Papyrus is one of the most recognizable typefaces, known for its textured, hand-crafted look that blends organic and historical elements.

While it has been widely used in branding, posters, and even Hollywood movies, it’s also a divisive font with strong opinions on both sides.

Whether you love its distinct style or need an alternative with a similar aesthetic but a fresher feel, there are plenty of great options to explore.

In this post, we’ve curated a selection of the best fonts similar to Papyrus—ones that capture its rustic, artistic, and ancient-inspired essence while offering more variety in weight, readability, and modern versatility.

Let’s dive in.

Burowai – Tribal Font Similar to Papyrus

Burowai is an old-world tribal font thoughtfully crafted with inspiration drawn from ancient Greek letters, shapes of tree branches and symbols found in caves. Displaying brave, spiritual, and natural elements, It’s an ideal choice for projects with a natural, tribal, or adventurous theme.

Nomad Tribes – Papyrus Style Ancient Font

Nomad Tribes, reminiscent of the Papyrus style, is a captivating typographic journey into forgotten cultures. Its bold, detailed design mirrors ancient calligraphy, transporting users back to a nomadic era, each letter bearing the weight of ancient tales.

Jotunheim – Font Similar to Papyrus

Jotunheim is a distinctive font that draws its inspiration from ancient runes, offering a style similar to the well-known Papyrus font. It presents three unique versions from simplistic to intricate detail, advocating for a mix-and-match approach for distinct results. This versatile font includes uppercase multilingual letters, numbers, and basic punctuation.

Nowra – Papyrus Style Ethnic Font

Nowra is a unique font which mirrors the captivating charm of Papua’s rich culture. It features carefully integrated tribal motifs, exuding the blend of ancient traditions and contemporary design. This versatile font is ideal for branding, posters or merchandise, adding a unique ethnic touch to your projects.

Axone – Ancient Greek Font

CS Axone, an ancient Greek inspired display font, adds a touch of history and elegance to modern designs. Intricately detailed and capturing the grandeur of Greek inscriptions, it brings visual harmony and sophistication to logos, headlines, and branding materials.

Old North – Font Similar to Papyrus

Old North is a unique font, inspired by Norse runes and similar to the Papyrus font. It consists of two different styles of runes applied to uppercase and lowercase letters, giving your text a distinct Viking feel. The font also features an alternative stylistic range for A-Z based on actual Norse runes, drastically broadening your creative options.

Azteker – Papyrus Style Ancient Font

Azteker font, reminiscent of Papyrus, is a sleek sans serif design accentuated by added linear elements. Ideal for branding, logos, apparel, and titles, this font enhances your design while remaining simple and stylish. It includes uppercase, lowercase letters, as well as numbers, punctuation, and bonus vector decoratives and frames, in otf and psd formats, respectively.

Ancient Totem – Ethnic Tribal Font

Ancient Totem font consists of two unique typefaces, inspired by traditional tribal and ethnic styles, akin to Papyrus font. It’s a versatile font that’s great for projects incorporating tribal themes, logos, greeting cards, titles, or billboards to name a few.

Hunger – Ancient Greek Font

Hunger is a timeless and elegant typeface inspired by the grandeur of ancient Greek inscriptions. This bold, angular font adds an intellectual quality and cultural sophistication to designs, making it perfect for projects themed around history, academia, or Greek influences.

Farley – Ancient Papyrus-Like Font

Farley is an ancient Greek-inspired font that plays upon the grandeur of classical antiquity. Echoing Greek architecture and inscriptions, Farley presents unique letterforms with bold, precise shapes and strong serifs. It’s perfect for designs exploring heritage, mythology, or history, and adds an old-world scholarly touch to academic and cultural projects.

Phantom Sigil – Ancient Serif Font

Phantom Sigil is a unique, ancient serif font closely resembling the timeless Papyrus font. Crafted to echo historic Egyptian inscriptions and the artistry of forgotten empires, this typeface is infused with a sense of mystique. It features subtle imperfections that breath whispers of hidden stories from lost civilizations.

Papyrus Style Old Scotch Font

Old Scotch is a boldly authentic black letter font reminiscent of the Papyrus font. With its inclusion of uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and standard glyphs, this versatile typeface can breathe life into your creative ideas. Compatible with both PC and Mac, it comes in TTF, OTF, and WOFF files for easy installation.

Old Spokes – Vintage Display Font

Old Spokes is a unique vintage display font inspired by classic poster designs. Its fusion of retro and trendy styles combined with various ligature variations sets it apart. Perfect for a variety of display purposes like album covers, posters, logos, and more, it supports multiple languages. The font is available in OTF, TTF, WOFF formats.

Mesquite – Ancient Greek Font

Mesquite is an ancient Greek font that skillfully blends vintage charm with modern finesse. A distant cousin to the Papyrus font, Mesquite mirrors the beauty of stone-carved inscriptions and carries a strong geometric structure. Perfect for invoking a sense of grandeur, it’s ideal for mythological themes, luxury branding or anything requiring a touch of history.

Moonwolf – Modern Tribal Font

Moonwolf is a bold, modern tribal font reminiscent of ancient civilizations mixed with a mysterious space tribe aesthetic. It features intricate details inspired by natural cosmic patterns and tribal markings. With sleek lines and sharp edges, the font’s design exudes power and strength, yet seamlessly flows together to promote harmony.

Rimba Andalas – Papyrus-Like Font

Rimba Andalas is an inventive, ethnic-inspired font that mirrors the playful feel of Papyrus. Drawing inspiration from tree branches and ancient cave symbols, this font blends a natural, tribal vibe with unique handwritten aesthetics, suitable for various display applications. From logos to signage, apparel, and books, its combination of uppercase, lowercase, and more.

Paraoh – Sacred Font Similar to Papyrus

Paraoh is a stylish, hand-written script font similar to the popular Papyrus font. Ideal for logos, headers, titles, prints, and various other creative uses, it delivers clean, extraordinary typography results. Provided in both TTF and OTF formats, the font is simple to use across various apps.

Tropicane – Abstract Papyrus Style Font

Tropicane is an abstract-sans serif font, blending sans serif, electro and traditional aesthetics into a stylish and versatile asset. Perfect for adding a distinct touch to headlines, labels, minimalist print designs, flyers, posters, logos, t-shirts, and branding, Tropicane’s unique design shines through, especially on a standout magazine header.

Best Free Papyrus Fonts

Free Papyrus Font

If you want to use a font that looks exactly like Papyrus, why not use the original? This is the Papyrus font created by Chris Costello, and it’s completely free to use. You can even use it with your commercial projects. Even though some designers hate this font, there are occasions where this font fits perfectly.

CS Monela – Papyrus Font Free

This free font features a modernized ancient letter design that’s ideal for designers looking for a font similar to papyrus. It has subtle references to ancient letterform while also maintaining its readability.

Ragna Runes – Free Papyrus Font

This font has a set of letters that looks like something sketched onto an ancient rune. It’s perfect for crafting ancient-style titles and headings. The font is free to use with your personal projects.

DiMurphic – Free Papyrus Style Font

This font is also free for your personal use. It comes with an ancient letter design, taking inspiration from fonts like Papyrus. The font is ideal for adding a unique ancient Egyptian look to your designs.