Like it or not, Impact is now associated with image macros and memes throughout the web. As the Impact font itself is not free to distribute, I was wondering if there were similar fonts available under more permissive licenses? I haven't been able to find one that felt right enough.


It's not the same design, but League Gothic is a good free bold grotesque sans that may give you the feel you want.


Vernon Adams has a very nice alternative, named Anton: https://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Anton

As he said in other page: "see Google's PR for the Chromebook notebooks that used Anton, big and bright".

Impact, Anton and Oswald

  • 1
    Anton can also be found in the site of Vernon Adams. Anton was extended from a single bold style into a family named Antonio. "Antonio is a 'refined' version of the Anton Font. Anton is a single weight web font, designed specifically for larger display, headline and 'banner' use. Antonio extends the Anton design to include more weights and introduces refinements to the design that makes it also suitable for use in smaller headings, menus and 'buttons' etc.".
    – Ganton
    Jan 20 '16 at 19:18
  • 1
    that kerning on oswald... youd expect more from a font that google promotes
    – oldboy
    May 17 '19 at 8:10
  • saweeet. cant wait to check out the full family for anton
    – oldboy
    May 17 '19 at 8:11
  • I've just updated the image because Oswald looks better nowadays
    – Ganton
    May 18 '19 at 5:58
  • there was only 3 weights for antonio eh? light, regular, bold?
    – oldboy
    May 19 '19 at 0:18

Coda looks very similar to me, however it is much more vertically condensed.

Coda font example

If you un-scrunch it, it looks much more similar:


Try it out

  • 1
    The author of this font also has fonts that look basically identical to lots of classic fonts like Clarendon, Frutiger, Rockwell, Eurostile, Trade Gothic, and lots more. It looks like he takes old fonts and creates new versions of them under an open license. Aug 26 '14 at 1:19

The best alternative I know of, that is free for commercial use is Bebas Neue.


Oswald is a good alternative too:

Oswald font

  • 4
    Oswald appears to be another revival of the same typeface as League Gothic, but in a less finished state (some of the stroke widths are uneven and non-symmetical, see "g", "s", "$", and "&"). In fact that uneven "s" is quite bad - once you've seen it, you can't un-see it. Sep 4 '13 at 1:13
  • look at the kerning around the 'A' in the answer above. its atrocious
    – oldboy
    May 17 '19 at 8:13

It is worth noting, that although it's still under copyright by Microsoft, it is still available for free (free beer, not free speech) in the Ubuntu non-free repository in the package ttf-mscorefonts-installer.

sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

After which it will be available in any Linux applications

Impact font in Ubuntu Linux

  • 3
    So it isn't free? The question specifically asks for an alternative because of the licence, not because it isn't accessible.
    – Cai
    Aug 31 '16 at 6:56
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    @Cai You are correct, it won't help @MrS; this answer is for me and other people who got here by Google searching linux meme font.
    – IQAndreas
    Sep 4 '16 at 7:38
  • i never understood that phrase 'free beer, not free speech' can u explain?
    – oldboy
    May 17 '19 at 8:14
  • @user2230470, 'free speech' isn't an absolute. You can't legally lie or be abusive - it's complicated. 'Free beer' is what it is. You get a beer, drink it and don't pay. Were you drawn to this answer because you and IQAndreas has similar profile images? :-)
    – Wolff
    May 18 '19 at 9:22
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    @Wolff OMG!! what a coinckydink. thats funny. oh wow he even programs too. anyways thanks for the explanation. it makes a lot more sense now. heard that so many times over the years n never really understood the metaphor
    – oldboy
    May 19 '19 at 0:20

Bebas, League Gothic, Oswald, Coluna. Any bold and condensed fonts work.

  • Hello Eliot, most of the fonts you mention are already mentioned in previous answers. Also, this question is 8 years old, so I'm not exactly sure your answer is helping anyone anymore. Please consult the tour and help center to get to know the site and how it works.
    – PieBie
    Mar 1 at 9:44

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