Founded in 1988, The Onion remains one of the most recognizable satirical news outlets in the world. Its visual design cleverly mirrors that of a traditional newspaper—anchored by its choice of type—giving it a real sense of newsy legitimacy.

Headlines are set in Rocky Compressed, designed by Matthew Carter and available from Carter & Cone. Carter’s long association with newspaper typography makes this choice especially fitting, giving the digital publication a confident, print-like presence.

Tablet Gothic Condensed and Semi-Condensed, designed by José Scaglione and Veronika Burian, foundry partners at TypeTogether, appear in subheads and smaller section titles. This crisp, space-saving sans serif family acts as a good visual foil for the two serif families.

Body copy uses Utopia, designed by Robert Slimbach for Adobe and their Adobe Originals program, providing a balanced, readable serif ideal for long-form journalism—real or imagined.

The logo is based on Eagle, David Berlow’s interpretation and expansion of ATF’s Eagle Bold, with modifications.

In a time when real news can feel stranger than satire, The Onion’s typographic choices reinforce its role as both parody and institution.

Various pages viewed through a narrower viewport demonstrates that the typography holds up even on smaller devices.

Front page of the first print issue of Heimildin from 13 January 2023

Heimildin (“The Source”) is an Icelandic media company committed to use investigative journalism to provide the public with access to independent information. The firm was founded in 2023 following the merger of Stundar and Kjarnan. It publishes a daily news website and a biweekly printed newspaper that’s also named Heimildin.

The new look was conceived by Jón Ingi Stefánsson, co-founder and former design director of Stundar. For the logo/nameplate, Stefánsson chose the Bold weight of Rector. This lapidary serif was designed by Hrvoje Živčić, and won him a Certificate of Typographic Excellence by the TDC. With its sharp details – like the wedge-shaped bars in H and e – Rector perfectly reflects Heimildin’s aspiration to be an incisive voice in Iceland’s media landscape. It’s also used for the logo of the supplement Menning (“Culture”), here starring its sculptural M and the defiant g. Rector is available from Production Type in a family of six weights in roman and italic. There is also Rector Display with Hairline and Outline styles.

Main headlines in the print edition often feature Mānuka. This tall, compact sans was designed by Kris Sowersby, taking inspiration from old German poster types. It was released by Klim Type Foundry, alongside Mānuka Slab and an even narrower Mānuka Condensed. The serif used in the newspaper and on the website is Tiempos, by the same type designer and foundry. It appears in two of its three optical sizes, Headline and Text.

Heimildin’s font stack is completed by Sanomat Sans by Commercial Type. This typeface was originally designed for another Nordic newspaper, the Finnish Helsingin Sanomat, and is part of a series that also includes Stencil and Slab variants. Heimildin makes use of its Sans Text styles optimized for small sizes.

Issue 006 with headlines in Mānuka

Covers of the supplement Menning with cultural news, featuring Rector Bold for the nameplate

“This is just the beginnning” in Tiempos Headline – front page from issue 038, January 2024, about the volcanic eruptions in the Reykjanes peninsula

“The government was warned” – when the situation in the area around Grindavík got more serious after the eruption on 8 February 2024, Heimildin deviated from the standard layout for issue 041 and placed the logo on top of the ominous photograph.

Heimildin homepage

As one of the titles of the 17th Istanbul Biennial, Mantı Postasi (English: Dumpling Post) is named after the Kayseri Dumpling Festival and is a form of reaction. This newspaper was published after the Hrant Dink Foundation’s “Kayseri and Its Surroundings: Social, Cultural and Economic History Conference”, which was planned to be held in Kayseri in 2019 and was banned first by the Kayseri Governor’s Office and then by the Şişli District Governor’s Office.

This newspaper is published within the scope of the 17th Istanbul Biennial, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) with the support of the Chrest Foundation, Heinrich Böll Foundation Turkey Representation, and SAHA–Supporting Contemporary Art from Turkey. The views and opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of İKSV.

