Free Fonts and How to Use (Not Abuse) Them
Posted February 22nd 2010 @ 5:32 pm by Jerod
Here are some great links to find free fonts:
- Font Squirrel - A selection of high quality, free commercial use fonts.
- DaFont - Lots of free and shareware fonts. Make sure to look at the usage information. Some are okay for commercial use and others are restricted to personal use.
- Urban Fonts - 8,000 plus free and shareware fonts.
- Smashing Magazine - Here are some links to articles about free fonts. It'll take come clicking, but you'll find them.
If you’re like me, I start twitching with excitement with all of the great choices to download. But with that comes some need for restraint so all of these nifty fonts aren’t abused. So here are a few guidelines for font usage.
- Does it fit your design? Make sure the font you choose fits the material you’re putting together. Keep the audience in mind. A men’s group piece probably shouldn’t have a curly, fancy font. Just like a children’s ministry postcard should have a font that has a youthful feel.
- Minimize the number of fonts. When you have a large library of fonts or access to websites with lots of free ones, it’s easy to want to use a bunch of them when you’re designing something. It can be tough, but pick the right font or two for your design piece. Typically, anything more than that will just become distracting.
- Is it readable? As you’re working on designing something, print it out or view it at its regular size every once in a while. Can you easily read the text? Did you pick a script font that’s too hard to make out? This can go well beyond printed materials. One of my biggest pet peeves is when lyrics for worship songs are projected on the screen in a font that isn’t bold and easy to read.
- Avoid overused fonts. Designers have a hatred for Papyrus and Comic Sans. A lot of that has to do with the fact they’ve been overused so much. Some common fonts are classics and don’t really grow old. Think Helvetica or Arial. Others get worn out quickly. For example, the fonts Pointy and C Rail Black, which resemble the hand doodled font used in the movie Juno, have lost their effectiveness because of over usage.
These are just a few tips and by no means a comprehensive list. Anything you’d add?
Comments (7)
For free fonts, I usually go to http://www.1001fonts.com—like the sites you posted, Jerod, the fonts at 1001fonts are sorted into useful categories. However, I think my new default will now be Font Squirrel. Thanks for listing it! I’m twitching with excitement now, too! =) Perhaps it would be helpful to make a list of “standard” fonts (e.g. Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana, etc.) that you can count on anybody with a computer (PC or Mac?) having. One can make a wonderful document with a variety of fonts, but if you email it to a person who doesn’t have those fonts loaded on their system, Windows substitutes other fonts, often resulting in a very different look and messed up formatting. (Of course, if you send it as a .pdf, you solve that problem.) I’m not sure offhand, though, which universal fonts would all be included in such a list, but maybe you do, Jerod? Peace, Stanley
Good point Stanley. Here’s a link to a list of common fonts. http://www.ampsoft.net/webdesign-l/WindowsMacFonts.html For folks who are using other design programs like the Adobe Creative Suite, you can outline your text before sending a document, like a PDF. It converts the fonts into vector images which pretty much eliminates the need for all parties to have the same fonts installed.
Nice post Jared! I’ve never been able to find a free Helvetica font. Any suggestions?
Thanks. Helvetica is one of those pricey copyrighted fonts. I did download a free version from a site that popped up on Google. (I honestly can’t remember the actual site). I usually try not use it on anything offical since it’s really not legal. Sorry that’s not all that helpful.
As a graphic artist for a church, let me just say thank you for writing this.
The main reason fonts like Papyrus and Comic Sans have a bad rap with designer is because they are used incorrectly by people who don’t know how to use them. Papyrus was never meant for body copy because it is a purely decorative font that doesn’t scale well (a flaw on it’s maker’s part). And Comic Sans rarely fits the tone of communications that it is used for. This page on Myfonts.com (under the “Overview” tab) is a great example of how using just one simple font, but with different weights, styles and capitalization, is very effective AND attractive. I would not do something like this with a decorative font (any thing super curly or “distressed” - basically, if it doesn’t come with it’s own versions of bold and italic, don’t force it.) http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/capearcona/ca-texteron/
Another great font resource is The League of Movable Type (http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/). They are at the forefront of the open-source type movement and have some beautiful fonts to download and use. Personally, Goudy Bookletter 1911 is one of my favorites for print.
I noticed Papyrus was used in the movie Avatar, so it can be a great font when used the right way. FontSquirrel seems to screen their fonts, so I think the quality is higher, and they are available for commercial use. Most free fonts work well on headlines. When used for body text, even when the style is readable, the kerning pairs (how they are spaced next to each other) are off. So use with caution.
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