Caslon

The first great English typeface, and for a century the default of British and colonial American printing. The printers' saying was: when in doubt, use Caslon.

Designer
William Caslon
Year
1720s
Where
London
Free stand-in
Libre Baskerville
In the library
4 styles
Download Libre Baskerville, freeGoogle FontsCaslon itself is licensed. Libre Baskerville is the closest free face, free for personal and commercial work under the Open Font License.

01Set it yourself

Set in Libre BaskervilleLoading the face
Tryor click the specimen and type your own.
Weight
Case
Dress it in a style

02Put it to work

Your words from the specimen, set in Libre Baskerville in the formats a project actually needs, in the colours you picked above.

yourstudio.com
CaslonWorkAboutContact
Caslon

We design identities, websites and campaigns for people who care how things feel. This is the paragraph your headline sits on, set in Libre Baskerville.

Start a project →

Tip. Headline in Libre Baskerville, standing in for Caslon, body copy in Libre Baskerville. Copy the CSS from the specimen above and the headline is ready to paste into your site.

03Every character

AU+0041 · Libre Baskerville 700
72pxCaslon
48pxCaslon
32pxCaslon
20pxThe quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, 1234567890.
14pxThe quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, 1234567890.

04The free stand-in: Libre Baskerville

Why Libre Baskerville. Old-style warmth and sturdy text colour; Baskerville is the closest free transitional. Caslon itself is a licensed typeface, so everything on this page is set in Libre Baskerville, which is free to use on the web and in print.

Libre Baskerville, on its own. Baskerville's transitional forms, widened and opened up for the screen.

If Caslon is installed on your computer, an A/B key appears in the specimen above so you can compare the two.

Download Libre Baskerville, freeGoogle Fonts

05The styles built on Caslon

CottagecoreOpen the style →Dark AcademiaOpen the style →Pueblo RevivalOpen the style →Afro SurrealismOpen the style →

06What it pairs with

Ornate HistoricalLobsterSet in Libre Baskerville underneath: the body copy a headline in Lobster needs to sit on.Try it in the type lab →

07More serif faces

Garamond9Times5Baskerville2Clarendon1
Every classic face in the libraryAll fonts and pairings →
Open the type lab →Browse the styles →