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GitHub released Mona Sans and Hubot Sans on December 2, 2022, as open-source variable typefaces made with Degarism. Mona Sans is the more versatile family for interfaces, body text, and general design; Hubot Sans is its more geometric, technical companion for headings and display work. Both use the SIL Open Font License 1.1. Mona Sans has since gained additional styles and optical sizing, so use its current repository—not only the original launch instructions—when choosing files.
What are Mona Sans and Hubot Sans?
They are two related type families released by GitHub after being developed for use across its own digital experiences and marketing materials. GitHub’s announcement describes Mona Sans as an adaptable sans serif inspired by industrial-era grotesques, and Hubot Sans as its more geometric, robotic sidekick. The families can be used separately or paired for a coordinated typographic system. GitHub’s December 2, 2022 announcement explains the original release and its design intent.
GitHub worked with Degarism on the typefaces. Their public release made typography associated with GitHub available for other designers and developers; it was not simply a pair of fonts created solely for public distribution.
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Which one should you choose?
| Use case or feature | Mona Sans | Hubot Sans |
|---|---|---|
| Role | Versatile, general-purpose family | More expressive companion |
| Visual character | Adaptable grotesque with a comparatively restrained voice | More geometric and visibly technical |
| Good starting uses | Body copy, interfaces, headings, branding, web pages, and print | Headings, pull quotes, labels, and campaign or display work |
| Current documented weight range | 200–900 | 200–900 |
| Current documented width range | 75–125 | 75, 100, and 125 |
| Notable current styles or controls | Italic and optical-size axes; display and monospace-related styles | Roman and italic styles; narrow, regular, and wide named styles |
| License | SIL Open Font License 1.1 | SIL Open Font License 1.1 |
Choose Mona Sans when one family needs to cover several text roles or when optical sizing and broader family options are useful. Choose Hubot Sans when a display element benefits from a more distinctive, geometric tone. Using both can create a clear hierarchy—Mona Sans for reading and interface text, Hubot Sans for selected emphasis—but using Hubot Sans everywhere can make a design feel insistently technical. Treat the width and weight extremes as design choices to test at the actual size, not as automatic improvements to readability.
The repositories document Mona Sans’s broader current family, including monospace-related styles. That is distinct from calling Hubot Sans a coding font: Hubot Sans is described primarily as a display-oriented companion.
What does “variable font” mean in practice?
A variable font can contain a range of styles in one font file rather than requiring a separate file for every weight or width. A design can request intermediate values—for example, weight 745 or width 112—when the selected font file exposes those axes. This can simplify asset management, though it does not guarantee a smaller total download: file size depends on the font, glyph coverage, and whether it is subsetted. Rendering also depends on the browser, operating system, and application.
At launch, GitHub described both fonts in terms of weight, width, and slant. The current documentation is more nuanced, especially for Mona Sans. The values below describe documented design controls, not a promise that every file in every package exposes an identical set.
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|---|---|---|
| Mona Sans | Weight (wght) 200–900; width (wdth) 75–125; italic (ital) 0–1; optical size (opsz) 1–100 in the documented variable design space |
The repository describes multiple variable fonts and named optical-size styles, including values 20 and 72. Check the specific file’s axes before using its full documented range. |
| Hubot Sans | Weight 200–900; width values 75, 100, and 125; Roman and italic styles | The repository also lists narrow, regular, and wide named styles. Confirm the chosen package’s available files and controls. |
The original launch announcement remains useful for understanding the initial three-axis description and its CSS examples. For current Mona Sans behavior, consult the Mona Sans repository, which describes optical sizing, display and monospace-related styles, and a broader design space spanning 168 instances. The Hubot Sans repository documents its current styles and usage.
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Where to get the fonts and which files to install
Use the official Mona Sans repository and Hubot Sans repository for current files, instructions, releases, and license information. The typeface microsite is another project entry point. Repository packaging and filenames can change, so verify the files offered by the version you download rather than assuming the names in a 2022 tutorial are still exact.
- For desktop design applications: Use the variable TrueType files if the application supports variable-font controls and you need adjustable weight or width. Static files with separately named styles can be more dependable in older applications or workflows that do not handle variation axes well.
- For a website: Prefer the repository’s variable WOFF2 files for a modern web deployment when their axes match the styles you need. Test the chosen file in your target browsers and check the repository’s current instructions.
Install the selected desktop font files using your operating system’s font installation workflow, then reopen or refresh the design application if the families do not appear. Before committing to variable-only files for a production identity, verify that the software used by the whole team exposes the required variations correctly.
How to use the fonts in CSS
This basic pattern follows the launch-era variable-font approach. The paths are examples; replace them with the exact filenames and locations in your downloaded package. The original GitHub instructions use weight and stretch ranges to tell the browser that the font is variable.
