Top 10 FREE font sites

I’ve mentioned in a previous blog entry that typography is considered an art itself, and that is not far from truth, taking into consideration the importance it has in everyone’s daily life, even if we realize it or not. Because… fonts are everywhere we go… and many times what we read might exert the influence not only through the message, but also with the help of the used font. Aesthetics is very important when someone wants to promote a product. Besides its message, the visual effects are “handled” by the font.
I guess everyone who is familiar with typography just a little bit (it’s not necessarily to have artistic abilities for that ;)) has an appeal for a certain font. Take for instance the discussions on msn or yahoo messenger. I know many people who like to write using a different font from the default one, and also a different color. In one way or another, we define ourselves through each method possible. And when it’s about communication, typography is a great way to define your style.
Many customers of our vector packs or t-shirt designs, also were interested in the font type we use, and asked us if we could change it, and where they can download free fonts. There are a lot of sites providing free fonts, but we tried to make a selection, taking into account the ones that really stand out and offer a large variety to choose from.

Top 10 FREE font sites
1. http://www.dafont.com/
Dafont is a treasure and our favorite, by the way. And probably the largest resource for different fonts, with different categories, to make the search easier, especially if you look for a certain font: Fancy, foreign look, techno, Gothic, basic, bitmap holiday, script, dingbats, each of them also divided into another categories, all these for a simplified search, to fit your wishes. While opening a category, the fonts are provided in a very large type size that make the font easy to read.

Dafont seem to update more quickly than other sites, offering comments for each of their fonts, and also the possibility to join their font designers’ community for free, if you have a font of your own.

The site is perfect if you need a font for a design, for a logo, or just for fun. You can also take a look at the top 100 section, for the most popular fonts. The fonts can be previewed by typing a test word or phrase.
If you don’t know this site yet, take a look, download the fonts you like, because you’ll surely find more than you expect.

free font site
free font site

2. http://www.fontcubes.com/
Starting out with the top downloaded fonts on the homepage, the site looks awesome and easy to handle. Fonts are easily searchable by name, artist, dingbats, top rated, alphabetically, or newest. The site has over 9,800 fonts free to download, and gathers about 139 font designers. By far, a great resource for a designer looking for the perfect font.

free font site
free font site

3. http://www.urbanfonts.com/
Containing more than 6000 fonts, along
539 pages, the site is also very easy to search through, having lots of categories, ranging from alphabetical to groups like Futuristic, Handwritten, Funky, Sophisticated, Grudge, Modern, Scary or many others. The site is a great resource for designers, and if you’re not looking for something in particular, go straight to top 100 fonts to see the best of them. The site offers both free and commercial fonts (for a fee).


4. http://www.1001freefonts.com/
At 1001freefonts, you’ll find a database of thousands of categorized true type fonts with customizable previews. The site looks like Dafont, and provides a wide selection of freeware and shareware fonts. The fonts from here are far more than 1001, and the site is very popular, just take a look at the explicit site’s name. :))

free font site
free font site

5. http://www.fontpool.com/
The Font Pool is a site dedicated to provide a wide selection of thousands of free fonts that are organized by category (e.g. decorative and display, handwriting, serif and non-serif, etc.). The site gathers over 10,000 fonts to choose from.

free font site
free font site

6. http://www.fonts500.com/
This easy-to-use site is ideal for people looking for certain fonts who no time to waste looking around for a free font. It provides a top of most popular 500 fonts from some of the web’s biggest free font archives. It contains 5 pages, with 100 fonts per page, and the display is great, because you can see so many without opening pages and pages.

free font site
free font site

7. http://www.typenow.net/
The site is a little bit difficult to search through, the entire menu is displayed through a simple button, but if u reach the “fonts” sections, you’ll find what you’re interested in. Thousands of fonts are categorized alphabetically, but also by the criteria free/ commercial, movie/band fonts, themed, etc.

free font site
free font site

8. http://whofonted.orchestrareal.com/
This pink site offers hundreds of fonts free to download. A great source for professional fonts for your designs, or for any usage. The site seems to be constantly updating and improving, promising 15 new fonts every two weeks. That’s something! But it’s too bad that you can’t type your text, to see how it looks like with the font you like.  I also have to say, the site’s name is funny because it can be easily mistaken for “who farted” :)). I had to read it twice :D.

free font site
free font site

9. http://www.searchfreefonts.com/
The site collection contains over 13,000 free fonts and over 91,000 commercial fonts. The fonts are gathered in categories, and there are lots of them. Even though the letters of each font look very small, there is a very interesting zoom option. I liked it a lot. It also has a top 50 fonts, if you’re curious about the most popular ones.

free font site
free font site

10. http://www.abstractfonts.com/
If you got so far trying at least some of these links, you have to see this site too, because it provides over 12,285 free fonts, and if you didn’t find the font you desired so far, you can’t miss it here.

Well… I sincerely hope this is helpful for designers who are looking for an innovative font to complete their designs, and not only. Good luck in finding the one that you like!