County Highway is a 20-page broadsheet newspaper designed by Abbott Miller and team at Pentagram. It highlights political and spiritual articles, as well as agriculture, civil liberties, animals, herbal medicine, literature, art, and music.

From Pentagram's website:

County Highway is a new newspaper based on an old idea—that nothing compares to the joys of reading in print. Positioning itself as “America’s Only Newspaper,” the bi-monthly publication harkens back to the glory days of ink-stained broadsheets, as well as the alternative press, that covered local communities alongside national issues. Pentagram has created a visual identity and editorial design for County Highway that looks back to the heyday of 19th-century newspapers and celebrates reconnecting with print culture.

The design is constructed with a pleasing medley of typefaces. Job Clarendon (by DJR and Bethany Heck) is featured prominently in the logo and masthead, as well as in various weights for some of the article headlines. It is a display face designed with the letterpress era in mind. The other display typefaces act as ingredients to ground the look firmly in the 19th-century. Caslon Doric (by Commercial Type) allows for more variation on the article titles, Trio Grotesk by Schick Toikka adds micro touches along the spreads, and Blackoak (by Joy Redick) works as a loud, brassy display face. For body text, Shift (by MCKL Type Foundry) is employed, balancing the newspaper in a space to be as serious or as playful as it needs to be.

On May 18th 2023, the Los Angeles Times released a checklist of the 101 Best California Experiences. This was also published as a full feature article on their website, Instagram, and in the printed issue from May 21st, 2023. The 26 page guide was also made available for purchase at the LA Times store, which has since sold out of all copies. In their own words:

The 101 Best California Experiences is a guide to the most awe-inspiring, fascinating and delightful things to do across the Golden State — right now in 2023. Stargaze in Borrego Springs. See the shoreline sparkle at Glass Beach. Eat with abandon at Grand Central Market. Written by L.A. Times travel writer Christopher Reynolds, “Cal 101” is packed with history, insider tips, traveler updates and a checklist to mark off your adventures.

The article headline “CAL 101” features Obviously by OH no Type Co (with a custom 1 in the CAL 101 animation). Obviously’s figures are featured throughout, along with some animated text weaving in and out of the scenic imagery, which can be viewed on the website. Body text is rendered in Benton Sans, with FB Kis Display for headlines. Social media graphics also feature Benton Modern Display.

Creative director: Amy King
Design director: Taylor Le
Senior deputy design director: Faith Stafford
Art direction, digital production and motion graphics: Anne Latini
Art direction and print design: Kay Scanlon
Additional print design: Jan Molen
Digital production: Denise Florez, David Lewis
Full credits on the Los Angeles Times website

Source: observador.pt License: All Rights Reserved.

Homepage (detail)

Halyard Text is the primary typeface used by Observador. Launched in 2014, the Portuguese newspaper was rather unique at the time in that it was published exclusively in digital from, with no printed edition. In 2021, Observador revised its typography and chose new fonts that better represent the newspaper’s identity and brand.

The main typeface used both on the website and the mobile apps now is Halyard Text by Darden Studio, replacing the old Roboto in headlines, decks and highlights, but also in navigational elements and auxiliary texts. Halyard Text can prove itself as an on-screen workhorse sans that’s clear and pleasantly readable across a range of sizes and weights, without compromising on character and distinctiveness.

For the process of selecting the new typefaces, Observador’s in-house design team consulted with art director Ana Freitas. “After we reached a small group of finalists, Halyard Text was the one that stood out for being the most functional, expressive, dynamic and recognizable”, explains design manager Alex Santos. Freitas characterizes Halyard Text as “a flexible, contemporary and very consistent typeface.” The newspaper acknowledges that typography is a crucial element in brand communication: the style guide prescribes Halyard Text for all communication elements, to be used whenever possible.

Halyard Text is paired with Noto Serif for body text. The latter was chosen as it better harmonizes with Halyard Text than the previously used Georgia.

Source: observador.pt License: All Rights Reserved.

Homepage detail with article teasers

Source: observador.pt Observador. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: observador.pt Observador. License: All Rights Reserved.

