14 Best Fonts used in Indian Apps (Android)

Vicky Nimbalkar
6 min readFeb 18, 2021

Gone are the days, when designers depended on “Roboto” fonts developed by Google as the system font for its mobile operating system Android. With around 107.2 thousand mobile apps releasing every month through Google Play Store, it is next to impossible to bank on one single font face for the mobile app design.

Designers in India understand that the fonts are one of the most critical elements of UX design. It can make or break a UI. Choosing the right font will create the potential for user involvement with the mobile app even bigger.

This article will share some of the custom brand typefaces or fonts used in top mobile apps developed in India. I’m also sharing the links to download the fonts. Please read about the usage policy (Personal and Commercial) before downloading the fonts.

Gaana

image copyright: gaana

Font used: Sarabun (download) Designed by Suppakit Chalermlarp.

Sarabun is an open-source multi-script Webfont that supports both Latin and Thai. It is the “TH Sarabun New” font, made available under the Open Font License. The name “Sarabun” (สารบรรณ, RTGS: Saraban) means documentary affairs. The font is used in the Government Gazette of Thailand newspaper, and you can read more details about this font project on Wikipedia’s National Fonts page.

Kite by Zerodha

image courtesy: kite

Font used: Inter (download) Designed by Rasmus Andersson.

Inter is a typeface specially designed for user interfaces focusing on high legibility of small-to-medium sized text on computer screens. The family features a tall x-height to aid in readability of mixed-case and lower-case text. Several OpenType features are provided as well, like contextual alternates that adjust punctuation depending on the shape of surrounding glyphs, slashed zero for when you need to disambiguate “0” from “o”, tabular numbers, etc.

Jio

image copyright: jio

Font used: JioType (information) Designed by Schauze Studio.

JioType is a corporate typeface designed by Schauze Studio in conjunction with Monotype. The typeface works in analogue as well as digital environments. This sans serif typeface is mainly geometrical but features nice and open curves due to Jio’s visual language. Schauze Studio has also increased the tracking compared to standard typefaces to make the font easier to read on digital devices and let it look open and friendly when used in body texts.

99acres

image copyright: 99acres

Font used: Open Sans (download) Designed by Steve Matteson.

Open Sans is a humanist sans serif typeface designed by Steve Matteson, Type Director of Ascender Corp. Open Sans was designed with an upright stress, open forms and a neutral, yet friendly appearance. It was optimized for print, web, and mobile interfaces, and has excellent legibility characteristics in its letterforms.

Mint

image copyright: mint

Font used: Lato (download) Designed by Łukasz Dziedzic.

Warsaw-based designer, Łukasz Dziedzic, created Lato to work transparently in body text and stand out individually when used in larger titles. This sans serif typeface family is simultaneously familiar and different, mostly when some of the font’s details are rounded off.

Grofers

image copyright: grofers

Font used: Celias (download) Designed by Type Dynamic.

Celias is geometric with sharp corners. The Celias family includes seven weights, from Hairline to Black, with their corresponding italics. Each font includes OpenType Features such as Stylistic Alternates, Proportional Figure, Tabular Figures, Numerator, Superscript, Denominators, Scientific Inferiors, Subscript, Ordinals, Ligatures and Fractions.

The Economic Times

image copyright: the economic times

Font used: Faustina (download) Designed by Omnibus-Type, Montserrat (download) Designed by Julieta Ulanovsky, Sol Matas, Juan Pablo del Peral and Jacques Le Bailly.

Faustina is part of the Omnibus-Type Press Series, designed by Alfonso Garcia for editorial typography (books, newspapers and magazines) in print and online. In September 2019, the family was converted into a variable font family.

Goibibo

image copyright: goibibo

Font used: Quicksand (download) Designed by Andrew Paglinawan.

Quicksand is a free, open-source sans-serif typeface designed by Andrew Paglinawan. It has rounded letterforms giving it a warm and friendly appearance. Quicksand is available in light, regular and bold; however, there are no italic versions available, so it doesn’t work for setting body copy.

PVR

image copyright: pvr

Font used: Helvetica Now (Helvetica Neue) (download) Designed by Matthew Carter, Max Miedinger and Edouard Hoffmann.

Helvetica is a 63-year-old font family, with its sans-serif shapes and clean corners are ubiquitous. One of the biggest stories of 2019 was when Monotype introduced its Helvetica​​ Now typeface. Produced from size-specific drawings and with size-specific spacing, the first redesign in 35 years of what many argue is the world’s most ubiquitous font, Helvetica.

Airtel

image copyright: airtel

Font used: Tondo (download) Designed by Dalton Maag.

Tondo is a rounded sans serif font family with an appealing personality and superb attention to detail. Whether used on-screen or at display sizes, Tondo always stays sharp and clear.

OYO

image copyright: oyo

Font used: HKGrotesk (download) Designed by Alfredo Marco Pradil.

HK Grotesk is an open-source sans-serif typeface designed by Alfredo Marco Pradil and published in 2015 through Hanken Design Co. The family is available in nine weights with matching italics. The goal of designing HK Grotesk is to create a more friendly and distinguishable typeface suitable for small text. HK Grotesk may be used in personal and commercial projects.

RedBus

image copyright: redbus

Font used: Trueno (download) Designed by Julieta Ulanovsky.

Trueno Font is a great sans serif typeface, and this font is perfect for crafting more attractive titles and headings. This display font family comes with 22 different styles, including Regular, Regular Italic, Light, Light Italic, UltraLight, UltraLight Italic, Bold, Bold Italic. SemiBold, Semi Bold Italic, Bold Outline, etc.

MXPlayer

image copyright: mxplayer

Font used: Mulish (earlier known as Muli) (download) Designed by Vernon Adams.

Muli is a free, open-source sans-serif typeface designed by the prolific Vernon Adams, creator of numerous other open-source fonts available on Google Fonts. It was initially designed to be used as a display font, but later, other designers collaborated to add more weights to the font family to make it perfect for both web and mobile interfaces.

Swiggy

image copyright: swiggy

Font used: Proxima Nova (download) Designed by Mark Simonson.

Proxima Nova is one of the most popular web fonts, in use on thousands of websites worldwide. Its created by Mark Simonson. Proxima Nova bridges the gap between typefaces like Futura and Akzidenz Grotesk. The original six fonts (three weights with italics) have been expanded to 42 full-featured OpenType fonts. There are three widths: Proxima Nova, Proxima Nova Condensed, and Proxima Nova Extra Condensed. Each width consists of 14 fonts — seven weights with matching italics.

Some Indian Apps using Roboto Fonts are Paytm, Hotstar, Flipkart, Ola Cabs, Truecaller, Snapdeal etc.

So Designers, If any of your favourite Indian Apps using the best fonts, please comment and let everyone know.

Any information given above is incorrect, please comment/ message, and I’ll update the content.

*All images are copyright to their respective owners.

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