# Didot: the fashion magazine font, and a free alternative

> Didot from 18th century Paris to the covers of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, with GFS Didot as a free Google Fonts alternative and pairings.

Web page: https://davidewins.com/fonts/didot

High contrast French type, and the look of fashion magazines.

Preview uses GFS Didot, the closest free match.

## History

- The Didot family of French printers developed their best-known faces between 1784 and 1811. Firmin Didot cut and cast the type in Paris and his brother Pierre printed with it. [1]
- Linotype Didot, drawn by Adrian Frutiger, comes with macOS. [1]

## Who uses it

- Vogue covers, used many times from the 1940s and permanent from 1955 [1]
- Harper's Bazaar, under art director Alexey Brodovitch [1]
- CBS, with its own CBS Didot [1]
- Zara's 2019 logo, a tightly kerned Didot [1]

## Sources

1. [Wikipedia: Didot (typeface)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didot_(typeface))

## The free alternative

GFS Didot is a free Didot from the Greek Font Society, with the same hairline serifs and vertical stress.

Body fonts that go with GFS Didot:

- [Lato](https://davidewins.com/fonts?heading=didot&body=lato): A low-contrast sans lets the hairlines of the heading be the only drama.
- [Karla](https://davidewins.com/fonts?heading=didot&body=karla): Small and plain, the way magazines set captions under big Didone titles.
- [Crimson Pro](https://davidewins.com/fonts?heading=didot&body=crimson-pro): An old-style serif with gentler contrast that holds up at text sizes where Didot breaks down.

[Open Didot in the pairing tool](https://davidewins.com/fonts?heading=didot)