Bodoni Font Free Download

Yes, there is a legal Bodoni font free download, but it isn’t one of the classic retail versions. Bodoni is a style named after the 18th-century printer Giambattista Bodoni, and many foundries sell their own take on it. The genuinely free one is Bodoni Moda by Owen Earl, under the SIL Open Font License, which allows commercial use. Mac owners also have Bodoni 72, and Microsoft 365 subscribers have Bodoni MT. ITC Bodoni, Bauer Bodoni and Linotype Bodoni are paid, from $29.99 per style on MyFonts as of October 2026.

Bodoni font free download: the legal free options

Three routes cost nothing, on different terms:

• Bodoni Moda (free for everyone): Bodoni Moda on Google Fonts has weights from Regular to Black, italics and optical sizes. Its GitHub project credits Owen Earl of indestructible type*, who calls it “the first ever no-compromises Bodoni family, built for the digital age.”
• Bodoni 72 (Mac only): Apple’s list of fonts included with macOS Tahoe names Bodoni 72 Book, Book Italic and Bold, plus Oldstyle, Smallcaps and Bodoni Ornaments.
• Bodoni MT (Microsoft 365): Microsoft’s cloud fonts page lists 11 Bodoni MT styles, including condensed and poster cuts, and says cloud fonts “are available to Microsoft 365 subscribers.”

Free download: Bodoni Moda (Google Fonts) SIL Open Font License, free for commercial use

The Mac and Office copies are licensed for use inside those products. Sites offering “Bodoni 72” or “Bodoni MT” files have no right to hand them out.

Bodoni font at a glance

• Named after: Giambattista Bodoni (1740–1813), printer to the Duke of Parma
• Style: Didone (also called “modern”) serif with extreme thick-thin contrast
• Main paid versions: Linotype Bodoni, Bauer Bodoni, Monotype Bodoni (Bodoni MT), ITC Bodoni Six, Twelve and Seventytwo
• Price: from $29.99 per style on MyFonts; complete families from $99.99 (ITC Bodoni Seventytwo) to $394.99 (Monotype Bodoni), as of October 2026
• Free legal versions: Bodoni Moda (OFL), Bodoni 72 on macOS, Bodoni MT for Microsoft 365
• Free alternatives: Bodoni Moda, Libre Bodoni, Prata

The Bodoni typeface: one name, many fonts

Bodoni ran a celebrated printing office in Parma, and his specimen book, the Manuale Tipografico, appeared in 1818, after his death, according to Wikipedia.

His types define the Didone look: hairline strokes against heavy verticals, flat unbracketed serifs and an upright, almost geometric construction. MyFonts’ Bodoni page describes “strong vertical stresses and sharp contrast between thin and thick strokes” and warns that the contrast hurts legibility at small sizes. Wikipedia calls this “dazzle”: the thick strokes pull the eye away from the thin ones.

As Fonts In Use puts it, “Many revivals of Giambattista Bodoni’s types have been released by various foundries under the name Bodoni.” It lists more than 30 related typefaces, so “Bodoni font” can mean very different files.

The main Bodoni versions and how they differ

Linotype Bodoni (Benton’s ATF design)

Morris Fuller Benton’s Bodoni for American Type Founders underlies the common Linotype version. Wikipedia dates it to 1909; MyFonts gives 1911. Linotype’s Bodoni on MyFonts has 7 styles (Book, Roman and Bold with italics, plus Bold Condensed) at $29.99 each, with no family pack listed.

Bauer Bodoni

Heinrich Jost drew this one for the Bauer type foundry. Wikipedia says 1926 and MyFonts’ Bauer Bodoni page says 1927. Wikipedia says it “emphasizes the extreme contrast between hairline and main stroke”. MyFonts sells 8 styles, including Black and two condensed weights, at $45.99 each or $374.99 for the family.

Monotype Bodoni and Bodoni MT

Bodoni MT is Monotype’s version. The retail family, Monotype Bodoni on MyFonts, has 12 styles from Book to Ultra Bold with condensed bolds, at $40.99 per style or $394.99 for all of them.

ITC Bodoni: Six, Twelve and Seventytwo

ITC Bodoni (1994) is built around optical sizes: separate designs for different point sizes. The Museo Bodoniano in Parma says a team led by Sumner Stone worked on it for about three years. Holly Goldsmith curated Six, for captions; Janice Prescott Fishman curated Seventytwo, the display size modelled on Bodoni’s large Papale type; and Stone’s Twelve, for text, was interpolated between them. Jim Parkinson drew the small-size italic. MyFonts’ designer credits vary from page to page.

On MyFonts each size has 4 styles (Book and Bold with italics). ITC Bodoni Seventytwo costs $29.99 per style or $99.99 for the four, Twelve $29.99 per style and Six $40.99. Seventytwo is also in the paid Adobe Fonts library.

Which Bodoni should you buy?

• Logos and headlines: ITC Bodoni Seventytwo, the cheapest family pack of these and the same design as Bodoni 72 on a Mac.
• Books and long text: ITC Bodoni Twelve, with Six for footnotes.
• Maximum drama: Bauer Bodoni.
• Matching Word documents: Monotype Bodoni, the retail version of Bodoni MT.

