To make it short, Murphy Sans is a libre take on the general feel of Gill Sans, based on the Open Source typeface Biryani.
Superfat
48px
normal
“Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow”
Bold
48px
normal
Boxkämpfer jagt zwölf Schoßhunde quer über Sylt
Regular
48px
normal
Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz
Light
48px
normal
Waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex.
Hairline
48px
normal
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Black
128px
normal
Aren’t you putting a lot of stress
Bold
128px
normal
The harder your liver has to work
Semi Bold
128px
normal
Are not regulated in any way
Regular
128px
normal
I’m not a medical doctor
Extra Light
128px
normal
Anyway, the author of this article
We needed a typeface for a website of a brand that made heavy use of Gill Sans. Our client didn’t have a license to use the font on the web, and also because of my general dislike for anything associated with Mr. Gill (look it up), we decided to create a new typeface based on the same ideas.
Instead of starting from scratch, we started with the libre font Biryani by Dan Reynolds & Mathieu Réguer.
We chose this font largely because the latin charset of this font ran in just about the correct width we needed, and it had a delightfully high x-height, which made it perfect for web use.
And most importantly for you, that means that the font remains licensed under the SIL Open Font License, and is therefore completely free!