font inspectorWhat font does The Guardian use?
The Guardian is one of the few news sites with a complete custom type family, drawn by Commercial Type. On the front page the serif carries more of the text than the sans, because the page is mostly headlines.
Short answer: The Guardian uses its own typefaces: Guardian Headline, a serif, for headlines and Guardian Text Sans for labels, standfirsts and interface text. Both are served from the Guardian’s asset domain.
Guardian Headline
Self-hosted59.9%- CSS name
GH Guardian Headline- Weights
- 500, 700
- Sizes
- 28px · 24px · 20px · 17px
- Served from
- assets.guim.co.uk
Guardian Text Sans
Self-hosted39.8%- CSS name
GuardianTextSans- Weights
- 400, 700
- Sizes
- 20px · 17px · 16px · 15px · 14px · 12px
- Served from
- assets.guim.co.uk
Sizes, weights and spacing by role
These are computed values from the live page, which is what the Font Inspector panel shows when you click each element.
| Role | Font | Size | Weight | Line height | Letter spacing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Headline | Guardian Headline | 28px | 700 | 1.15 | normal |
| Subheading | Guardian Headline | 28px | 500 | 1.15 | normal |
| Navigation | Guardian Text Sans | 17px | 700 | 1.3 | normal |
| Small text | Guardian Text Sans | 14px | 400 | 1.3 | normal |
The main font stack in the CSS:
font-family: "GH Guardian Headline", "Guardian Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif;- Headline weight carries meaning: 700 for the main label and 500 for story headlines at the same 28px size.
- Line heights are tight, 1.15 for headlines and 1.3 for text, which suits a dense front page.
- The CSS also loads Guardian Text Egyptian, the serif used for article body copy.
Check any site yourself in one click.
Sites change their type without notice. Font Inspector shows the rendered font, size, weight and spacing of any text on theguardian.com or anywhere else, and lists every font on the page. Free, no account.
About the fonts, and whether you can use them
Guardian Headline
The Guardian’s headline serif, introduced with its 2018 redesign and drawn by the foundry Commercial Type. It replaced Guardian Egyptian, which still sits in the fallback stack.
Can you use it? It is exclusive to the Guardian. For an editorial serif headline, Newsreader and Source Serif 4 are free and come in several weights.
On Google Fonts: Newsreader, Source Serif 4.
Guardian Text Sans
The sans serif companion, used for navigation, labels, bylines and summaries.
Can you use it? Also exclusive. Source Sans 3 and Open Sans are free sans serifs that hold up at small news-page sizes.
On Google Fonts: Source Sans 3, Open Sans.
Finding a font does not license it. More in how to get a font you found, legally.
Get a similar look with a free font
This starter uses Newsreader, which is open source, with the sizes and spacing measured above. It is an approximation, not a copy of The Guardian’s brand typeface.
/* Approximates the The Guardian look with a free font */
body {
font-family: "Newsreader", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;
}
h1 {
font-size: 1.75rem; /* 28px */
font-weight: 700;
line-height: 1.15;
}How we checked
We opened theguardian.com in Chrome on September 21, 2026 and read the computed styles of its visible text: the declared font stack, the font actually rendered, and how much of the page’s text each family sets. That is the same data the Font Inspector extension shows under Fonts on this page. We re-check these pages periodically, and the date above shows the last inspection.
The Guardian and its typefaces are trademarks of their respective owners. Font Inspector is not affiliated with The Guardian.
Questions & answers
What font does The Guardian use on its website?
The Guardian uses its own typefaces: Guardian Headline, a serif, for headlines and Guardian Text Sans for labels, standfirsts and interface text. Both are served from the Guardian’s asset domain.
Can I use the The Guardian font?
It is exclusive to the Guardian. For an editorial serif headline, Newsreader and Source Serif 4 are free and come in several weights.
What is a free font similar to Guardian Headline?
Newsreader and Source Serif 4 are free on Google Fonts and give a similar feel. No free font is an exact match, so compare it with your own text first.
How can I check what font The Guardian uses myself?
Open theguardian.com, then click any text with the Font Inspector extension, or right-click, choose Inspect and look at Rendered Fonts in the Computed tab. Sites change their typography, so checking the live page is the only way to be sure.