15 playful summer font styles to jazz up your designs

Summertime.

It's the part of the year so many of us look forward to the most—when we can get outside and enjoy the sun with a drink in hand.

But how do you capture that carefree feeling in a design? You've probably seen a poster or two that’s obviously meant to be summer-themed, but how can you bring this seasonal design aesthetic into your own designs?

Typography and beautiful fonts are probably the easiest way to bring the feeling of a summer breeze into your designs—whether for a website, social media posts, brochures, ads, or other creative summer projects.

Let’s look at the hottest summer fonts to jazz up your designs and reflect your summer state of mind. This fun collection of fonts is free for personal use, but you can also purchase commercial licenses if you need them for commercial purposes.

1. Palmsprings font by Billy Argel

Nothing says more “summer font” like Palmsprings, which incorporates palm trees into each letter.

This summer font looks great whether you use the color or black-and-white versions.

If you want a retro vibe, we suggest using the black-and-white version of this font. The bold font with palm tree leaves is perfect for social media posts, ads, summer party poster designs, and travel brochures.

2. Aloha Summer font by Jimtype Studio

Summer vibes = Hawaii = Aloha Summer font.

Are you noticing a theme here already? So many artists are inspired by Hawaii and palm trees when creating refreshing summer fonts that invite summer memories.

The Aloha Summer Font is characterized by a solid-color hand lettering style that complements a summery background.

Its simplicity might be perfect if you want to use it for a summer banner or summer sale banner that already contains many summer elements in the background.

3. Pacifico font by Google Fonts

Pacifico is a fun brush script handwriting font that is available on Google Fonts. It was designed by Vernon Adams in 2011 and inspired by the 1950s American surf culture.

Pacifico is free to use for personal and commercial projects (unlike some of the other fonts) and is open-source.

If you're looking for a font with a playful and hand-written feel, Pacifico is a great option to consider for your design projects.

4. Tropical Asian font by Konstantine Studio

Now, let’s take an imaginary trip from Hawaii and The Bahamas to the tropical part of Asia.

This summer font is inspired by summer vibes and is a perfect fit for summer designs, such as banners with beach items or greeting card designs.

Doesn’t this hand-lettered brush font remind you of why it's fun to play with a careless brush and ink on paper? You can use this casual font for apparel design, cover design, and other unique designs like clip art designs.

5. Rancho font by Google

Rancho is a font designed by Google and it's part of the Google Fonts library. It's a script typeface inspired by the work of the Mexican poster artist and sign painter, Francisco "Pancho" Villa. 

Rancho's handwritten style has a casual and friendly vibe, making it suitable for various design projects, such as summer party invitations, posters, and branding materials. 

The font features a mix of both uppercase and lowercase letters, giving designers flexibility in creating visually appealing typography. It's free to use and can be easily accessed through the Google Fonts website, making it a popular choice among designers and developers.

6. Summer Peach font by Sakha Design

This unique summer font comes in two versions: regular and italic. And, we love them both.

Whichever option you choose, you can be sure that it will look good for your graphic designs, apparel design, business cards, and wedding invitations.

7. Hawaiian Dreams font by Billy Argel

Speaking of summer and palm trees, we can’t help but think of Hawaii and how cool it would be to have a Hawaiian-themed summer font.

This bold, wide-lettered font is full of Hawaiian dreams, just like its name. The creator of this playful font has included tropical plants in each letter.

If you don’t like the bright orange color or the flower combo used in the example above, you can check out the other versions of this summer font. There’s a version that doesn’t include the flowers and another that uses a pale orange color.

8. Sunset Club font by Typefactory

This sleek font is inspired by neon signs and is characterized by sweeping lines and gentle strokes.

You can use this impressive design for summer club neon names and apparel design since its lowercase characters are eye-catching and easy to read.

We also see this font style as a great commercial font. If you are used to combining hand-drawn serif and script font styles, you can combine this summer font with script fonts, serif font styles, or flowy fonts to make your designs look even more impressive.

9. Declaration of Love font by Letterara

In many countries, the summer months are filled with weddings.

This is mainly because that’s when most people take long-awaited vacations, and it’s more convenient to organize weddings when your family and friends have some time off from work. Plus, the weather is usually nice.

This Declaration of Love Font by Letterara is perfect for wedding invitations paired with summer-style illustrations. This cursive type of font can also be used for something like summer sale lettering if you need to design summer sale-style illustrations about product offers for couples, like spa treatments or massages.

10. Ocean Wave font by Staircase

Ocean Wave by Staircase Studio is a flowing monoline script font. Its delicate weight and sweeping curves create a whimsical and elegant feel, perfect for capturing the essence of summer. 

The font's fluidity evokes the movement of ocean waves, making it a great choice for summer designs that need a touch of playfulness. Use Ocean Wave for beach wedding invitations, summer social media graphics, blog post titles, or any project that craves summery flair.

