- Heading
- Hanken Grotesk
- Body text
- Charis SIL
- A serif with a sans serif: clear contrast of structure
- The same x-height: lowercase letters stand equally tall
- A shared mood: calm, serious
Charis SIL
About the font
Charis SIL is a free font by SIL International, released under the OFL-1.1 license. Of the 1069 languages we checked, 962 have every letter of their basic alphabet in this font. The x-height is 48% of the em and the capital height is 67%.
Charis SIL is a serif font by SIL International with 3609 glyphs. It comes in four styles with weights 400 and 700 and is not a variable font. It supports the Latin and Cyrillic scripts, including Kazakh, since it contains all the extra Cyrillic letters that language needs. The font is free to use under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
Author
SIL International
License terms
OFL-1.1
Scripts
Cyrillic; Latin
Glyphs
3609
Character and uses
- Mood
- serious
- calm
- Design
- humanist
Marked from the shapes of the letters by an AI model, not by the author of the font.
Supported languages
Charis SIL has every letter of the basic alphabet, capitals included, for 962 languages of the 1069 we checked (language data: Google Fonts). The biggest languages come first.
- English
- Russian
- Spanish
- Portuguese
- German
- French
- Turkish
- Kazakh
- Swahili
- Indonesian
- Javanese
- Vietnamese
- Italian
- Filipino
- Hakka Chinese
- Nigerian Pidgin
- Polish
- Hausa
- Oromo
- Sundanese
- Dutch
- Ukrainian
- Yoruba
- Igbo
Show 87 more
- Uzbek(Latin)
- Cebuano
- Kurdish
- Malagasy
- Romanian
- Nyanja
- Madurese
- Somali
- Zulu
- Czech
- Swedish
- Hungarian
- Shona
- Low German
- Akan
- Quechua
- Kinyarwanda
- Wolof
- Tunisian Arabic
- Congo Swahili
- Turkmen
- Iloko
- Xhosa
- Belarusian
- Luba-Lulua
- Azerbaijani
- Umbundu
- Afrikaans
- Hiligaynon
- Kikuyu
- Bambara
- Haitian Creole
- Tajik
- Kanuri
- Catalan
- Mossi
- Kimbundu
- Serbian(Latin)
- Minangkabau
- Swiss German
- Bulgarian
- Fula
- Rundi
- Serbian(Cyrillic)
- Danish
- Wolaytta
- Albanian
- Croatian
- Slovak
- Dyula
- Southern Sotho
- Krio
- Tswana
- Luyia
- Guarani
- Finnish
- Ganda
- Norwegian Bokmål
- Bemba
- Northern Sotho
- Luo
- Tok Pisin
- Sukuma
- Tsonga
- Balinese
- Romany
- Sicilian
- Ewe
- Mandingo
- Uzbek(Cyrillic)
- Norwegian
- Buginese
- Kamba
- Kalenjin
- Banjar
- Makhuwa
- Zarma
- Bosnian(Cyrillic)
- Bosnian(Latin)
- Sidamo
- Acehnese
- Galician
- Lingala
- Central Atlas Tamazight
- Tiv
- Kabyle
- Bikol
…and 851 more languages that are not listed here.
Special characters
Characters people often look for. “Included” means the font has all signs of the group.
- Kazakhstani Tenge — Included
- Russian Ruble — Included
- Euro — Included
- Turkish Lira — Included
- Ukrainian Hryvnia — Included
- Indian Rupee — Included
- British Pound — Included
- Japanese Yen — Included
- US Dollar — Included
- Yo (Ё ё) — Included
- Numero sign — Included
- Guillemets (angle quotes) — Included
- En and em dashes — Included
- Ellipsis — Included
- Legal marks (© ® ™) — Included
- Arrows — Included
- Math signs — Included
Characteristics
- Mapped characters
- 2448
- x-height
- 48% of the em
- Capital height
- 67% of the em
- Version
- 6.101
- Embedding in documents
- Allowed
OpenType features
Extras you can switch on in design software or in CSS with font-feature-settings.
- Standard ligatures
liga - Small capitals
smcp - Capitals to small capitals
c2sc - Stylistic sets (5)
- Character variants (30)
License at a glance
A plain summary, not legal advice. What counts is the license text that comes with the download.
OFL-1.1
- Commercial projects
- Allowed
- Embedding on a website
- Allowed
- Modifying the font
- Allowed, with conditions
- Sharing the font
- Allowed, with conditions
- Credit and notices
- Keep the notices when you share the font
- Selling the font on its own
- Not allowed
Under the SIL Open Font License a modified font must stay under the same license and may not use the original name if the author reserved it. The font may be bundled with software but not sold by itself.
Read the license textHow to install
Install the .ttf or .otf files, not both versions of the same font; unzip the archive first.
Windows
- Unzip the archive.
- Right-click the .ttf or .otf file and choose Install.
- Restart your program.
macOS
- Unzip the archive.
- Double-click the .ttf or .otf file.
- Click Install Font in the window that opens.
Linux
- Unzip the archive.
- Copy the files to ~/.local/share/fonts.
- Run fc-cache -f -v and restart your program.
Facts and sources
- Where the font comes from
- fonts.google.com/specimen/Charis+SIL
- Designer’s page
- scripts.sil.org
- Language data
- Google Fonts Languages
- Page last updated
FAQ
Is the Charis SIL font free to use?
Yes. Charis SIL is distributed under the OFL-1.1 license, which allows free use, including in commercial projects. The license text is in the download.
Does Charis SIL support Cyrillic?
Yes, Charis SIL includes Cyrillic glyphs.
How many languages does Charis SIL support?
Charis SIL covers 962 of the 1069 languages we checked: it has every letter of their basic alphabets, in both cases. The full list is in the Supported languages section of this page.
How do I install Charis SIL?
Download the family archive and unzip it. On Windows, right-click the .ttf or .otf file and choose Install; on macOS, double-click the file and click Install Font. Restart your program afterwards. Step-by-step guides are in the Guides section.
Who created Charis SIL?
Charis SIL was created by SIL International.
What is Charis SIL good for?
Judging by its design, Charis SIL suits: body text, magazines and editorial, headings.
Pairs well with Charis SIL
More pairs and your own text- Heading
- Arsenal SC
- Body text
- Charis SIL
- A serif with a sans serif: clear contrast of structure
- The same x-height: lowercase letters stand equally tall
- A shared mood: calm, serious
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