What Font Does Pinterest Use? Pinterest Sans and Pin Fonts

Pinterest uses a custom typeface called Pinterest Sans, designed by the type foundry Grilli Type as part of Pinterest's 2021 brand refresh. You cannot pick it in the Pin editor, which offers 20 other fonts.

It's Nice That reported the typeface in May 2021. Grilli Type was commissioned by the agency Made Thought, working with Pinterest design director Andreas Helin.

What font does Pinterest use?

Pinterest's brand font is Pinterest Sans, a sans serif built to be distinctive without overshadowing the images on Pinterest. It is a brand typeface, not something you choose for your own Pins.

According to It's Nice That, Grilli Type took visual references from Futura Alternates, Avenir and Johnston Sans, then blended geometric shapes with handwritten ones. The lowercase "a" and "y" have small flourishes, curves taper so text holds up at small sizes, and round letters are made less geometric. The italic leans eight degrees forward, a cue from handwriting.

Which fonts you can use on a Pin

Pinterest's web Pin editor offers a fixed list of fonts. Pinterest Sans is not on it. Pinterest's Design a Pin page lists Arima Madurai, Dosis, Merriweather, Overlock, Permanent Marker, Playfair Display, Raleway, Rubik, Sedgwick Ave Display, Roboto Condensed, and Noto Sans and Noto Serif, each also in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese versions.

The table below is design opinion about how each Latin font behaves at feed size, not Pinterest guidance.

Font	Style	Good for
Raleway	Clean, light geometric sans	Modern, minimal Pins
Playfair Display	High-contrast serif	Large headlines on recipes, weddings, decor
Roboto Condensed	Narrow sans	Longer headlines in a tight space
Rubik	Rounded, sturdy sans	Friendly titles over busy backgrounds
Merriweather	Sturdy serif	Smaller supporting text
Permanent Marker	Hand-drawn marker	One or two words of emphasis
Dosis	Rounded, narrow sans	Short labels and numbers

Use one font for the headline and at most one more for a small line under it.

Fonts that read well on Pins

A font works on a Pin if it survives a thumbnail. Most people see Pins on a phone, so thin or ornate letters vanish first.

• Pick a heavier weight. A medium or bold cut stays readable at feed size; a light cut does not.
• Contrast the text and background. Use dark text on a light area, or white text on a darkened photo, on a plain part of the image.
• Keep it short. Pinterest limits text overlays to no more than 10 words in its showcase and quiz ad specs, and that is a sensible limit for any Pin.
• Stay vertical. Pinterest recommends a 2:3 ratio, or 1000 × 1500 px, in the same specs and warns that Pins taller than 2:3 might get cut off in feeds. The Pinterest photo resizer crops to that size, and Pinterest image sizes lists the rest.

How to add text to a Pin

On desktop, add text in the Pin editor with the text layer tool. These steps follow Pinterest's help pages.

1. Click Create at the top left, or open the menu and select Create Pin on a business account.
2. Upload your image.
3. Click the pencil icon at the top right of the image.
4. Select Add text layer at the bottom left.
5. Type your text, then choose a font style, size, alignment, color and highlight.
6. Click Done, then Publish.

The Canvas tool changes the orientation, size or background color. Its aspect ratio options are 2:1, 16:9, 3:2, 4:3, 5:4 and 1:1, with no 2:3, so size a vertical image before you upload it. Pinterest says more design tools are in its Android and iOS apps.

Designing Pins ahead of time? SociaHive's content scheduler can publish them to Pinterest on a set date.

Fancy text and Unicode letters in Pin titles

Fancy text in a Pin title or description is not a font. The Pinterest font generator swaps normal letters for lookalike Unicode characters, which paste anywhere text is allowed.

Because they are different characters from normal letters, keep your main keywords in plain text and use styled letters for a short accent. Text placed in the image with the editor above is a real font and stays crisp.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get the Pinterest font?

Pinterest Sans is not among the 20 fonts in Pinterest's Pin editor, and it is described as a bespoke brand typeface. To get a similar look, use a clean sans such as Raleway or Rubik from the editor list, or design the Pin in another tool and upload the finished image.

Can I upload my own font to the Pinterest Pin editor?

Pinterest's Design a Pin page lists a fixed set of fonts and describes no way to upload your own. If you need a specific font, add the text in a design tool that supports it, export the image at 1000 × 1500 px, and upload that as the Pin.

What fonts does Pinterest use in its trend reports?

Those headlines are separate from Pinterest Sans. Type designer Jake at Make Type Work analysed the Pinterest Predicts 2025 titles and found 17 of the 20 appeared to start from Adobe Fonts, then were condensed, kerned and edited by hand. It is his reading, not a Pinterest statement.

Does the Pinterest app use a different font?

Grilli Type also made a version called Pinterest UI for consistency across platforms and devices. It has a taller x-height in every weight, vertically cut stroke endings so text can be set with tight spacing, and ink traps, all to stay legible at small sizes.

Sources

1. It's Nice That, Grilli Type designs a bespoke typeface for Pinterest that lets pinned imagery shine
2. Pinterest Help, Design a Pin
3. Pinterest Help, Create a Pin from an image or video
4. Pinterest Help, Review ad specs
5. Make Type Work, Fonts from Pinterest Predicts 2025