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@font-face {
font-family: "Mona Sans";
src:
url("/fonts/Mona-Sans.woff2") format("woff2 supports variations"),
url("/fonts/Mona-Sans.woff2") format("woff2-variations");
font-weight: 200 900;
font-stretch: 75% 125%;
font-style: normal;
font-display: swap;
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Hubot Sans";
src:
url("/fonts/Hubot-Sans.woff2") format("woff2 supports variations"),
url("/fonts/Hubot-Sans.woff2") format("woff2-variations");
font-weight: 200 900;
font-stretch: 75% 125%;
font-style: normal;
font-display: swap;
}
html {
font-family: "Mona Sans", Arial, sans-serif;
}
h1,
h2,
blockquote {
font-family: "Hubot Sans", "Mona Sans", Arial, sans-serif;
}Do not assume this declares italic correctly. If the package provides a separate italic file, declare it as a separate source; if it exposes an italic axis, follow the repository’s instructions for that file. Otherwise, the browser may synthesize italics, or the requested style may not appear. Likewise, a width declaration will have no effect if the loaded file is static or lacks the expected width axis.
Using current Mona Sans optical sizing
The Mona Sans repository demonstrates optical sizing with a particular variable file. Its bracketed filename is an example, not a guaranteed filename for every release. Check that your selected file actually exposes the listed axes before using this pattern.
@font-face {
font-family: "Mona Sans VF";
src: url("/fonts/MonaSansVF[wdth,wght,opsz,ital].woff2")
format("woff2-variations");
font-weight: 200 900;
font-stretch: 75% 125%;
font-style: normal;
font-optical-sizing: auto;
}
.display-heading {
font-family: "Mona Sans VF", sans-serif;
font-variation-settings:
"wght" 700,
"wdth" 125,
"opsz" 72;
}
.body-copy {
font-family: "Mona Sans VF", sans-serif;
font-variation-settings:
"wght" 400,
"wdth" 100,
"opsz" 12;
}For ordinary text, prefer high-level CSS properties such as font-weight and font-stretch where they cover the desired axis; use font-variation-settings when you need direct control over axes such as optical size. The repository’s current Mona Sans documentation is the source for file-specific implementation details.
Performance, loading, and readability checks
GitHub’s launch guidance recommends WOFF2, subsetting unused glyphs, fallback fonts, and preload for fonts needed early on the page. These choices involve trade-offs: a full variable file may contain more glyph and variation data than a project needs, but an aggressive subset can omit characters required by the site. Preloading fonts that are not needed immediately can also compete with more important resources.
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- Preload selectively: Preload only files needed for above-the-fold content. Use the actual deployed filename and a matching font type.
- Choose coverage deliberately: Test every language, punctuation mark, symbol, and special character the project requires after subsetting.
- Match the fallback: A fallback stack prevents text from disappearing while the web font loads. GitHub’s original example uses
size-adjust: 108.5%andascent-override: 82%for Mona Sans Regular based on Arial; these are example metrics, not universal values. Measure and test for the specific font, fallback, language, and use. - Check legibility in context: Review the selected weight and width at real body and interface sizes, not only in a specimen. Check contrast separately; a font choice does not by itself establish accessible contrast.
For example, a preload can be written as follows, with the URL changed to the deployed file:
<link rel="preload" href="/fonts/Mona-Sans.woff2" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin>GitHub’s original implementation guidance also demonstrates fallback metric overrides. Treat those numbers as an example for a particular pairing, not a copy-and-paste setting for every project.
Are Mona Sans and Hubot Sans free for commercial use?
Both families are released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. That makes them available without a paid subscription or per-seat commercial font license for ordinary project use, including websites, applications, branding, documents, and print. “Free” does not mean that the font files can be redistributed or modified without conditions.
If you distribute font software, modify the files, subset them, or rename a version, read the complete license and follow its terms, including provisions concerning redistribution and Reserved Font Names. The repositories provide the full texts for Mona Sans and Hubot Sans. The Mona Sans project also has a discussion about subsetting and the Reserved Font Name provision; consult the license rather than treating that discussion as a substitute for it.
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The launch announcement presented a simpler picture of both families, including three variation dimensions and basic installation examples. Mona Sans has developed since then: current repository documentation includes optical sizing and display and monospace-related styles, alongside changes to drawings, spacing, kerning, and width naming. The project’s release history lists v2.0.27, released May 19, 2026. The Mona Sans repository describes its broader design space as spanning 168 instances.
That history does not make the original announcement wrong; it describes the launch-era fonts. It does mean a copied tutorial may not match today’s filenames, style names, or available controls. Current Mona Sans and Hubot Sans repositories are the better references for the packages available now.
Test before shipping
Variation and glyph behavior can differ across files, browsers, operating systems, and design applications. The Mona Sans issue tracker includes reports concerning Linux rendering, ligatures, character coverage, and monospace behavior; an open report is a reason to test a relevant workflow, not proof that every user will encounter the problem. Check current Mona Sans issues if a specific glyph or rendering behavior is important to your project.
Quick Recap
- Confirm the loaded file is the intended variable font and exposes the axes your CSS requests.
- Check regular, italic, narrow or wide, and light or heavy styles in the software and browsers your audience uses.
- Test all needed languages and symbols, especially after subsetting.
- Verify that width and optical-size changes are visible where expected; inspect the actual loaded font in developer tools if they are not.
- Record the repository version used so future updates can be compared against a known baseline.
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