There are significant differences between most of the Futura fonts on the market. Some simply have different character sets with varying degrees of language support or extras like small caps and oldstyle figures. And some actually differ in letterform design.

As a brief general reference, here are some key design differences between a few of the major releases:

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Futura Now

The most comprehensive digital version, released by Monotype in October 2020. A brief review.


https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-fc52e284a3033d1bd40f97d3da05df32

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-1a78d4baa199eb1f2441adb1521fc33e

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-c9a5891bf76c0f43a4d199a4b4c3ca65

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-badee0be6f201e8016af1edd0b864b87

Neufville (Futura ND)

As the owner of the Bauer foundry assets, Neufville claims to have the most accurate digital rendition of the original Futura drawings. This may be true, but Neufville isn’t necessarily the best font maker in the business — they have some spacing issues (see the ro in the Bold above, for example). Still, this release has the largest family of styles, with small caps and italics for nearly every weight and width.


https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-f50f19cde4db80541aac6432948390a0

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-145b49fc0eb0c93bf900d503c299e55c

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-1ee279d339efc3ae5862abe160c5df1a

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-6d59a8bca82edd469a152c6ec6a535f3

URW

Similar in design to the Neufville. Perhaps with better spacing. Not as large a family with all the extra small caps, but it does have some display weights that could be useful on occasion.


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LL Supreme

Cornel Windlin’s and Arve Båtevik’s interpretation aims for “a tougher, crisper, and more geometric rendering”. It also offers extra light (Display Choupette) and extra bold (Display Jumbo) variants that are more extreme and well drawn than those from other Futura families. LL Supreme also includes more of Renner’s original stylistic alternates than any other revival.