# Trajan: why so many movie posters use it

> Where Trajan comes from, the film posters that made it famous, and Cinzel, the closest free Google Fonts match, with body font pairings.

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

Roman inscription capitals, and the movie poster font.

Preview uses Cinzel, the closest free match.

## History

- Carol Twombly designed Trajan for Adobe in 1989. [1]
- It is based on the Roman square capitals carved at the base of Trajan's Column in Rome. [1]
- It has capitals only, because the Romans did not use lowercase letters on monumental inscriptions. Trajan Pro put small caps in the lowercase slots. [1]
- It shipped with early releases of Photoshop, which made it an everyday tool for 1990s poster designers. [2]
- Its overuse earned it the name "the Arial of movie posters". [2]

## Who uses it

- Posters for The Bodyguard, Scent of a Woman and At Play in the Fields of the Lord [2]
- The Bones and All (2022) logo, based on Trajan with added weight [3]
- Many film posters, TV shows and book covers [1]

## Sources

1. [Wikipedia: Trajan (typeface)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajan_(typeface))
2. [The A.V. Club: how a single font came to dominate movie posters](https://avclub.com/heres-how-a-single-font-came-to-dominate-movie-posters-1827234582)
3. [Fonts In Use: Bones and All movie poster and credits](https://fontsinuse.com/uses/51249/bones-and-all-movie-poster-and-credits)

## The free alternative

Cinzel has the same Roman capital proportions and flared, chiselled serifs. Like Trajan it works best in capitals.

Body fonts that go with Cinzel:

- [Lato](https://davidewins.com/fonts?heading=trajan&body=lato): Open, even sans shapes keep long text calm under ornate capitals.
- [EB Garamond](https://davidewins.com/fonts?heading=trajan&body=eb-garamond): A classical serif with the same Roman roots, quiet enough at text size not to compete.
- [Source Sans 3](https://davidewins.com/fonts?heading=trajan&body=source-sans-3): Narrow and plain, so the wide inscriptional caps carry all the character.
- [Lora](https://davidewins.com/fonts?heading=trajan&body=lora): Soft, brushy serifs give warmth that the formal caps lack.

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