In January 2023, UW–Madison announced Red Hat Display and Red Hat Text as the new official brand fonts. The new typefaces offer tremendous flexibility across print and digital uses as well as text treatments. All brand fonts are open-source and available for free download and use by the entire campus community. Supplemental fonts are offered for specific use cases.
Want to see Red Hat in action? Check out our brand gallery.
Using the Fonts in Web Copy
Recommended usage and styling of UW Brand fonts for web copy will be baked into the UW WordPress Themes (to be released on February 16) and HTML templates (now available).
Print and Digital Uses
For all other uses such as print materials, digital graphics, and PowerPoint presentations, please see the templates and inspiration provided throughout the brand website, which have been updated to reflect the new fonts. Additional usage guidance is provided below.
Font Transition
Red Hat Text and Red Hat Display have replaced Verlag and Vitesse as the UW’s brand fonts. If you are still using the previous fonts for your website, printed materials, or other uses, visit our font transition page to learn how to proceed.
If your website or web application uses the Verlag or Vitesse web fonts, you or your web developer will need to replace them with Red Hat Display and Red Hat Text by June 30, 2023. For more information, see our guidance on how to update to the new fonts on your website.
We also recommend retiring Verlag and Vitesse from all other uses by that date. Visit the font transition page for details.
Typography
Primary Typefaces
The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s primary typefaces are Red Hat Display and Red Hat Text.
Red Hat Display
Red Hat Display is intended for large sizes, and it carries our brand personality and voice. It should be used in headlines for web, social media, and print communications.
Red Hat Text
Red Hat Text carries much of the personality of Red Hat Display, but is optimized for readability in paragraphs and small sizes. It should be used in body copy for web, social media, and short-form print communications.
Usage Examples for Primary Typefaces
{ Could the usage illustrations be include here?}
Supplemental Typefaces
This section includes typefaces that can be used as a supplement to Red Hat Display and Red Hat Text, for the specific use cases outlined below.
Accent Font
Libre Baskerville is a serif font that pairs well with Red Hat, and is highly readable in a wide range of sizes and in italic form. It can be used sparingly as an alternative to Red Hat for large accent headers, block quotes and numerals.
Long-form Print Body Font
Crimson Pro is a serif font that pairs well with Red Hat, and is well-suited for print readability. It should be used in long-form body copy for print communications.
Language-specific Fonts
University Marketing worked with Cultural Linguistics Services to select the Google Fonts that work best with each of the university’s supported non-English languages:
- Chinese: Noto Serif Simplified Chinese
- Nepali: Eczar
- Tibetan: Jomolhari
Note: These language-specific fonts will be made available as a WordPress plugin on February 16, 2023.