Libre Baskerville is a web font optimized for body text (typically 16px.) It is based on the American Type Founder's Baskerville from 1941, but it has a taller x-height, wider counters and a little less contrast, that allow it to work well for reading on-screen. Join the project at github.com/impallari/Libre-Baskerville
Libre Baskerville for the heading, Public Sans for the body.
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Design starts with a question.
Good letters carry the memory of the pen.
A soft serif with old-style warmth, drawn for display sizes and unhurried reading.
This typeface borrows the melting charm of phototype and rebuilds it, patiently, for the screen.
At text sizes the warmth settles into something quieter: open counters, a generous x-height, and forms that curve rather than cut. It reads like a well-worn paperback — familiar, unhurried, and slightly mischievous.
Good letters carry the memory of the pen.
The brief asked for warmth without nostalgia, and authority without sternness. Libre Baskerville answered both at once — a face that feels typeset by hand yet holds up at retinal resolutions. At this size it settles into an unhurried rhythm: generous spacing, open counters, and letterforms that carry tone before they announce themselves.
Small sizes are where display faces usually apologise for themselves. Libre Baskerville does not. Drop into text and the texture tightens into a competent, readable grey — open counters, a generous x-height, and forms that curve rather than cut. At text sizes the warmth settles into something quieter: familiar, unhurried, and slightly mischievous. It reads like a well-worn paperback, holding its voice across captions, footnotes, and long paragraphs without flattening into noise. Paired with a neutral grotesque for wayfinding and labels, it gives an identity system exactly one strong opinion — usually the right number — while the body keeps doing the quiet work underneath.
Libre Baskerville is a web font optimized for body text (typically 16px.) It is based on the American Type Founder's Baskerville from 1941, but it has a taller x-height, wider counters and a little less contrast, that allow it to work well for reading on-screen. Join the project at github.com/impallari/Libre-Baskerville