Canva has actually gotten much better at typography but the default “suggested fonts” are still pushing Lato and Montserrat like it’s 2018.
Real list of best Canva fonts for professional outputs that people aren’t talking about enough:
For corporate/professional:
- Fraunces (variable font, editorial feel)
- Unbounded (geometric, tech-forward)
- DM Serif Display + DM Sans combo
For creative/editorial:
- Playfair Display + Source Sans combo
- Editorial New (if available in your account)
- Canela + Aktiv Grotesk combination
For approachable/consumer brands:
- Nunito + Outfit combination
- Reenie Beanie (handwritten, casual)
- Cooper Hewitt for a more refined take
The problem with best Canva fonts conversations is people are optimizing for “looks nice in a thumbnail.” For actual deliverables (pitch decks, reports, social media sets) the standards are different.
What are you using in Canva for client-facing work specifically?
Fraunces is genuinely excellent and underused in Canva contexts. The optical size axis makes it versatile across display and text sizes in a way most Canva fonts aren’t.
The DM Serif + DM Sans pairing is my default recommendation for clients who do everything in Canva. Cohesive family, zero friction.
The Montserrat fatigue is real. It still works but it signals “made in Canva” immediately to anyone in the industry. Which isn’t necessarily bad depending on the context, but worth being aware of.
Unbounded is a great call for anything in the tech/crypto/gaming space - very current.
Adding: Cormorant Garamond is in Canva and it’s genuinely beautiful for luxury/editorial work. The italic variants especially.
For client work I always ask: what are they using outside of Canva? Matching the font family between Canva assets and other materials matters more than finding a trendy pairing.
@felixcreativeguy the “looks nice in thumbnail vs. actual deliverable” point is key. Canva’s own font previews optimize for Instagram-sized type at large sizes. At report body text size you need completely different criteria.
Test everything at 10-12px before committing to a body font recommendation.