Font to download · free picture
Enter a band title or a song name and see it in tall black capitals on a white ground, the bare style of Nirvana’s lettering. Store the image, or grab the no-cost font file.
Look
Background
A PNG for a story, a pin or a poster. Clear has no background.
The font file is just belowThe original
by Gerry Powell, for ATF, 1937
Onyx is the typeface most pages name for the Nirvana logo: a condensed serif that Gerry Powell drew for ATF in 1937. Monotype sells it as Onyx MT, and its licence does not let it be passed on, so it is not given here: it is got from Monotype. It is sold, so it is not ours to give away.
Free to download
by Font Diner
Jolly Lodger has tall, narrow letters with sharp, tapering strokes, the nearest to Onyx in height and weight of the free fonts we compared. Use it for anything, even things you sell.
TTF in a ZIP, with its licence · 25 KB
Every other site has the same fonts. These exist only here, and they move. See all our fonts →
What the font has, before you download it.
Open the file in a font app from the App Store and install it. Then pick it in Pages, Keynote or Procreate.
Unzip the file, right-click the .ttf and choose Install. It shows up in Word, Photoshop and Cricut Design Space.
Unzip the file, double-click the .ttf and press Install.
In Brand Kit, choose Upload a font and pick the .ttf. Uploading fonts needs Canva Pro.
Install the font on your computer first, then restart Design Space: it is under System fonts.
They take no fonts. Save your words as a picture at the top of this page and add it as a sticker.
The references disagree with one another. Most pages name Onyx, a condensed serif from 1937, and one calls the Nirvana logo a modified Onyx. Google’s own answer names Bodoni Extra Condensed, adds that it is often mistaken for Onyx, and says the lettering was set for Bleach, the 1989 debut album on Sub Pop, in type the typesetting machines of the time had to hand. The NIRVANA on the Nevermind cover is another matter: the same sources say it is ITC Franklin Gothic Heavy with tight letter spacing.
Onyx is currently marketed as Onyx MT, which is why we leave it out here. The typeface used on this Nirvana font page is Jolly Lodger, created by Font Diner and free under the SIL Open Font License. This is not the logo’s typeface, yet its tall, slim capitals and small letters resemble Onyx’s proportions and heaviness.
The Onyx look is tall and narrow: upright heavy strokes, hairline serifs, black ink and nothing more, with no outline and no glow. The sources also mention a wavy effect on the Nevermind cover’s lettering, which this page does not draw.
Solid with the Logo backdrop renders your text in black on white, as stripped-down as a band name printed on a poster. Outline works well over a background photograph, while Paper and Clear leave the backdrop to your own artwork, and Glow falls outside this style.
Nirvana’s letters here are a picture and a font file, never text you can paste; for letters that paste into a bio, see copy and paste fonts.
The sources split. Most name Onyx, a condensed serif from 1937, and Google’s answer names Bodoni Extra Condensed, saying the two are often mistaken for each other. Of the free fonts we compared, Jolly Lodger, offered here, came closest.
The sources say the NIRVANA on the Nevermind cover is ITC Franklin Gothic Heavy with tight letter spacing, not Onyx, and they mention a wavy effect on it. Franklin Gothic is a commercial typeface, which is why it is not offered here.
Onyx is sold as Onyx MT by Monotype. A 1990 digital copy, OPTIOnyx by Castcraft, was never free, and the firm is gone, so no licence for it can be bought. Jolly Lodger, offered on this site, is released free under the SIL Open Font License. Fonts called Nirvana on free-font sites may not be the logo’s, so read their licence before you sell anything made with one.
For the Nirvana look, Jolly Lodger: tall black letters with sharp, uneven strokes. For more fonts with weight and an edge, see cool fonts.
Yes: The SIL Open Font License permits you to commercially sell works created with Jolly Lodger, provided the wording is your own. Nirvana and its logo are owned by the band, so avoid printing them on merchandise you intend to sell.
Not affiliated with Nirvana. Names and logos belong to their owners.