11. Beach Crush font by Dmletter studio

This handwritten font creates a fun and informal vibe. Beach Crush is perfect for capturing the carefree spirit of summer. It’s bold, colorful, and has unique letter shapes that evoke a youthful feel.

The font has a playful and friendly aesthetic and is suitable for a wide range of design purposes, such as branding projects, packaging, party flyers, posters, and social media graphics. It comes in two different styles: regular and blank. You can either use them separately or combine the two, as in the example above, for an extra touch of fun.

12. Sand Beach font by Khurasan

Sand Beach is a modern calligraphy font, meaning it's inspired by handwritten lettering but with a clean, contemporary twist.

The key feature is its resemblance to writing in the sand. This is achieved through uneven lines, mimicking how wind or fingers would disrupt a perfect inscription in the sand.

It has a casual and playful feel, perfect for evoking a summery beach vibe. Sand Beach would be ideal for projects that need a touch of summer fun and informality. Consider using it for beach-themed invitations, flyers, logos, summer sale posters, or website banners.

13. Beachday font by Rahagita Studio

Beachday by Rahagita Studio is a fun and playful font inspired by summer vacations. This font falls into the category of display fonts, meaning it's designed to grab attention in headlines, posters, and logos. 

Beachday has a childlike spirit with its thick, rounded letters. The slight unevenness gives it a hand-drawn or cartoonish look. This makes it perfect for capturing the essence of summer in your design projects. It could even be used for branded products like t-shirts and illustrated children’s books.

14. Summer Festival font by Alpaprana

Summer Festival by Alpaprana Studio isn't just a font, it's a summer party in typographic form. This bold display font boasts chunky letterforms bursting with sunshine and good vibes, but the real fun lies within the details. 

Each letter is a mini canvas, playfully adorned with hand-drawn summer elements. For instance, the letter "S" is decorated like a pineapple, and you’ll find a little boat on the ocean in the letter "F." These touches add a layer of delightful surprise and can be used to capture the spirit of summer music festivals or laidback barbecues.

15. SUMMER font by VPcreativeshop

Summer by VPcreativeshop is a clean and classic font family that brings a touch of sophistication to your seasonal designs. It comes in six fonts, offering a range of weights and styles.

This gives you flexibility for any project, from branding and summer posters to product packaging for a new homeware range. Plus, Summer offers multilingual support.

Think about adding a bouncing motion to mimic sunshine and outside play or creating a flowing effect reminiscent of cool summer breezes and ocean waves. You can easily create these natural animated effects with our growing library of Animation Presets. No animation experience needed.

Tips and tricks for choosing a summer font style

1. Make sure you have the correct license.

If you like any of these fonts and want to use them or any other summer fonts you find for personal use, you can simply download them.

You must have a Commercial Use License when you profit from using the typeface. For instance, if you use the font to promote a summer season sale through ads, posters, etc., you must check the commercial license price and purchase the commercial use license.

Sometimes, a designer may not offer commercial use licenses for their font designs. In that case, you can only download the free, non-commercial version digitally.

If you like a specific font and want to use it for commercial purposes, you can contact the designer and see if they'll give you a commercial license. The other alternative is to find a similar font with the license you need.

2. Try out the font before purchasing.

A particular font may look good on the examples the designer has chosen to showcase.

Your design could look sloppy if the summer font lettering you pick from the font list doesn’t complement your background design elements.

3. Experiment with similar fonts.

If you like a specific summer font but aren’t 100% sure it’ll work well with your project, try experimenting with other similar summer fonts. Don’t use a summery font if it’s difficult to read. Especially for large blocks of text, consider fonts that are clear and easy on the eyes.

Summer can be associated with relaxation, fun, nature, or tropical vacations. Choose a font that reflects the feeling you want to convey. A script font might be perfect for a beach wedding invitation, while a bold, chunky font could be ideal for a summer sale poster.

4. Play around with pairing fonts

Sometimes, combining two fonts can create a more interesting and dynamic look. Try pairing a script font with a sans-serif font for contrast or a playful display font with a classic serif font for a touch of elegance.

But too many fonts can become overwhelming. Stick to a maximum of 2–3 fonts, with one being the clear dominant font. If one font is very bold and thick, the other should be lighter and thinner. If one is all caps, the other should be lowercase. Aim for visual harmony and create a hierarchy of information.

Are your designs summer-ready?

From playful scripts to breezy textures, there's a perfect font waiting to capture the essence of your summer project. Besides creating a cool vibe, always prioritize readability and explore creative layouts.

We have a bunch of free resources and tutorials for you to use. Think of it as your design jetpack to launch your ideas quicker. Check out:

• Step-by-step font customization tutorial with Illustrator Will Paterson
• Travel poster design tutorial with Illustrator and Educator Nastya Kuliabina
• Logo animation tutorial with Linearity’s Senior Designer Maddy Zoli

If you feel inspired and want to share your work with us, tag us @linearityhq so we can reshare your stunning designs.

Ready to try new and innovative design software? Make your summer dreams a reality with intuitive design and animation tools. Get started for free below, or check out our premium pricing.