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About Bebas

Introduction to Bebas

It’s 2019 and I’m searching for a simple, condensed, all caps, typeface for a project. If you’ve ever been in a similar situation and found yourself looking at options on the internet or browsing font libraries, chances are you came across the font family Bebas Neue. And chances are you used it. Bebas Neue is everywhere, known for a sleek, minimalist design, but where did it come from and how did it become so popular?

Slim characters, all caps, and friendly yet attention-grabbing appearance, Bebas is one of those fonts that if you see it once, you will see it everywhere. Perfect for headlines and display, Bebas is a minimalist sans serif typeface that will capture attention and won’t overpower designs. Blocky, consistent, vertical strokes make up each character, and its baseline and cap height remain constant throughout each line.

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History of Bebas

First debuting in 2005, the single font Bebas was released to the world for free. Its designer, Ryoichi Tsunekawa, created Bebas as a simple design exercise intended for print use under his own foundry Dharma Type. Tsunekawa publicly released it in hopes of gathering helpful advice and critique from other designers, but the internet had other plans. The font gathered some attention and became popular on the web, perhaps simply because it was free and unique.

Following this success, in 2010, Tsunekawa released an updated version: Bebas Neue. He saw the need for an improved design optimal for web rather than print. Tsunekawa himself points out his mistakes with the original font, which “has crazy spacing and bad curves.()” He also claims that, after gathering so much advice about the original Bebas font, he was ready to practice his skills on the typeface once again. He adjusted the font for screen readability and fixed the mistakes. Bebas Neue can quickly be distinguished from its original counterpart by looking at the capital “R” for a curved leg rather than a straight one.

However, things could be improved even more. Tsunekawa must have thought his skills had improved enough, because in 2019, he released the large font family Bebas Neue Pro for commercial use. The pro version had everything, new lowercase letters, italicized versions, and 40 different styles. Also available in different widths, Bebas became extremely usable even for shorter paragraph texts. Quickly, Bebas Neue Pro took the spotlight as a top minimalist typeface. In its release year, it claimed the #2 spot as the most purchased font off of Myfonts.

Probably the most recognizable use of Bebas is the Netflix logo, but it can also be found on countless movie posters, book covers, and websites. My personal favorite instance of Bebas Neue is the branding for the card game Exploding Kittens. Almost all of the text on the box of the original game is in Bebas Neue Pro, (as indicated by the shape of the R and presence of multiple weights). For the game, which centers around themes of dynamite, bombs, and kittens, Bebas Neue is used in almost a utilitarian way, appearing more like a warning sign than the outside of a box of cards.

However, in this day and age, there is one valid reason to avoid Bebas in your designs. It’s simply too common. When a large company like Netflix uses such a recognizable font, that might be a sign it’s gone too far. For a design that arguably peaked in 2019, Bebas Neue is probably on its way out. However, like the infamous Helvetica typeface, I don’t think it's completely going away any time soon.

Despite its commonality, I believe Bebas should be in every designer’s repertoire. Bebas Neue is available widely, but you can also download it from Google Fonts or Adobe Fonts. Bebas Neue Pro is available for license on Adobe Fonts or My Fonts.