Anahaw Font and Free Look-Alikes

Quick answer: Anahaw is a display font from Hanken Design Co., and every letter ends in a point like a palm leaf. Its designer, Alfredo Marco Pradil, describes it as a free font on his portfolio, but the download now runs through his Hanken shop, which lists a price. The closest free font is Original Surfer, and it downloads below with two other leaf-tipped look-alikes.

Get Anahaw, or a free font that looks like it

Type something and it shows in each font, one under another. The first card links to Hanken’s shop for the original. The other three are free for commercial use and download from here.

A font shaped like a leaf

Alfredo Marco Pradil of Hanken drew Anahaw from the anahaw palm, the leaf many Filipinos call their unofficial national leaf. The shop’s story points out how the leaf gets used: wrapped around tikoy, folded into a quick lunchbox, or woven into an abaniko fan.

You can see it in the letters. The stems swell in the middle and taper to sharp tips at both ends, just like a blade of palm. That’s why plain sans fonts never quite match it, and why the free fonts below are the ones with pointed ends.

• Original Surfer has the same open, friendly lowercase and the same wedge-shaped ends. It’s the closest swap.
• Aladin is narrower, with sharper tips. It’s handy when a long word has to fit a poster.
• Eagle Lake swings more, like pen calligraphy. Use it when you want a softer, hand-made feel.

Buying the real Anahaw

Hanken sells Anahaw on its own shop, as a desktop family and as a separate webfont family. Each purchase is licensed to a named person or company, and Hanken has separate licences for desktop, web and apps. Font directories list different prices for it, so check the current one on the shop.

From Canva to your computer

Many people first see Anahaw in Canva and then go looking for the file. Canva fonts can’t be exported, so outside Canva you either buy Anahaw or use Original Surfer. To use a free font in Canva itself, upload the TTF in Brand Kit (Canva Pro or Teams), or bring the text in as a transparent PNG.

It suits tropical menus, summer festival posters, travel thumbnails and anything with a beach or island feel. Pair it with a quiet sans for the details. For more fonts people find in Canva, see the Dingos Stamp font and the Apricots font, or try our font generator.

Looking for another font you found in Canva? Our list of Canva fonts and their free matches covers the ones people ask about most.

Anahaw font questions

Is the Anahaw font free?

It started out as a free font, and Alfredo Marco Pradil’s portfolio and Canva’s list of free Filipino fonts still describe it that way. Today the download link goes to the Hanken shop, which shows a price, so check it there. Original Surfer, Aladin and Eagle Lake are free alternatives you can use commercially.

Where does the name Anahaw come from?

From the anahaw palm leaf of the Philippines. The pointed shape of the leaf inspired the pointed ends of the letters.

Does Anahaw have a webfont?

Yes. Hanken sells a webfont family separately from the desktop family, under its own web licence.

Quick takeaway

Look for the pointed tips. If a font has them, it’ll feel like Anahaw. Original Surfer is the free one I’d reach for first.