Article page (detail)

Source: observador.pt Observador. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: observador.pt Observador. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: observador.pt Observador. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: apps.apple.com Observador. License: All Rights Reserved.

Screens from the iPhone app

Source: apps.apple.com Observador. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: apps.apple.com Observador. License: All Rights Reserved.

Podcasts page in the iPad app

L’Obs, formerly known as Le Nouvel Observateur, is the French weekly news magazine with the widest reach. Founded in 1950, it covers all general fields of information, from domestic and international politics and economy to culture, literature and lifestyle.

As of 2022, their website uses Production Type’s Newsreader as its primary identity typeface. Commissioned by Google Fonts and released in 2021, Newsreader was designed by Hugues Gentile, with contributions by Jean-Baptiste Levée and others. It was conceived as a variable font especially suitable for continuous on-screen reading, making best use of optical sizes. In its static version the family breaks down to 42 styles.

The website of L’Obs uses Newsreader for headlines, lead-ins and quotes, in styles from the Text (16pt) and Display (72pt) sizes. Across the vast online presence of L’Obs including its various subbrands and spinoffs, Newspaper is paired with various other typefaces. In the images of the main site shown here, we get to see Jonny Pinhorn’s sans serif Karla and Vernon Adams’s narrow Oswald. The current logo was introduced already in 2014 and is a custom design by Serge Ricco.

Founded in 1847, the Chicago Tribune is the daily newspaper for Chicago and the Great Lakes region. But it draws way beyond: it ranks sixth with regards to its nationwide circulation across the United States.

The newspaper’s website was redesigned in 2022 and since then displays a mix of three typefaces. Matthew Carter’s Georgia is the roman in use for reading texts. It is paired with Steve Matteson’s Open Sans for categories, dates, author names, and other navigational items and meta data.

What adds a spark of flavor and finesse to the site is Spectral by Production Type. This serif family is being used for headlines, lead-ins and snippets, mainly in three of its seven weights (Regular, Medium Bold). It was designed by Jean-Baptiste Levée, specifically with the use for Google Docs and Sheets in mind. As such, it’s a formidable choice for on-screen reading. Since Spectral was originally designed for medium to small text sizes, it is relatively loosely spaced. The designers of the Chicago Tribune reduced the letter spacing via CSS, finetuning the balance of black and white so that it is appropriate again for their use in slightly larger sizes.

Spectral was selected by Awwwards as one of the top recommended Google Web Fonts.

Covers

Funktion Studio created the visual redesign/relaunch of the layout of the Niederösterreichische Nachrichten NÖN (as well as the affiliated BVZ) for Marble House.

Text and image were given structure by creating white space and eliminating visual disturbance. The new design aims to optimize readability, visual guidance, orientation and assignability.

In addition to a new page layout and grid, new fonts and a barrier-free color coding system have been introduced. A contemporary typography was designed using Cast Type Foundry's Sole Serif and Sole Sans – two typefaces optimized for newspaper printing.

The basic grid behind the page

Sole Sans in use on the newspaper website

Haaretz.com is the international online edition of the Haaretz newspaper from Israel. It uses a range of typefaces including Merriweather. Merriweather tends to be used in full articles rather than in lists of articles and is used in special or featured content. It appears in several weights and is paired with the sans-serif Neue Helvetica (or Arial in some environments). Other typefaces used include Open Sans and Bookmania as well as Roboto (not pictured here).

Bookmania is used for headlines in the Opinion section.

Open Sans features for the Covid-19 infographic on the page with Israel News. Again, the headlines here are in Bookmania.

Launched in 1996, Gulf Today is one of the oldest publishing entities in the United Arab Emirates.

Time is constantly evolving, and so do our habits and ways to access information. The dependence on print media is steadily declining, and the need for a digital presence is more important than ever for any business to succeed. Despite being the first to break the news ahead of other publications, Gulf Today was hit by this very phenomenon, struggling to build a strong and diverse audience and stand out in a highly saturated market.

In response to this, I conceptualized and crafted the new brand identity, one that would bridge the past with the present and move the company forward into new digital times while building on its already renowned legacy.

