--- layout: default --- {% for file in site.static_files %}{% assign _path = file.path | remove_first: "/inter" %}{% if _path == "/index.css" %}{% assign index_css_v = file.modified_time | date: "%Y%m%d%H%M%S" %}{% elsif _path == "/index-var.css" %}{% assign index_var_css_v = file.modified_time | date: "%Y%m%d%H%M%S" %}{% elsif _path == "/index-var.js" %}{% assign index_var_js_v = file.modified_time | date: "%Y%m%d%H%M%S" %}{% endif %}{% endfor %}

The Inter typeface family

Inter is a typeface carefully crafted & designed for computer screens.

Inter features a tall x-height to aid in readability of mixed-case and lower-case text. Several OpenType features are provided as well, like contextual alternates that adjusts punctuation depending on the shape of surrounding glyphs, slashed zero for when you need to disambiguate "0" from "o", tabular numbers, etc.

Inter Regular
Sample

Inter Bold
Sample

Using

Using Inter is as easy as downloading & installing the font files. If you're making a web thing, you can use the following CSS.

@import url('https://rsms.me/inter/inter.css');
html { font-family: 'Inter', sans-serif; }
@supports (font-variation-settings: normal) {
  html { font-family: 'Inter var', sans-serif; }
}

Dynamic Metrics

Size dp = spacing em

There's of course no absolute right or wrong when it comes to expressing yourself with typography, but Inter Dynamic Metrics provides guidelines for good typography. You simply provide the optical font size, and the tracking and leading is calculated for you to produce the best results.

Explore dynamic metrics →

Free &
Open source

Inter is a free and open source font family.
You are free to use this font in almost any way imaginable.
Refer to the SIL Open Font License 1.1 for exact details on what the conditions and restrictions are.

Weights & Styles

There are nine weights, each with italic counterparts, making a total of 18 styles.

Variable

Inter is offered as both traditional constant font files (one per style, e.g. Bold Italic, Medium, etc.) as well as a Variable Font which contains all styles in a much smaller file size. Additionally, a variable font is ...variable! You can mix and match weight and italic angle as you please, forming theoretically infinite variations.

Variable Fonts not supported by this web browser

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890 ?!()[]{}&*^%$#@~

Variable fonts is a new and emerging technology.
This test can be used to discover what a web browser is capable of.

Features

Inter comes with many OpenType features that can be used to tailor functionality and aesthetics to your specific needs. Some of these features can be combined to form a great number of alternative variations.

{% for f in site.data.feature_samples %}

{{f.tag}} {{f.title}}

{% if f.description %}

{{f.description}}

{% endif %}{% assign feat_tag = f.tag %}{% assign has_feature_col = false %}{% for s in f.samples %}{% if s.feat %}{% assign has_feature_col = true %}{% break %}{% endif %}{% endfor %} {% if has_feature_col %} Feature Disabled Enabled {% else %} Disabled Enabled {% endif %} {% for s in f.samples %} {% if has_feature_col %}{% assign sample = s.sample %}{% assign feat_tag = s.feat %}{% else %}{% assign sample = s %}{% endif %}{% assign sample_in = sample | replace: "›", "" | replace: "‹", "" %}{% assign sample_out = sample | remove: "›" | remove: "‹" %} {% if has_feature_col %} {{feat_tag}} {{sample_in}} {{sample_out}} {% else %} {{sample_in}} {{sample_out}} {% endif %} {% endfor %}
{% if f.footer %}

{{f.footer}}

{% endif %}
{% endfor %}

Additional features, not highlighted above: locl, salt, aalt, cpsp and ordn.
You can explore features in the interactive lab.

Language support


{% for c in site.data.languages %}

{{c.category}}

{% for language in c.languages %}

{{language}}

{% endfor %} {% endfor %}

Character set

All {{ site.data.glyphinfo.glyphs | size }} characters provided with Inter. Tap a glyph to copy it to your clipboard.
Use the Glyphs Browser to inspect details like kerning and style variation.

{% include charset-table.html %}

The story behind Inter

Inter started out in late 2016 as an experiment to build a perfectly pixel-fitting font at a specific small size (11px.) The idea was that by crafting a font in a particular way, with a particular coordinate system (Units Per EM), and for a particular target rasterization size (11), it would be possible to get the best of both sharpness and readability.

However after a few months of using an early version of Inter, it dawned on everyone exposed to the test that this approach had some serious real-world problems. Most notably that it was really hard to read longer text. Because of the pixel-aligning nature of that approach, the font took an almost mono-spaced appearance, making it really easy to read numbers, punctuation and very short words, but eye-straining to read anything longer.

The project was rebooted with a different approach, sticking with the specific UPM, but crafting glyphs and kerning in a way that made for more variation in the rhythm and smoother vertical and horizontal stems. As Inter was being developed, it was tested on an internal version of Figma—where the author of Inter works as a designer—and slowly improved upon based on experience and feedback.

 

FAQ

How do I enable and disable font features?

In web browsers you'll want to use font-feature-settings. In Figma you can access features via the Advanced Type panel. In Illustrator, Photoshop and friends, you can access features via the Characters and OpenType panels. Sketch doesn't provide a UI for configuring font features, but there's a workaround using macOS's native font UI.

What is the difference between hinted and unhinted fonts?

The font files in the "hinted" folders have additional data in them for assisting ClearType, the text rasterizer used by Microsoft Windows (and some Linux distributions.) You want to use the "hinted" fonts only if you are targeting Windows users and prefer the different look of these "hinted" fonts. Additionally, hinting data makes the font files larger, so if you are using Inter on websites, the extra size of these files is another consideration to make. This article explains hinting at a greater length.

How reliable are the fonts served from rsms.me/inter?

rsms.me/inter is distributed globally over CloudFlare's CDN, backed by GitHub's servers, making usage of https://rsms.me/inter/inter.css and associated font files very reliable and fast throughout the world.

Can I help with improving Inter?

Yes you can! Inter is an open-source project, meaning the source code—or "source design" if you will—that is used to build the font files are freely available to improve upon. Font making requires a fair bit of technical work and depending on what you'd like to do, some things might be more fun depending on your technical skills. The "Contributing" document is a great place to start. The document outlines where you can have the biggest impact, how things are setup and how to get started.

How do I subset the font files?

Have a look at pyftsubset and glyphhanger.

How do I access alternate glyphs if my software doesn't provide OpenType control?

Have a look at pyftfeatfreeze which is a tool that allows you to build font files with certain OpenType features turned on "by default".

This website claims work started in 2016, but the git repository's log says it started later?

Inter was developed in a private, internal git repository starting in November 2016, prior to being published on August 22, 2017. Between November 2016 and August 2017, there were 2 990 150 line edits made across 247 versions.

I've made a cool thing that uses Inter, can I share it with you?
or, I have a different question.

Reach out on Twitter (@rsms) or over email
@rsms