How To Install Fonts And The Best Sites To Get Them
How To Install Fonts And The Best Sites To Get Them
Ready to add some visual eye candy to your PC or MAC? There are many features on our PC’s and MAC’s that we don’t take advantage of – one of them, is installing beautifully designed font’s. Fonts are also called Typefaces which as a particular design of type and just another word for fonts.
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight, and style of a typeface. Fonts can really perk up a project, add spice to your emails, and add key design elements to your images.
There are millions of free and paid for font out there on the net and sorting through them all can be a painful task. That’s why as well as showing you how to install a font, I’m going to provide you with a list of my top ten free font websites to download them from.
Firstly, you will need to have a ZIP application installed on your computer. Of course, there are many to choose from, so I’m going to tell you my top two – one is a paid for version, and the other is free. here are the links to them both. They both essentially do the same thing except Winzip, since it’s the paid for version, has more features and functionality.
Download Winzip
Download 7 Zip
By the way, having zip compression software on your computer is not only good for fonts, but it’s good for a wide variety of other tasks as well.
So, what’s the deal with these two extensions? When it comes to downloading font’s, you’ll see they come in two file formats. TTF and OTF. Here is a brief explanation of what each is and does.
TRUETYPE: TTF stands for “TrueType Font.” A TTF is an outline font created in the 1980’s by Apple and Microsoft and is now the most common type of font file. TTFs include all the data necessary for on-screen viewing and printing right in the same file. TTFs are clearly readable at any size. For these reasons, TTFs are good all around files for both on-screen viewing and printing purposes.
OPENTYPE: OTF stands for “OpenType Font.” OTF was developed out of TTF with contributions from Microsoft and Adobe in the late 1990s. OTFs can store up to 65,000 characters allowing special characters, letters, and digits with more typographic features. OTFs are especially useful when working with a variety of languages.
Please watch my video on how to install fonts below!
Here is a list of my top 10 favorite places to download fonts!
1 – Open Font Library – The Open Font Library showcases fonts that are free to use, study, share and rework for personal creative work. There’s plenty to choose from with their extensive catalog that also includes a wide range of web fonts.
2 – Dafont – Dafont.com is a massive archive of freely downloadable fonts. Browse by alphabetical listing, by style, by author or by popularity.
3 – Hypefortype – Very nicely organized in an easy to download format.
4 – The Northern Block – Created by creative director Jonathan Hill back in 2006, type foundry The Northern Block offers a number of free fonts. From stencil and bold to modern and geometric designs. This site will keep you busy for hours.
5 – Font Cab – While it can be difficult to find that perfect font, Font Cab aims to make it easier for you to find great fonts without wasting time. The simple layout of the website makes it easy to navigate through the fonts without much effort.
6 – 1001 Free Fonts – I’m sure there are not 1001 fonts on this site – more like 10,001! All of them are very well-organized across 64 categories along with the option to browse by the designer.
7 – Abstract Fonts – Abstract Fonts has one of the cleaner interfaces in this arena, and it’s very easy to navigate. There’s a custom font preview option and it’s updated regularly, with about 14,000 fonts for you to choose from.
8 – Urbanfonts – The free fonts available at Urban Fonts are variable, but if you delve into their expansive library, you’re bound to find something to suit your latest project. If you just want to get a taste of what they’ve got on offer, check out their top 100, which showcases the most popular fonts on the site.
9 – Glukfonts – Glukfonts is the site of Polish designer Gluksza, which offers some nicely designed typography. There is a lot to download from this site in addition to fonts!
10 – Google Web Fonts – Google Web Fonts makes it quick and easy for everyone to use web fonts on their site. All of the fonts are open source, so you’re free to share and customize them for your own use, or collaborate with the original designer to improve them. And you can use them in every way you want, privately or commercially: in print, on your computer, or in your websites.
One caveat when downloading fonts – always make sure the fonts you download are for commercial use especially if you are a blogger and intend on using them on your blog or for your business.
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