Author Topic: Anyone know any good free font sites (Read 40,959 times)

KenR · « **on:** July 04, 2006, 09:00 PM »

Hi all.

I am wondering what sites people are aware of where I could get nice free fonts. Any/all suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Ken

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #1 on:** July 04, 2006, 09:30 PM »

Sorry can't help it but http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Freeware+fonts throws up loads of them ...

Personally my experience is that you tend to get what you pay for in fonts ...

tinyvillager · « **Reply #2 on:** July 04, 2006, 09:52 PM »

Here's what i have bookmarked...

http://www.dafont.com/en/top.php

Pay and free
http://www.fontsforflash.com/

http://home.swipnet.se/~w-55723/pixel/

And some blogger that makes some bitmap fonts and stuff
http://www.04.jp.org/

I'm big on the bitmap fonts
I don't no the the technical differences between bitmap and programmer fonts but i also use Jibz's Dina font
for graphics and it makes a good replacement for foobar2000 playlist font

http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Jibz/Dina/index.html

housetier · « **Reply #3 on:** July 04, 2006, 11:24 PM »

The fonts I use the most are Dejavu and Gentium. The server for the latter seems to be down atm. Both are free, both are truetype.

Dejavu is VERY SIMILAR to Bitstream Vera, on which it is based. It just has more uhm... symbols.

kimmchii · « **Reply #4 on:** July 05, 2006, 02:15 AM »

this site is in Chinese, it has tons of fonts:

http://font.tlw.cn/

also this site: http://www.fontgarden.com/index.html

app103 · « **Reply #5 on:** July 05, 2006, 02:34 AM »

I promised you a list and here it is. I checked each site to make sure there wasn't anything funny about it and rejected any that had popups or redirected you to go vote.

I also downloaded a few from each site just to be sure it wasn't a site full of dead links or malware installers.

http://www.1001fonts.com/
http://www.1001freefonts.com/
http://www.abstractfonts.com/
http://www.actionfonts.com/
http://www.all-free-fonts.com/
http://www.beautifulfonts.com/
http://www.blambot.com/fonts.shtml
http://www.bvfonts.com/ (nice site but takes awhile to load)
http://www.dafont.com/
http://www.dingbatdepot.com/
http://www.downloadfreefonts.com/fontfiles/afonts.htm
http://www.eknp.com/
http://www.fontasy.de/
http://www.fontfreak.com
http://www.fontgarden.com/ (the sample text graphics are funny)
http://www.fontparadise.com/
http://www.fontreactor.com/en
http://www.fontso.com/
http://www.fontsville.com/main.html
http://www.freefonts.org.uk/
http://www.freefontsnow.com/
http://www.free-typewriter-fonts.com/
http://www.fryfonts.com/
http://www.getfreefonts.info/
http://www.greatfreefonts.com/ (loads slow)
http://www.highfonts.com/
http://www.larabiefonts.com/fonts.html
http://www.lottes.dk/fonts/
http://www.nofonts.com/
http://www.scrappinfun.com/fonts.html (lots of handwriting fonts)
http://www.simplythebest.net/fonts/
http://www.sketchpad.net/freefonts.htm
http://www.typenow.net/ (use drop down menu at top)
http://www.wantedfonts.com/

These should keep you busy for awhile.

housetier · « **Reply #6 on:** July 05, 2006, 03:05 AM »

KenR · « **Reply #7 on:** July 05, 2006, 04:58 AM »

Ok, I agree with housetier, "WOW". Thank you all so much for the sites.

As app notes, this should keep me busy for a while.

Ken

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** July 05, 2006, 05:04 AM »

remember, this is what donationcredits were made for!

superticker · « **Reply #9 on:** July 05, 2006, 06:18 AM »

If you go into my StumbleUpon blog http://superticker2.stumbleupon.com/ and select fonts in the pulldown menu, you'll get a good listing with a paragraph description I wrote about each of these font sites. Not all font sites are created equal, so using these social bookmarking services (although StumbleUpon isn't really a traditional social bookmarking service) is the best way to separate the seed from the shaft.

You can also use StumbleUpon's search feature to find other stumblers that have recommended more "fonts" sites here http://www.stumbleupon.com/tag/fonts/. Go into their respective blogs and repeat the same procedure above to see their "fonts" site recommendations. This is an exceedingly powerful approach to locating the best sites quickly.

mouser · « **Reply #10 on:** July 05, 2006, 06:24 AM »

i know from experience your stumbledupon reviews are worth reading..
but when i select fonts it doesnt load the page with your font reviews, it stays on the same page and this is in url:
http://superticker2.stumbleupon.com/tag/undefinedundefinedundefinedundefinedundefined/

could be my browser is acting up (ie engine)'

this link worked and was good though:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/tag/fonts/

clearly we need to start investigating stumbledupon more - it seems like it's a good thing.

mouser · « **Reply #11 on:** July 05, 2006, 06:26 AM »

this one looks cool (from stumbledupon): http://www.searchfreefonts.com/

superticker · « **Reply #12 on:** July 05, 2006, 02:37 PM »

Quote from: mouser on July 05, 2006, 06:24 AM

i know from experience your stumbledupon reviews are worth reading..
but when i select fonts it doesnt load the page with your font reviews, it stays on the same page and this is in url:
http://superticker2.stumbleupon.com/tag/undefinedundefinedundefinedundefinedundefined/
Could be my browser is acting up (ie engine)'

Looks like you hit a StumbleUpon bug. I just reported it. You could page through my entire SU blog at http://superticker2.stumbleupon.com/ and look for reviews tagged as fonts or desktop-publishing, but that would be 40 pages. However, if you're into computer like myself, you may find this blog interesting.

