The iconic logo of The New York Times newspaper has been used by the publication over its 170+ year history, with a few tweaks but no major changes. Today we take a look at this unique and highly recognisable text logo and identify some of the other fonts used by the newspaper to cement its brand.
What Font Is The New York Times Logo?
Let’s start by answering the question: “What font is used for The New York Times logo?”
A Brief History of The New York Times Logo
Between 1851 and 1857, the paper was called New-York Daily Times. In 1857, it changed its name to The New-York Times. Apart from adding ‘The’, it kept the logo style the same.
Over the years, the company tweaked the logo in various small ways. For example, it removed the hyphen between New and York, trimming the terminals and smoothening the edges of the letters. None of these tweaks affected the newspaper’s brand. However, when the newspaper dropped the period at the end of its title in 1967, its readership was not impressed.
While The Times determined that dropping the period at the end of its title saved the paper US$41.28 per year in ink, it cost the paper 1,000 subscribers. Since the dropping of the period in 1967, the logo has remained unchanged.
Incidentally, The New York Times Magazine logo uses the same distinctive font style as the newspaper.
If you’re interested in creating your own cool magazine, Envato Tuts+ has a number of great articles to help you get started:
The New York Times Logo Font Alternatives
The New York Times logo font is a proprietary font that’s not available for the rest of us to use, but there are some close matches available on Envato Elements. If you’re looking for a font that looks like the NYT logo, try one of these terrific alternatives.
Want to create your own newspaper? Here are a couple of articles you will find useful:
New York Times Headline Font
Now that you know what font is used for The New York Times logo, let’s turn our attention to The New York Times headline font.
The paper’s headlines use Cheltenham, a serif font designed in 1896 by architect Bertram Goodhue and Ingalls Kimball, director of the Cheltenham Press. Morris Fuller Benton contributed significantly to this font style when he developed an extensive type family from the basic font.
The New York Times Headline Font Alternatives
If you love The Times headlines, you can find your very own elegant serif font at Envato Elements. These are just a small selection of the serif fonts available that you can use to create your own eye-catching header text.
New York Times Article Font
When it comes to The New York Times article font, the main font used from 2007 is the highly legible Georgia font. Before 2007, the paper used Times New Roman.
Designed in 1993 by Matthew Carter as a serif typeface for Microsoft, Georgia is similar in appearance to the Times New Roman font, with small differences. For example, Georgia is bigger than Times at the same point size, it is more generous in width and character spacing, and it features a larger x-height. All of these features improve legibility, particularly on digital screens.
While headlines in The New York Times are always black and often bold, its body text is grey, which makes it easier to read. Author names are differentiated from the rest of the text with upper-case characters in a slightly lighter grey colour.
If you want to know more about Georgia, read this helpful article from Envato Tuts+:
The New York Times Body Font Alternatives
You too can create your own distinctive body text with these wonderful New York Times body font alternatives from Envato Elements.
Other New York Times Newspaper Fonts
There is another font that the newspaper makes good use of for its sub-headings and captions, as well as its menu options in its online version. That font is the sans serif, Franklin Gothic.
Franklin Gothic is a large family of sans-serif fonts in the industrial or grotesque style. It is an American Type Founders (ATF) typeface designed by their head designer Morris Fuller Benton in the early 20th century.
To discover more about Franklin Gothic, read this article from Envato Tuts+:
The New York Times Captions Font Alternatives
Looking for highly versatile sans serifs like Franklin Gothic? Here are some very close matches available on Envato Elements.
Choose Your Favourite New York Times Font
Now you know what font the New York Times logo is written in, what other fonts the paper uses, and where you can find great alternatives when you need them. So head to Envato Elements and download your favourites today.
Here are more top resources and tutorials to try from Envato Tuts+: