Are you a fan of everything military? Are you looking for a way to use military style in your projects? Why not try a font in the military style?
If you are a military nerd and pay attention to detail, you might have noticed that certain fonts are frequently used in military posters and films. You may have come across fonts that strongly evoke military imagery outside of a military setting. What font, though, does the military employ specifically?
There isn’t a single standard military font that is employed across the board. The military typically uses block and stencil fonts.
In this post, we’ll talk about typical military fonts used on paperwork and equipment, as well as contemporary military typefaces and military fonts that have been made public as part of each branch’s brand guidelines.
Common Military Font for Paperwork
Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier are the most widely used military font names. These fonts aren’t particularly elegant, but they’re liked because they have optical characters, which ensure the best readability and clarity.
Because they met the requirement for crisp typefaces that allowed ink to come through well without leaving any stains, they were typically employed for proposals and documents. Courier was the preferred font in the past, when typewriters and mimeograph machines were the only devices available. There aren’t many options for fonts to choose from.
In addition, Courier was frequently preloaded on typewriters, and the IBM Electric typewriter was the first to offer the ability to switch between fonts. OCR fonts were chosen and set up to handle text with a minimum of errors for scannable documents.
Today, digital typesetting has given Times New Roman and Arial—the default military typefaces in Microsoft Word—the throne. Helvetica may occasionally be used in their place. The choice of the commanding officers, however, can affect the font used.
Common Military Fonts: Military Equipment
Fonts on military equipment are frequently large and bold in order to meet the criteria for readability and clarity. The most common typefaces are block and stencil.
Today, a lot of block typefaces are made to be readily converted into stencil versions. The military spray-paints labels onto tools, barrels, boxes, and other items using stencil sets. Thus, the disconnected portions of the font are reflected in today’s digital versions.
Military-Style Fonts
A fast Google search will turn up a tonne of recently created military-style typefaces. These are mainly utilised in media with a military theme, like movies. However, they aren’t always the same fonts that are employed in the military. However, they do have a militaristic air about them.
Many fonts with a vintage aesthetic are military-inspired. They frequently use strong, stiff typefaces; therefore, military block fonts, cursive, and fonts with a lot of wiggles are uncommon.
What Font Does the Military Use
United States Army Font
The font used on the United States Army logo is most close to ITC Machine Medium. The Sans Serif font was created by Tom Carnase and Ronne Bonder. The NFL Dolphins font is another typeface that closely resembles this one.
US Navy Font
The navy uses five main fonts to establish a recognizable brand identity. The Roboto Regular, Italic, Bold, Bold Italic, and Slab Bold font families all contain these.
Roboto Regular is typically used to keep body text neat and readable while Roboto Slab Bold is used to draw attention to headings. Roboto is used with Merriweather and Source Sans Pro in additional intricate designs.
These typefaces were chosen by the military because they are web browser compatible and are readable in small print. It is also simple enough to distinguish between different text kinds between Roboto that have been bolded and Roboto that has not been bolded.
United States Air Force Font
The words “U.S. AIR FORCE” are written in the Bold-Extended Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk font in the Air Force logo. If for some reason this font is unavailable, Arial Bold Black might be used in its place.
US Marine Corps Font
Colossalis is the primary font used by the Marine Corps. For H5 through H1s, sizes range from 24 to 80. H6 is the sole exception and is set in Arial Regular at size 18.
United States Coast Guard Font
The words “UNITED STATES COAST GUARD” and “1970” are written in the Univers Bold font on the Coast Guard’s emblem. This logotype is uppercase and written entirely in blocks. Helvetica is the primary font used for the Coast Guard Signature, with Arial serving as a backup. Arial or Univers Bold will be used for all signs at the Coast Guard entry.
To keep a continuously professional appearance, the consistent typeface is crucial. Fonts that differ for other media must be clear and easy to read. Due to its thin ligatures, baroque fonts, and difficult-to-read cursive, Times New Roman should be avoided.
US Defense of Department (DoD) Font
The Department of Defense (DoD) also makes information on its typography available in order to maintain a unified identity.Crimson Text, Lato, and Oswald are the three primary typefaces.
The DoD selected the Sans Serif font Lato for its combination of stability and seriousness with a touch of warmth. Oswald is a Sans Serif font designed that was chosen for its traditional touch. Crimson Text offers contrasts with a sleek, contemporary appearance, emphasizing cosiness and exuding authority.
With its logo, colour scheme, tone, etc., the DoD upholds a certain brand image, which is consistent with these fonts. Arial, Franklin Gothic Medium Condensed, and Times New Roman can all be used as substitutes if the standard fonts are not available. For presentation, different weights of these fonts—light, regular, and bold—can be combined. Generally:
Page titles or headers are set in Oswald Regular, with Franklin Gothic Medium Condensed serving as a backup. Arial can be used in instead of Lato Bold for section headers and subheadings. Lato Regular or Arial are used for body text.
Crimson Text Regular or Times New Roman is used for both the content title and captions. The grey, blue, and white colour scheme used by the DoD should likewise be reflected in these fonts.
