Nunito vs Rubik
Two sans-serif faces, set live below in their own letters — then the honest take on which to pick and when.
At a glance
- How it rounds
- Rounded stroke terminals
- Rounded corners, squared forms
- Feel
- Soft, warm
- Tidy, modern
- Heaviest weight
- 800 (ExtraBold)
- 700 (Bold)
- Designer
- Vernon Adams, 2011
- Hubert & Fischer, 2015
NunitoRubik
The honest take
Both are friendly, rounded sans faces, but the roundness lands differently. Nunito (Vernon Adams, 2011) rounds its terminals — the strokes end in soft, curved caps — while keeping otherwise conventional proportions, giving a gentle, approachable body face. Rubik (Hubert & Fischer, 2015) instead rounds the corners of otherwise fairly geometric, slightly squared letterforms, which reads as modern, tidy and a touch more structured; it was originally made for Google's Chrome Cube Lab. Choose Nunito for warmth and softness across body and headings, especially anything childlike or wellness-flavoured. Choose Rubik for a cleaner, more contemporary rounded look that still feels orderly enough for product UI and dashboards. Both run 400–700 (Nunito adds an 800), so the call is purely about the character of the rounding.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — Nunito over Rubik. Where they agree the strokes merge; where they argue, fringes.
“Hamburgefonstiv” is the type designer's test word — it carries most of the shapes that give a face away.