The result is a brand identity that fosters the evolution of a traditional mass media brand into the modern digital age. Straddling the line between the legacy of the newspaper and the multi-cultural environment of the UAE, I created a visual language to express a refreshed voice for just this diverse metropolis.

I used Pensum for the word “Gulf” to inspire the newspaper’s heritage and the amalgamation of different Arab cultures around it. A robust typeface with sharp details and strong serifs, Pensum embodies tradition and credibility. It reads very well in small sizes but also has its own character in large sizes.

Contrastingly, for “Today” as the second half of the brand name, I used Euclid Flex to reflect modern times and a more digital brand. The young and audacious feel of Euclid, with its unique, quirky details, matches the contemporary landscape characteristic of our newspaper.

The juxtaposition of these two distinct typefaces completes our brand mark and builds the visual language.

The typefaces represent the foundation of the brand, uniting experience and knowledge with modernity. I designed the new brand identity to promote a conversation between the old and the new, the east and the west, the writer and the reader. These two fonts reflect this balance.

In collaboration with a talented team of UI/UX designers, we developed the new vision into a fully-implemented online presence.

News website The Lily, named after the first U.S. newspaper by women, is a product of The Washington Post: “Our mission is two-fold: Empower with news and information and promote inclusivity by exposing diverse voices. The difficulty of this is not lost on us. We will seek contributions from those diverse in race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and economic status. We will engage our generation.”

The Lily uses Georgia for body text, Monserrat for subheads, pull quotes, photo attribution section navigation and dates. Merriweather is used for headlines. The logo appears to be custom drawn.

Main-Post is a German newspaper in Würzburg. The Main-Post website uses Merriweather and Merriweather Sans.

Merriweather is mixed with Roboto in the Beta redesign for the website of the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s newspaper of record.

Some well-put words by journalist Bob Whitman on the De Volkskrant newspaper website, typeset in one of Unger’s designs.

Type designer Gerard Unger (Arnhem, 1942) may not be well-known to a large audience, but he is by far the best-read Dutchman ever. For example tomorrow’s de Volkskrant newspaper will contain hundreds of thousands of carefully designed gems from Unger, in the form of the letters of the Capitolium News font.

Capitolium, which De Volkskrant has been using since 2006, is one of many successful typefaces designed by Unger in his lifetime. Newspapers and magazines like Het Parool, Trouw, VPRO Gids, Vrij Nederland and USA Today work or have worked with fonts from Unger. His typeface designs can be found in the old PTT telephone books and in the Amsterdam metro stations. Unger designed a chocolate letter alphabet, but also the lettering of ANWB signs [Dutch highway signage]: “If I take a turn somewhere, I will always check whether the spacing on the signs is correct.”

Detail

For their “Arbeit” section, Zeit Online adds a third typeface to their palette. In addition to the standard pair of FF Franziska and Tablet Gothic (see the post about ZEITmagazin Online), there is Patron Bold by Timo Gaessner, “a sans serif influenced by type designers Günther Gerhard Lange and Roger Excoffon” (Milieu Grotesque).

Zeit Online Arbeit focuses on topics related to workplace culture, career, and income, including stress, discrimination, equal pay and more. Patron appears for headlines, subheadings and intro texts, but also for lists, boxes, tags and sharing buttons.

In some places, Patron is shown outlined, via the CSS property -webkit-text-stroke. More CSS trickery is used for underlines with skipped descenders. Still no proper quote marks, though.

With Pensum Display for prominent headlines and Pensum Pro throughout, Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung has launched a redesigned website.

The confident rebrand of the newspaper’s website (www.nzz.ch) by Edenspiekermann introduces a new design language for Neue Zürcher Zeitung. With new typefaces, new colours and layouts, the NZZ brand is powerfully communicated by its digital incarnation.

Our typeface for text and nothing but text is paired with GT America — a grotesque by the Swiss foundry Grilli Type — handling decks, captions and navigational elements. In a digital newspaper that embraces longform reading and other text-heavy content, Pensum Pro takes a primary role in shaping the newspaper’s content and digital identity.

