Shriftoteka
Free Cyrillic fonts cleared for commercial use, each with a short note from the curator.
What it is
Shriftoteka is the Telegram channel of a collection of free Cyrillic fonts licensed for commercial use — over 1,700 of them, according to the channel description. The curator posts new additions with a short personal note and a genre tag such as #акцидентный (display), while the downloads live on the collection's website. The channel is in Russian and friendly in tone; the curator jokes that he runs the project "together with the cat".
Why we picked it
There are plenty of free fonts with Cyrillic support, but finding good ones that are also legally safe takes real effort, and this channel does it for you. Recent picks include Hibiny, Dima Antonov's 26th free typeface, released in four weights, with a nod to the easter eggs in its presentation, and a typeface by Sasha Pavlenko whose round letters are built on a superellipse rather than a circle, which gives the text a tight, technical feel.
The most useful part is the honesty about licences. Readers had long asked for the popular Lebowski font; the curator says it's decent, but its licence is so murky that it won't be added. For a designer, that's exactly the kind of thing you want to know before handing a layout to a client.
Where to start
- The Lebowski post, to see how the curator checks licences.
- New-release posts with genre tags — handy for finding display or text faces.
- The superellipse typeface write-up, a good example of how fonts are described here.
- Need something specific? Scroll back: every post comes with a visual specimen.
Who it's for
Graphic and web designers, typesetters, localisation teams and anyone setting type in Cyrillic who wants to avoid licensing trouble. If you're searching for free Cyrillic fonts for commercial use, this channel saves hours of checking.
Quick answers
What language is the channel in? Russian, though the font specimens speak for themselves.
How often does it post? Going by the public preview, a few times a month, as new fonts come out.
Do I need Telegram to browse it? No. The web preview opens in a browser without an account, and the fonts themselves download from the collection's site.
