Good Spots for Finding Fonts

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Where can you find new fonts to add to your typographic tool belt? Here are some of my favorite spots. I’m sure you have some of your own—please share them in the comments.

Free and Shareware Font Galleries

These web sites list and categorize thousands of free and shareware fonts from many different designers. Some of the designers listed on these galleries have their own web sites, through which they sell other fonts that they’ve designed. If you enjoy the fonts created by particular designers, be sure to track down the rest of their work. Many web sites claim to offer free fonts, but in my opinion these are three of the best resources:

Fonts for Sale

Like the free and shareware galleries mentioned above, these web sites promote fonts from many different designers and foundries. But unlike those galleries, none of these sites offer fonts for free. The benefit of paying for a font family from one of these companies is that you’ll not only have a complete set of characters, but the purchased fonts often include bold, italic, oblique, and other variants.

Individual Artists and Foundries

Many of my favorite contemporary fonts come from a handful of individual artists and companies. Most of these web sites have a few free fonts, as well as offering a few for sale:

AEnigma Fonts by Brian Kent, at http://www.aenigmafonts.com/
Brian has developed hundreds of great free fonts. I wish his web site were easier to navigate, but it’s still a great resource.

The Astigmatic One Eye Typographic Institute by Prof. Brian J. Bonislawsky, at http://www.astigmatic.com/
Professor Bonislawsky has created many terrific font faces in every imaginable category.

Blue Vinyl Fonts by Jess Latham, at http://www.bvfonts.com/
Like many font designers, Jess started designing fonts as a hobby. His freeware and paid fonts are unique and very well done.

Fountain by Peter Bruhn, at http://www.fountain.nu/
Fountain features some of the best fonts from about 20 different designers around the world. The site also provides very nice freeware fonts.

Larabie Fonts by Ray Larabie, at http://www.larabiefonts.com/
Ray is a rock star in the realm of free fonts. His work is known for having large character sets and being of very high quality.

Misprinted Type by Eduardo Recife, at http://www.misprintedtype.com/
Eduardo is the man when it comes to weathered, worn, and eclectic font faces. His work is unmistakably unique and somewhat twisted.

Pizzadude by Jakob Fischer, at http://www.pizzadude.dk/
Jacob has an admittedly goofy and laid-back style, but has cranked out over 500 handmade fonts since 1998.

Where do you go to find cool new fonts? Share your resources with us.

Jennifer FarleyJennifer Farley
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Jennifer Farley is a designer, illustrator and design instructor based in Ireland. She writes about design and illustration on her blog at Laughing Lion Design.

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