Font to replace Papyrus?

August 24, 2014 12:08 PM

Looking for a typeface for a wellness/holistic medicine practice. I know that Papyrus font is a cliche, but it's an effective visual shorthand for this kind of business. Are there other fonts that are less overused, but would still convey or fit with that vibe of green, organic, holistic, natural?

I'm just brainstorming here, happy to accept display or body-text suggestions. This particular business is very small, so an ideal font would be free/inexpensive and work for print or web.

posted by LobsterMitten to Media & Arts (15 answers total)

Try searching free font sites for "primitive" or "rustic" fonts.
posted by erst at 12:16 PM on August 24, 2014

Don't limit yourself to "free" fonts, though. It's probably worth paying $20 for something that's going to be used as much as a business' identity font.

Also - don't just think about what you want to say; think about the people to whom you want to say it, and what they will respect. (I guess I'm trying to say that if you're the only "organic/holistic" practice in town that's using a clear, sans-serif font, that might say something interesting - but you still have to stay true to yourself, also).
posted by amtho at 12:28 PM on August 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

I looked at "Papyrus" on MyFonts.com; it had four keywords, so I searched on those:

organic
rough
calligraphic

I know this isn't specific suggestions, but I hope they help anyway. It introduces a way of searching through the fonts that I think might be benificial as you think about the business' identity.
posted by amtho at 12:32 PM on August 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Yes, to clarify, $20 is ok. I just don't want to get into high-end fonts as if this were for a big company's branding. Thanks for the search terms so far.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:39 PM on August 24, 2014

Skia is one that is similar but not quite so earthy. ITC Tempus Sans is basically the same thing as far as I can tell but they're at least similar. Looking at Identifont, you might wan tto click around and see if ones like Trackpad or Present might work.
posted by jessamyn at 1:03 PM on August 24, 2014

Amira might be nice for something like this.
posted by taz at 1:13 PM on August 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

Tempus is a lot like Papyrus, without the roughness.

Oxida is nice; a bit more elegant.

Film Cryptic might be a little too close to Papyrus ...
posted by Ostara at 1:49 PM on August 24, 2014

Any of the less-cutsey handwriting fonts should do the trick.
posted by elizardbits at 3:45 PM on August 24, 2014

Palatino Sans seems airy, fluid and unusual, without the cartoonishness of Papyrus. It is not corporate feeling at all, but it's not entirely informal, either.

Obviously, you'd need to stick to a face or three to stay close to you budget.
posted by pheide at 4:33 PM on August 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

Buy a couple of weights of Laura Worthington's beautiful Charcuterie set – flared, flared bold, maybe also pick up the engraved or filigree weights to use for emphasis.
posted by zadcat at 5:11 PM on August 24, 2014

Many of Laura Worthington's might be good, but I especially think that Nelson, Origins, and (if it's not too playful) Liam are good Papyrus alternatives, and in your budget.

(Ah, I should have previewed after having this tab open so long!)
posted by Pwoink at 6:19 PM on August 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

A light weight of Lithos might work, though it was overused about 20 years ago itself.
posted by rikschell at 6:24 PM on August 24, 2014

I like Galahad.
Maybe Fable Antique?
posted by mon-ma-tron at 2:28 PM on August 26, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you all! Some good suggestions here, I've looked through thousands of fonts in the last week or so, and still fiddling with things. Will report back.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:10 PM on August 27, 2014

A few years ago I wrote an article for HOW on alternatives to common typefaces. Papyrus was one of them. Most of my suggestions are mentioned here, though, including some good new ones.
posted by Typographica at 6:31 PM on August 31, 2014 [1 favorite]