Beyond body copy, the robust yet sleek Pensum Pro is used for headlines in the newspaper’s website. The digital NZZ Magazin adds Pensum Display for headlines and quotes, giving a crisp and elegant tone to the typography.

According to Edenspiekermann, the website’s new look is just a starting point in an ongoing process. The new design language won’t just be limited to the website: an app is currently in development which will feature the same design, guaranteeing a coherent visual identity for the newspaper’s content.

We are excited to see where and how Pensum Pro and Pensum Display will perform at Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

@TypeMates www.typemates.com

The newspaper Giornale di Brescia, from the northern Italian city, is set in Abril and JAF Bernina Sans. The combination works very well – both typefaces are used for large headlines as well as in small sizes: Abril for the body text and JAF Bernina for the infographics and listings. The same combination is used on their website as well.

Source: www.politico.com Politico Illustration/iStock/Getty Images. License: All Rights Reserved.

Politico is an American political-journalism company founded in 2007. The Jubilat typeface family by Darden Studio plays a major role in the visual identity of Politico’s online presence.

Source: www.politico.com Politico. Illustration by Daniel Hertzberg. License: All Rights Reserved.

Jubilat is complemented by Proxima Nova for small sans-serif text. The text face is Georgia.

Source: www.politico.com Politico. License: All Rights Reserved.

Led by creative director Janet Michaud (since 2016 together with art director Erin Aulov), Politico’s design team has made outstanding use of Jubilat Bold as the primary headline face in the magazine ever since the introduction of this format in 2013. We are happy to see how the hefty slab serif helps to lend reliability and gravitas to Politico’s “home for ambitious, distinctive journalism about the people, ideas, and institutions that matter most in Washington—and beyond.” Jubilat also adorns The Friday Cover, an email digest of the week’s best from the magazine.

Source: www.politico.com Politico. Illustrations by Piotr Lesniak and Doug Chayka. License: All Rights Reserved.

Jubilat again is paired with Proxima Nova as secondary typeface. The logos of Politico Magazine and The Friday Cover are in tightly spaced caps from Futura, with words separated by color rather than spaces.

Source: www.politico.com Politico. License: All Rights Reserved.

The Friday Cover typically goes with Jubilat Bold and Black, for maximum impact, often in center-aligned settings. Different sizes and colors as well as changes between all-caps and mixed-case settings make for a varied and yet consistent look.

Source: www.janetmichaud.com Janet Michaud. License: All Rights Reserved.

In its early years, The Friday Cover frequently featured several of Jubilat’s eleven weights, sometimes contrasting the strongly modulated Bold with the almost monolinear Light, see e.g. “Angry America”.
The typographic treatment used to be more variable, too, including overlapping glyphs, type on an angle, and different alignments.

Source: www.politico.com Politico. License: All Rights Reserved.

Inside the newsletter, Jubilat serves for headlines and, in a lighter weight, for pull quotes.

Furthermore, Jubilat is the typographic mainstay of The Agenda, Politico’s “home for the daily conversation around the ideas reshaping the country”, launched in June 2015 and initially art directed by Heather Barber. The typeface here appears in the all-caps logo as well as in headlines of various sizes, in regular and bold weights. Taking advantage of its sturdy forms, the designers use it reversed against colors and images.

Source: www.politico.com Politico. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: www.politico.com License: All Rights Reserved.

The Agenda’s article teasers are arranged on a four-column grid. When placed on images, white Jubilat Bold get a subtle shadow treatment. The regular weight is used for articles without images.

Arbetet is the online magazine of LO, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation. The paper dates back to 1921, but despite that I’ve rarely, if ever, seen someone share their web content. Will that change with this fancy new website they’ve now launched?

A streamlined layout with a focus on photography makes up the building blocks, which are then set in a number of typefaces Kris Sowersby. Combining Founders Grotesk’s character with Financier’s elegance makes for a classic, news-y profile updated for the post-news web age.