Arcade Fonts
These arcade fonts recreate the lettering of 1980s arcade cabinets, home computers and 8-bit consoles: chunky pixel letters, glowing CRT terminal type and the neon marquee look of an arcade floor. Type a word below and every arcade font previews it at once.
Each one is a real font file you can download and install. All of them are released under the SIL Open Font License, so you can use them in a game, a stream overlay, a YouTube thumbnail or a client logo without paying anything.
18 free fonts · every one is licensed for personal and commercial use
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Press Start 2P
1 style · 42 KBBased on the screen font of 1980s Namco arcade games. Best for: Retro game titles, pixel art, 8-bit logos.
by CodeMan38 · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Silkscreen
2 styles · 24 KBA chunky pixel face from 1999, built to stay sharp at small sizes. Best for: Small UI labels, retro web graphics, badges.
by Jason Kottke · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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VT323
1 style · 45 KBRecreated from the DEC VT320 computer terminal, CRT glow and all. Best for: Hacker screens, terminals, retro computer UIs.
by Peter Hull · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Pixelify Sans
4 weights · 116 KBA clean, modern pixel font with a weight axis. Best for: Indie game menus, pixel art captions.
by Stefie Justprince · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Jersey 10
1 style · 29 KBA sporty pixel sans from the knitting-inspired Soft Type collection. Best for: Scoreboards, sports games, jersey numbers.
by Sarah Cadigan-Fried · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Tiny5
9 weights · 1.0 MBA compact pixel face that stays legible at very small sizes. Best for: HUD text, tiny labels, item tooltips.
by Stefan Schmidt · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Micro 5
1 style · 20 KBDrawn to be teeny-tiny, with capitals only five pixels tall. Best for: Micro text, minimal pixel UIs.
by Sarah Cadigan-Fried · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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DotGothic16
1 style · 805 KBBased on an old 16x16 gothic bitmap font from games, phones and computers. Best for: JRPG-style dialogue boxes, retro menus.
by Fontworks Inc. · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Sixtyfour
1 style · 16 KBA rework of the Commodore 64 system font, with scanline and bleed effects. Best for: C64 tributes, CRT-style titles.
by Jens Kutílek · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Jacquard 12
1 style · 40 KBA pixel revival of a Victorian needlepoint alphabet from around 1880. Best for: Fantasy RPG titles, medieval pixel games.
by Sarah Cadigan-Fried · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Handjet
9 weights · 579 KBEvery letter is built from repeated small elements, like a dot display. Best for: LED signs, dot-matrix screens, sci-fi readouts.
by Rosetta, David Březina · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Bytesized
1 style · 9 KBA very small, blocky pixel font. Best for: Tiny pixel labels, low-resolution games.
by Baltdev · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Workbench
1 style · 10 KBA rework of the Amiga Workbench system font, with scanline effects. Best for: Amiga-era tributes, retro desktop UIs.
by Jens Kutílek · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Doto
9 weights · 115 KBLetters built entirely from dots, with adjustable roundness. Best for: Scoreboards, LED-style titles, timers.
by Óliver Lalan · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Monoton
1 style · 28 KBA multi-line display face in the tradition of 1930s metalpress fonts. Best for: Neon arcade marquees, synthwave posters.
by Vernon Adams · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Audiowide
1 style · 35 KBSoft-cornered tubular letters with a techno-futuristic feel. Best for: Racing games, tech logos, retro-future titles.
by Astigmatic · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Faster One
1 style · 45 KBHorizontal speed lines cut through every letter. Best for: Racing titles, speed and action headlines.
by Eduardo Tunni · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
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Racing Sans One
1 style · 60 KBA high-contrast sans built for punchy headlines. Best for: Racing liveries, sports posters.
by Impallari Type · Google Fonts · Free for commercial use (OFL)
What makes an arcade font look like an arcade game
Classic arcade game font design comes from hardware limits. Early arcade machines drew every letter on a tiny grid, often 8 by 8 pixels, so text came out blocky, all caps and evenly spaced. Press Start 2P is the most direct example here: its designer based it on the screen font of 1980s Namco arcade games, specifically the 1986 game Return of Ishtar. Silkscreen, Pixelify Sans, Tiny5 and Bytesized follow the same pixel-grid idea at different sizes, and Micro 5 was drawn to be teeny-tiny.
Retro arcade font styles beyond pixels
Not every retro arcade font is made of squares. VT323 copies the DEC VT320 computer terminal, glow and all. Sixtyfour and Workbench rework the system fonts of the Commodore 64 and the Amiga, complete with simulated scanlines. Doto builds letters out of dots, and Handjet out of repeated small elements, both close to the look of an LED scoreboard. Monoton looks like the multi-line neon of an arcade machine marquee, and Faster One and Racing Sans One bring the speed lines of an 80s racing cabinet. If you want a classic arcade font for a title rather than body text, those last three are the ones to try, and Monoton in particular gives the closest arcade classic font look for a marquee or poster.
Use this page as an arcade font generator
You don't have to install anything to get an image. Type your text, pick a color, and press Save as PNG under any font to download it as a transparent image, ready for a thumbnail, a Discord banner or a game menu mockup. That makes this page work as an arcade font generator and an arcade game font generator in one. When you need the font itself, for a game engine, Photoshop, Canva or Cricut, press Download to get the TTF files with their license.
Picking an arcade gamer font for logos and channels
For a gamer tag or channel logo, pick an arcade gamer font that stays readable small. Press Start 2P and Silkscreen hold up at 16 pixels, which matters for profile pictures and stream overlays. For a big title or poster, the decorative arcade machine font options like Monoton, Sixtyfour and Faster One have more personality. Keep pixel fonts at whole-number multiples of their grid, for example 8, 16, 24 or 32 pixels, so the edges stay crisp instead of blurring.
Free for commercial use, with the license included
Many arcade fonts on big font sites are free for personal use only. Every font on this page uses the SIL Open Font License 1.1, which allows commercial use in games, apps, merch and client work. The only real rule is that you can't sell the font files on their own. Each download includes the license text (OFL.txt) and a link to the font's Google Fonts page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the classic arcade font called?
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There isn't one single font. Early arcade games each had their own pixel font built into the hardware. Press Start 2P is the closest free match to the 1980s Namco arcade style, and it's the arcade font most indie games and retro designs use today.
Can I use these arcade fonts commercially?
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Yes. All of them are under the SIL Open Font License, which allows commercial use in games, videos, logos and products. You just can't sell the font files by themselves.
How do I install an arcade font?
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Download the zip, unzip it, and open the .ttf file. On Windows click Install; on a Mac click Install Font in Font Book. For a game engine, import the .ttf file directly; in Canva, uploading fonts needs Canva Pro.
Can I make arcade text without installing a font?
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Yes. Type your text at the top of the page and press Save as PNG under the arcade font you like. You'll get a transparent PNG image you can drop into any design.
Why does my pixel font look blurry?
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Pixel fonts are drawn on a grid. At sizes that aren't a multiple of that grid, the edges get smoothed and blur. Use sizes like 16, 24 or 32 pixels and turn off anti-aliasing in your design tool if it allows it.