Other Military Fonts To Consider
In addition to the military font used by the US Army above, here are other font options that you can consider.
Airborne 86 – Military Font
Regular and military stencil typefaces are available in the sans serif military style font known as Airborne 86. Uppercase letters, digits, and punctuation are all present in the font. It’s ideal for scrapbooking, cards, invites, military stencils, posters, invitations, and any other project you can think of.
Headcorps – Military Serif Font
Want to create stencils for the military? Use the magnificent serif font Headcorps for your projects with a military theme. A standard typeface and a military stencil font are both included in the font. It would be perfect for packaging, posters, branding campaigns, and more.
Michelangelo
The best option for a military typeface that offers a variety of styles is Michelangelo. There are 15 various kinds of military letters available, some contemporary and some with a throwback feel.
Thunderbolt
If you require an amazing display font, Thunderbolt is a military-inspired font family with a powerful and striking look. This type features four different stylistic variations that let you combine different styles and weights when setting out your text. It was designed to resemble the numbers found on the storied Thunderbolt jets.
Lordcorps – Military Sans Font
How about this strong military sans serif typeface, Lordcorps? Don’t you think it would make a striking album cover or adorn the cover of a book about military exploits? Start exploring right away by downloading this fantastic military lettering font.
Manufaktur
Manufaktur provides four excellent military-style typefaces for signs, billboards, posters, and other large-scale projects. They were inspired by an iron cast sign on an ancient Swedish industrial machine. The weight and heaviness of these four army letter font styles—light, black, condensed, and expanded—is achieved by the employment of straightforward curves and robust, powerful strokes.
Freich
For those looking for classic military font styles to create bold lettering for signs, posters, and other items, this vintage-styled font is yet another excellent option. With well over 300 glyphs in the typeface, you may have a lot of fun giving your text a distinctive style.
Luna
How great is this military-inspired slab serif font? Luna is a fantastic option for a wide range of projects and has strong, elongated capitals for added impact. There are standard and attractive versions of the font available.
Stencil Autobahn
We’re all for utilising your military stencil fonts to create great lettering like the one above because just because we love military fonts and military stencils doesn’t imply we love war. Autobahn was made with actual stencils and mimics the look of a military font used by the US army along with the feel and attitude of actual spray paint.
Legacy – Vintage Style Font
Legacy is a distinctive font with a historical feel that combines military letters with American collegiate block fonts. It is available in 10 gorgeous versions. Combine and combine them to develop your own style for T-shirts, branding, signage, posters, and other items.
Asgard – Urban Stencil Font
Here is a fairly contemporary interpretation of a military name-tag font. Asgard has capital characters, numbers, and punctuation, making it a great choice for tasks like branding, magazine covers, and posters. Try out this strong military stencil font by downloading it.
Stampline – Stencil Typeface
Try out this version of the army stencil font. Stampling is the perfect font for making logos, branding materials, signage, posters, and more since it is subtly weathered and has elongated capitals. Latin capital and lowercase letters, digits, and punctuation are all present in the font.
Loccomotive Stencil Font
If you’re looking for a vintage military typeface with rounded corners, Loccomotive is a wonderful option. It’s another take on a military name-tag font. Create T-shirts, posters, business cards, logos, and other materials for branding with the type.
Ember Typeface
Ember is a robust and distinctive US army font. The typeface comes in two styles and include capital letters, numerals, and punctuation. To generate bold, attention-grabbing writing, use either one of them or a combination of the two.
Braunstein Font
This military stencil typeface exudes assurance and authority. Use it for those unique projects where nothing less than the most recognisable font will do.
Opera
Ten captivating fonts are available in Opera, each of which is capable of making a strong statement on its own or combining with others to produce writing that is effective. The striking design of your business card, logo, greeting card, or poster will be complemented by equally attention-grabbing text when you use Opera, whether it is your first or fiftyth.
Rodian Serif
Serifs replace sans serifs. Six rounded fonts make up the Rodian Serif font family, which can be combined to great effect. Combine different typefaces to produce truly distinctive and attention-grabbing text.
Stencil Font Mind the Gap
Mind the Gap is an army stencil typeface with a street vibe that was made by manually cutting letter stencils and spray painting them with black paint. Upper- and lowercase letters, digits, punctuation, symbols, and stylistic sets are all included in the typeface. Use it for T-shirts, signs, posters, and more!
Myla Font
Myla is a military writing font that draws from Soviet legacy and was inspired by Soviet culture. It has Latin and foreign-language characters, numbers, punctuation, stylistic alternates, and ligatures. It is available in three styles: regular, bold, and black. When you want something a little different from the army’s default typeface, choose this one.
Portico Stencil Rough
Portico is a rough, textured font with weathered soldier letters. The display font in uppercase works well for large-scale applications like billboards and signage.
Arnold Font
Looking for a military-style typeface that is simple and uncluttered? Arnold was added specifically for you. Squared corners are used in this font’s all-caps design to produce letter shapes that resemble boxes and have a dominating presence.