David Libre
Type with Purpose
Good typography guides attention, improves understanding, and makes communication effortless.
The Anatomy of a Typeface
By FontSide · June 2026
Every typeface is a system of decisions — about stroke contrast, x-height, spacing, and rhythm. The best ones feel invisible: you stop seeing the letters and start hearing the voice behind them. That transparency is the hardest thing to design.
A high x-height opens up the counters and makes small text breathe. Tight tracking pulls a headline together; loose tracking gives a caption room to exhale. None of these choices are accidents — they are arguments about how reading should feel.
Uppercase
Lowercase
Numerals
Symbols
Configuration
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Weights
Package Manager
The recommended way to use fonts in modern web projects.
1. Install Package
pnpm add @fontsource/david-libre2. Import in App
// Please select at least one weight and style3. CSS Usage
body {
font-family: "David Libre", serif;
}Google Fonts CDN
Use Google's CDN to embed the fonts directly via HTML.
HTML <head>
<!-- Please select at least one weight and style -->Fontsource CDN
Skip the build step by adding this directly to your global CSS file.
Global CSS
/* Please select at least one weight and style */Background & Story
David Libre is a Libre David Hebrew, based on David Hadash Formal, released by Monotype Corporation in 2012. David Hadash Formal is a modern digitization made from original large scale technical drawings for the typeface drawn by Ismar David.
Google has worked with Monotype to release the 3 book weights (Regular, Medium and Bold) under the SIL Open Font License and create a new version for use by the public.
This project includes working with the David Hadash sources to create a new version, that fits the requirements of Israeli instituions, since David is the official font for Israeli correspondence.
Some glyphs were updated, such as the Sheqel symbol. It was redesigned to be recognizable by contemporary Hebrew readers, since the original Sheqel symbol is too far from today's standard.
Latin characters from the Gentium typeface were derived and integrated to accommodate cases in which Latin and Hebrew characters will be used in tandem.
Each font includes OpenType features required for diacritic marks (nikud) and Hebrew-specific uses, including alternative Hebrew-height numerals (available as Stylistic Set 1) an alternative "Hebrew ampersand" symbol designed by Ismar David (available in Stylistic Set 2) and an alternative Sheqel symbol designed by Ismar David (available in Stylistic Set 3.)
Every effort was made to keep the original designs intact, and the type's original spacing is well preserved. However, several changes have been made to fit with David Libre's goal to be used as a free alternative to the David font commonly installed on PCs. In order to be compatible with documents previously set in the version of David bundled with Microsoft Windows, David Hadash's glyph size has been reduced by 12.5%. This was made to prevent cases in which documents previously typed in Microsoft's David to take up more pages and cause odd line breaks. Please note that this does not guarantee full compatibility with that David, only a close approximation.
Diacritic marks have been repositioned. Biblical cantillation marks are not supported.
The construction of David Libre was made by Meir Sadan, commissioned by Google for the Google Fonts project.
The David Libre project is led by Meir Sadan, a type designer based in Tel Aviv, Israel. To contribute, see github.com/meirsadan/david-libre.
Tags & Moods
Subsets
Install
pnpm add @fontsource/david-libreDesigned by
Monotype Imaging Inc., SIL International, Meir Sadan
Links
License
OFL-1.1