetic mimicking the weave on a Filipino broom.
Batangas, also by Hanken Design, Co., takes after the people and culture of its namesake province. With its counters and dots shaped like coffee beans (the region is known for good Kape Barako) and the strokes resembling the shape of a balisong (a fan knife crafted in the province), this font encapsulates the strong essence of a Batangueño. Similar to fonts like Anahaw, Batangas can be used in many ways and can liven up any posters or infographics you use it in.
Created by Edsel Pingol(opens in a new tab or window), the Kagitingan font, which in English translates(opens in a new tab or window) to “valor,” is a reflection to the strength of Filipinos especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The strokes take inspiration from the strength of the Narra tree and the tight weave of a banig (a woven mat locally produced in the Philippines), an ode to the strong bond and connection of Filipinos especially in times of hardship. Dedicated to the frontliners during the pandemic, this font was made to commemorate the fighting spirit of Filipinos.
Istruktura is a font derived from Drei Cortez's t-shirt design for the University of the Philippines Mindanao’s College of Architecture. Cortez wanted to capture the essence of an architect through this font. It reflects the preciseness of architects, with the font's sharp edges and straight cuts. Like how Cortez used it, this typeface could be used for t-shirts(opens in a new tab or window), typography posters, and book cover designs(opens in a new tab or window).
This font honors the beautiful complexity of the Filipino language by referencing a Filipino form of pronunciation. Maragsa is a type of pronunciation usually at the end of a word where one gives a both stress and stops at the last syllable. Syllabically, this stop is symbolized by a pakupya, which is a triangle-like symbol at the top of the last vowel in a word. John David Maza(opens in a new tab or window), the font’s creator, took inspiration from this sign and incorporated it to the font through the slanted diagonal structures seen in the font’s strokes.
Maza recognizes that while accent symbols have disappeared from colloquial Filipino writing, knowing context is important when figuring out to pronounce a Filipino word. So he created this font to honor this importance. This display, semi-serif font is perfect for text overlays on images and titles or subtitles over video edits.
This font brings to life a rough, gothic vibe. Created by STS Lifestyle(opens in a new tab or window) from Cebu Institute of Technology - University, this vintage style font captures a rustic essence perfect for vintage-inspired designs. This font would work well with themed invitations or as a branding font for your business’ print and digital marketing materials.
This font, created by Mapua University student Cled Arcilla(opens in a new tab or window), was inspired by the construction of cars from the world-renowned Formula One racing. The shapes and strokes of the font have all been inspired by the popular car racing sport. According to the designer, this font is perfect for sporting-related print and digital materials, most especially if they relate to cars.
This font pays tribute to the DIY signs of Cubao. Created by Together We Design(opens in a new tab or window), a homegrown design studio in Cubao, Bawal Sans references handmade signages and reminders on people’s doors and gates. This font digitizes these handwritten signs and pays homage to its identifiable varying widths. Bawal Sans reflects the Filipino on survival mode, characterized by the creators as “fix it now, do it quick, we’ll just make it better with niceties on the next chance we get”. Staying true to the inspiration of the font, Bawal Sans is perfect for creating signages or as a title font in your presentation slides and posters.
This rough, display typeface is inspired by the “worn out, cast-iron text” on Philippine hero monuments. John David Maza’s Bantayog font captures the texture of these monument labels typically seen around the streets of Manila, where many historic events occurred. Bantayog is characterized by precise strokes and a minimalist vibe, making it easy to read and perfect for long-form texts on presentations, posters, or brochures(opens in a new tab or window).
Meaning “to wait” or “anticipate” in Filipino, this font is inspired by life in Metro Manila. In the words of the creators, Works of the Heart(opens in a new tab or window), “Abangan is our custom typeface inspired by our experience of life in Metro Manila—unbearably congested, always in motion, rarely quiet… our typeface regards rules as mere suggestions; each character can be freely scaled or squished to adjust to the available space, making room for more letters and always encouraging flair.” This fun and quirky design is perfect for your next Instagram infographic carousel post.
These Filipino-made and Filipino-inspired fonts will make you all the more proud to be Pinoy. They allow us to celebrate what are often ignored fonts and signages through incorporating them into our own design. With all these fonts free on Canva, you can use them with any of the templates and experiment with them to create your custom designs - no need to download and install!
Celebrate Pinoy Aesthetics with the Right Font
The rich tapestry of Filipino culture and history is beautifully encapsulated in these 20 Pinoy-inspired fonts. From the bustling streets of Manila to the serene landscapes of the provinces, each font tells a story that resonates with the Filipino spirit. As you embark on your design journey, remember that Canva's vast library of design elements and templates is just the beginning. For those who crave even more variety, SlidesCarnival offers a plethora of Pinoy-inspired presentation templates(opens in a new tab or window) that you can seamlessly edit in Canva. Dive in, explore, and let your creativity shine through with a touch of Pinoy flair.
Written by
Bernice de los Reyes