Get Bodoni (Linotype, MyFonts) From $29.99 per style as of October 2026

Bodoni 72 on Mac and Bodoni MT in Office

Bodoni 72 is ITC Bodoni Seventytwo under a short name. We checked the files on macOS 26.5: they carry ITC’s 1997 copyright and the note “ITC Bodoni is a trademark of International Typeface Corporation.” The Oldstyle fonts use old-style figures, which dip below the baseline, and the Smallcaps font puts small capitals on the lowercase keys.

The macOS Tahoe licence says you “may use the fonts included with the Apple Software to display and print content while running the Apple Software”, embedding them only as each font’s settings allow. You can design and export on that Mac, but not copy the files to another computer, a server or a client.

Microsoft’s Bodoni MT page lists 6 core styles and says the typeface “is available within Office applications.” Microsoft’s font redistribution FAQ covers only Windows fonts; for fonts “supplied with other apps” it says to review those apps’ licence agreements. Check your Office terms, and don’t self-host Bodoni MT as a web font.

Language support and OpenType features

• Bodoni 72 (Mac): 759 characters in Book, covering Western and Central European Latin and Turkish. There is no Greek or Cyrillic alphabet, and no OpenType substitution features: Apple splits small caps and old-style figures into separate fonts instead.
• Bodoni MT (Office): Microsoft lists only the Western European Latin 1 code page.
• Bodoni Moda: Latin and extended Latin. The Google Fonts file includes small caps, old-style and lining figures, standard and discretionary ligatures, fractions and three stylistic sets.

OpenType features are optional extras inside a font file, such as small capitals or alternate letters. InDesign, Illustrator, Affinity and Figma can switch them on. Canva and Cricut Design Space can’t, so there you get the default letters.

Bodoni font pairings and best uses

Use Bodoni where letters are big: fashion and beauty branding, magazine headlines, book covers, invitations, wine labels and posters. For small text, pick a text-size cut such as ITC Bodoni Twelve or Bodoni Moda at a small optical size.

• With a sans: a clean geometric sans such as Jost or Montserrat lets the Bodoni headline carry the contrast.

Fonts In Use records 173 uses of Bodoni, including the Dr. Phil logo in Bodoni Bold and the back cover of Cannonball Adderley’s 1958 Blue Note album Somethin’ Else. Fashion magazine mastheads are often called Bodoni, but many are custom Didone lettering, and we found no reliable source tying one to a retail Bodoni.

Bodoni licensing: personal vs commercial use

Bodoni Moda’s OFL licence covers logos, products, apps and websites, including embedding and self-hosting. You just can’t sell the font files on their own.

The MyFonts families come with Desktop, Company Desktop, Webfonts, App, Electronic Doc and Digital Ad/Email licences. There is no personal-use tier, and we saw no free trial. The Mac and Office copies follow the terms above. This is general information, not legal advice.

How to download and install Bodoni legally

1. Bodoni Moda: on its Google Fonts page, click Get font, then Download all, and unzip.
2. Windows: select the .ttf files, right-click and choose Install (or Install for all users).
3. Mac: double-click each file and click Install in Font Book. Bodoni 72 is already in Font Book.
4. Office: as a Microsoft 365 subscriber, pick Bodoni MT from the font list and Office downloads it.
5. Paid versions: buy the licence on MyFonts and download the ZIP from your account.

Free fonts similar to Bodoni

These Google Fonts are the closest free matches. All three use the SIL Open Font License, which allows commercial use.

• Bodoni Moda: a full Bodoni revival with weights from Regular to Black and an optical size axis from 6 to 96 points. It is the most complete free Bodoni, for headlines and text.
• Libre Bodoni: by Pablo Impallari and Rodrigo Fuenzalida, based on Benton’s ATF design and, its description says, adapted for today’s web. It has four styles: Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic.
• Prata: a Didone by Ivan Petrov for Cyreal with sharp serifs and teardrop terminals. It has only one weight but adds Cyrillic, which Bodoni Moda and Libre Bodoni lack.

Among paid fonts we cover, NT Fabulous is a softer Didone-style serif for fashion branding, Juana is a high-contrast family for editorial headlines, and The Seasons is a high-contrast serif with calligraphic italics.

Bodoni font FAQ

Is Bodoni font free?

The classic retail versions are not. Bodoni Moda is free under the SIL Open Font License, and Bodoni 72 (Mac) and Bodoni MT (Microsoft 365) come with those products.

Is Bodoni Moda free for commercial use?

Yes. The SIL Open Font License covers logos, print, products, websites and apps. You just can’t sell the font files by themselves.

Is Bodoni 72 the same as ITC Bodoni?

Yes. The Mac files are ITC Bodoni Seventytwo, the display size of ITC’s 1994 family. Apple’s licence covers the Mac only, so for Windows or the web buy it or use Bodoni Moda.

Is Bodoni in Canva or Cricut?

We couldn’t confirm a Bodoni in Canva’s built-in library, but Canva Pro users can upload Bodoni Moda. Cricut Design Space uses your installed fonts, so Bodoni Moda or Bodoni 72 shows up there.

What is the closest free font to Bodoni?

Bodoni Moda, because it is a Bodoni. For a lighter, web-friendly option, try Libre Bodoni.