Expletus Sans
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
Package Manager
The recommended way to use fonts in modern web projects.
1. Install Package
pnpm add @fontsource-variable/expletus-sans2. Import in App
import '@fontsource-variable/expletus-sans/wght.css';3. CSS Usage
body {
font-family: "Expletus Sans Variable", system-ui;
}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
/* expletus-sans-latin-wght-normal */
@font-face {
font-family: "Expletus Sans Variable";
font-style: normal;
font-display: swap;
font-weight: 100 900;
src: url(https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/fontsource/fonts/expletus-sans:vf@latest/latin-wght-normal.woff2)
format("woff2-variations");
}Background & Story
Expletus Sans is a display typeface, which means that it is not recommended for long pieces of text. However, it's very effective for setting headers and other large sized text, due to it's way of pulling in the reader. It comes in 4 weights and will include italics from May 2011.
Expletus Sans has been upgraded to a variable font in November 2021. Line spacing has also been adjusted to improve user experience.
To contribute, see github.com/googlefonts/Expletus-Sans.
Jasper de Waard, born in 1996, first came in contact with the beauty of type design when he was 10, and developed his skills as a type and graphic designer ever since. He was born and raised in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and went to a bilingual high school there, training him to read and write English fluently and have a more international focus. He is currently in his third year, three years before his exam. He hopes to continue his practices in the fields of type and graphic design after he finishes school and release many more typefaces in the future.
His love for the tiny details, balance in proportions and urge for perfection made him into what he is today. However, the great support and feedback from people on several forums can't be denied as a great source of inspiration and evaluation material, giving him a greater understanding of the method behind type design. He is also available for custom type work and identity design.
To learn more, visit Introducing Expletus Sans.
Tags & Moods
Subsets
Install
pnpm add @fontsource-variable/expletus-sansDesigned by
Designtown
Links
License
OFL-1.1