If you have the StumbleUpon toolbar extension installed for Firefox 1.5 or IExplorer 6, you shouldn't get this error, however. The pulldown tags menu should work as expected.

Quote from: mouser on July 05, 2006, 06:24 AM

this link worked and was good though:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/tag/fonts/

clearly we need to start investigating stumbledupon more - it seems like it's a good thing.

If you plan to sign up for StumpleUpon (see http://www.stumbleupon.com/), install the SU toolbar extension in your browser first, then do the sign-up process. This way, the sign-up process will set your SU password in your pre-installed extension. If you use two computers, you'll need to set the SU password manually in the second computer. SU should send you an e-mail telling you what your password and SU serial# is. Save that, and enter this info into the SU toolbar of your second computer.

thunder7 · « **Reply #13 on:** July 06, 2006, 02:19 AM »

how much time do you have? and you also know that too many fonts is a bad things right? And deleting certain fonts can mess up your system.

KenR · « **Reply #14 on:** July 06, 2006, 02:41 AM »

Not as much time as I wish, but as much as everyone else.

I know that too doing things in the windows fonts directory can have some odd effects, but it's a good reminder. Thanks.

Ken

app103 · « **Reply #15 on:** July 06, 2006, 05:52 AM »

I have over 12,000 fonts but I don't keep them all in my Windows fonts folder. That would be crazy.

I keep them in another folder on another drive sorted by type.

I only add the ones I will use on a regular basis to the Windows fonts folder.

When I want to use one or more from my other folder, I just click and open them, then minimize them to the taskbar. They then appear in the font list of whatever applications I use(mainly just used for digital art). When I am done, I just close them and they are removed from the list.

This is a great way to temporarily install a font that avoids all the messy stuff that can result from having too many fonts.

KenR · « **Reply #16 on:** July 06, 2006, 07:20 AM »

Hey App,
I planned to keep in a different folder as well, but was not aware you could use fonts just by opening and minimizing them them to the taskbar.

You're so smart!

Ken

mouser · « **Reply #17 on:** July 06, 2006, 07:44 AM »

one of the key things that font tools do is help you install and uninstall fonts on demand, for just this reason.

f0dder · « **Reply #18 on:** July 06, 2006, 08:36 AM »

Quote from: app103 on July 06, 2006, 05:52 AM

When I want to use one or more from my other folder, I just click and open them, then minimize them to the taskbar. They then appear in the font list of whatever applications I use(mainly just used for digital art). When I am done, I just close them and they are removed from the list.

That's a great tip!

Thinking of why this works, as a programmer, it's pretty obvious - to use a font with the standard windows calls, the font needs to be installed. So the Microsoft previewer temporarily installs the font, then uninstalls it afterwards if it wasn't already.

Another approach for font preview (the one that I would take) would be using a 3rd-party font renderer like freetype, which doesn't require installing the font... but that means this trick wouldn't have worked.

Oh well, just my

worth of useless trivia

tomos · « **Reply #19 on:** July 06, 2006, 12:54 PM »

heres a short list i like:

http://www.alvit.de/blog/article/20-best-license-free-official-fonts

and
http://www.alvit.de/blog/article/25-best-license-free-pixelfonts

(They are what he calls "serious" fonts

so it depends what you need!)

thunder7 · « **Reply #20 on:** July 07, 2006, 02:30 PM »

I will update you when I have my PC running again I have "a few" font sites I know of

app103 · « **Reply #21 on:** July 08, 2006, 02:47 AM »

I received this in an email today in reply to a request for font sources:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TotallyKrazyFonts/

This is a list that used to be on AOL only, and has since moved to Yahoo Groups and now anybody can join. Despite this, it's still an AOL style mailing list. (If you join, you will learn what that means)

What you will receive is 10 fonts in your email inbox every day, Monday thru Friday. They will arrive as email attachments, one attachment per email. (no zips) This means each font will have its own email for a total of 10 each day. There will be a graphic in each email to preview the font that is attached. Keep the ones you like, delete the ones you don't.

Keep your mailbox from getting full and make sure you do what you have to to prevent any mailings from the list ending up in your filters as spam. If there is a bounceback you will most likely be removed from the mailing list instantly. Make sure your settings will allow attachments.

You don't have to do anything but sign up in order to get them. You are allowed to share the fonts you receive with others and even forward mailings from the list to your friends.

The group was founded on Yahoo in 2004, currently has 791 members, and has been very active. June's email count was 209 messages.

Enjoy!

nudone · « **Reply #22 on:** July 08, 2006, 05:34 AM »

app, that sounds like a nice way to get new fonts - just one question: do you know if it okay to use these fonts for commercial purposes?

app103 · « **Reply #23 on:** July 08, 2006, 05:59 AM »

Quote from: nudone on July 08, 2006, 05:34 AM

do you know if it okay to use these fonts for commercial purposes?

Probably not.

Most likely they are the same freeware fonts you could spend forever finding from search after search on google for various free font sites.

The difference is that you don't have to do any work and they come to you and in a small enough quantity at a time that you can appreciate them more.

There will most likely be the addition of the appropriate holiday fonts to go with each season sent out as well.

Maybe if you are lucky you might even get some exclusives. There could be a font artist on AOL that may decide to send their stuff in to be distributed. It wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened. There was one on a mailing list I subscribe to that sent in about 50 of his/her original fonts all in one zip file. Those fonts are still out there traveling from mailing list to mailing list.

What I would do is open the fonts like I explained earlier, and see if there is contact info or a URL listed in the preview. Then either visit that site for more info or email the creator and ask.

If I come up with any more of these font lists that are open to people not on AOL, I'll be sure to post them.

thunder7 · « **Reply #24 on:** July 08, 2006, 09:10 AM »

If you just do a google search for Free Fonts. And then do the same thing in a few other search engines you will be going thru fonts for a month or two.