The Wizard of Oz Font

The Wizard of Oz font exists in two distinct but equally beloved incarnations — the storybook and the screen — and each carries its own typographic personality while serving the same essential function: announcing that what follows is one of the great American acts of imagination. The book tradition draws on the ornate Victorian and Edwardian display lettering of L. Frank Baum’s era, warm serif letterforms with theatrical scale and decorative confidence, the typography of a story told in a parlour by someone who had everyone’s complete attention. The freely available Wizard of Oz Book Font captures this vintage storybook character for the literary tradition.

The 1939 MGM film’s poster and title lettering shifts into a bolder, more theatrical Hollywood display tradition — broader, more confident, and shot through with the Technicolor exuberance of a studio at the height of its golden age ambition. Both register as unmistakably Oz: whimsical without being frivolous, grand without being pompous, and radiating the particular warmth of a story that has been loved by more people for longer than almost any other. Two movie-style alternatives are also available: Movie Alternative 1 and Movie Alternative 2.