What Font Does IBM Use? The IBM Font Explained
Wondering what the IBM font is? Here is the rare good-news answer: IBM’s brand typeface is IBM Plex, and it is free and open-source. The striped 8-bar logo is a separate bespoke mark, but the actual brand font — Plex Sans, Serif, and Mono — is downloadable at no cost. This guide explains the logo, the Plex family, and exactly how to get it.
IBM is a landmark case of a corporation releasing its own typeface to the public. For the wider picture, browse our overview of fonts used by famous brands.
What font is the IBM logo?
The famous striped IBM logo — the three letters built from eight horizontal bars — is a bespoke mark designed by Paul Rand in 1972. Rand based the letterforms on the slab-serif typeface City Medium (by Georg Trump), then rendered them in stripes to suggest speed and dynamism. It is a trademarked logo, not a font you type, so the striped mark itself cannot be reproduced from any retail typeface. The earlier solid-letter version Rand designed in 1956 also drew on City. The logo and the brand typeface are two separate things — and only one of them is downloadable.
What is IBM Plex, the brand typeface?
For everything beyond the logo — the website, products, documentation, and presentations — IBM uses IBM Plex, a custom typeface family designed by Mike Abbink with the foundry Bold Monday and released in 2017. Plex was built to express IBM’s relationship between humanity and machine, and it ships in three core styles: IBM Plex Sans, IBM Plex Serif, and IBM Plex Mono, plus a condensed cut and broad language support. Crucially, IBM released Plex under the open-source SIL Open Font License — so unlike almost every other major corporate face, anyone can download and use it for free.
Is IBM Plex really free?
Yes. IBM Plex is genuinely free and open-source under the SIL Open Font License. You can install it on Google Fonts or download the full family from IBM’s GitHub repository, then use it for personal and commercial projects, embed it on the web, and bundle it in apps — all at no cost. The OFL does carry standard conditions (you cannot sell the font on its own, and any modified versions you redistribute follow the same license), so it is still worth reading our font licensing guide if you plan to modify it. For ordinary use, though, Plex is one of the most generous brand-font releases out there.
Why did IBM release its font for free?
IBM open-sourced Plex partly to escape per-seat licensing costs across a vast global organisation, and partly as a statement of openness that aligns with its developer and open-source positioning. A consistent, free typeface means every team, partner, and contractor can render the brand identically without licensing friction — and the goodwill from giving a high-quality family away for free is its own marketing. The result reads as clean, modern, and engineered, much like the neutral sans approaches behind the Intel font and the Dell font — but with the rare advantage of being yours to use too.
How do I get and use IBM Plex?
Search “IBM Plex” on Google Fonts to use it instantly on the web, or download the full family (Sans, Serif, Mono, and Condensed) from IBM’s official GitHub for desktop use. IBM Plex Sans is your workhorse for UI and body text, IBM Plex Serif adds editorial warmth for long-form reading, and IBM Plex Mono is a clean choice for code and technical labels — a strong pick alongside other developer faces in our best monospace fonts roundup.
| Use case | Recommended IBM Plex style | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Headlines / wordmark feel | IBM Plex Sans (Bold) | Free (OFL) |
| UI / body text | IBM Plex Sans | Free (OFL) |
| Editorial / long-form | IBM Plex Serif | Free (OFL) |
| Code / technical labels | IBM Plex Mono | Free (OFL) |
Because the whole family is under one open license, you can mix Sans, Serif, and Mono freely in the same project without buying anything or tracking separate licenses.
How has the IBM identity evolved?
IBM’s visual identity is one of the most disciplined in corporate history. Paul Rand designed the solid logo in 1956 and the striped 8-bar version in 1972, and that mark has barely changed since — a rare example of a logo that has held for decades, which is itself a strength. For type, IBM long relied on licensed faces (notably a Helvetica-based system) before commissioning IBM Plex in 2017 to replace them with a unified, owned family. Releasing Plex as open-source was the modern twist: it locked down brand consistency, cut licensing costs across an enormous footprint, and signalled IBM’s open-source values all at once. That pairing of a fixed iconic logo with an evolving, screen-tuned brand face is a pattern you will see across many entries in our famous brand fonts roundup — IBM just made its half of it free.
Frequently Asked Questions
What font does the IBM logo use?
The striped 8-bar IBM logo is a bespoke mark by Paul Rand (1972), based on the slab-serif City Medium typeface and rendered in eight horizontal bars. It is a trademarked logo, not a downloadable font, so the striped mark itself cannot be reproduced from a retail typeface.
What is IBM’s brand font?
IBM’s brand typeface is IBM Plex, a custom family by Mike Abbink and Bold Monday released in 2017. It includes IBM Plex Sans, Serif, and Mono, plus a condensed cut, and is used across IBM’s website, products, and documentation.
Is the IBM font free?
Yes. IBM Plex is free and open-source under the SIL Open Font License. You can download Plex Sans, Serif, and Mono from Google Fonts or IBM’s GitHub and use them for personal and commercial work, including web embedding and app bundling, at no cost.
Where can I download IBM Plex?
You can get IBM Plex free on Google Fonts for web use, or download the complete family — Sans, Serif, Mono, and Condensed — from IBM’s official GitHub repository for desktop installation. Both routes are free under the open-source license.
Can I use IBM Plex commercially?
Yes. The SIL Open Font License permits commercial use, web embedding, and app bundling at no cost. You cannot sell the font on its own, and modified redistributions must keep the same license, but ordinary commercial use of IBM Plex is fully allowed.
