I always wanted to jazz up my documents with new stylish fonts. But whenever I went looking for new free fonts on the web, I landed up with poor font reproductions, not so free fonts and viruses in zip files.
It was until I found this great site which provided Essential Fonts for Designers – 300 free true type fonts when my search for free fonts ended. They provide actually free fonts categrorized in well meaning categories to suit your need.
Display Fonts
A diverse selection of fonts with distinctive type. Best used for headlines, logos or posters.
Sans Serif Fonts
Type “without feet”. Lends a clean, simple appearance to text.
Serif Fonts
Short cross lines at the end of characters make serif fonts easy to recognize.
Script Fonts
Fonts where letters run into each other. Italic or “leaning” text.
Handwriting Fonts
Pen and pencil, brushstroke, or kids handwriting fonts. Relaxed and casual.
Antique Fonts
Worn and weathered, grungy, victorian, or historical typefaces.
Fun Fonts
Wacky and fun typefaces good for eclectic projects, as well as interesting experiments.
How to install these fonts?
1. Just select the font category you like, then see the amazing array of beautiful fonts and download them by right click>save as and you have the .ttf (true type font) file on your computer.
2. Now by clicking on the font file you can see all the letters in different font sizes in the Microsoft Font Viewer in Windows.
3. In Windows XP, Go to Control Panel> Fonts. On the top right corner is File> Install New Font. Browse to select the location you downloaded the font, select and you are done.
Usage of Fonts
Now you will see these fonts turn up in Microsoft words and other similar software and select them to convert your text.
Remember: these fonts are good to see and use on your computer only since they are installed there only. They are good for printing stylish documents from your attached printer also. So make that smart CV, print it and send it across with these great fonts.
But…
Do not send documents with these fonts across on electronic media like CDs, floppies, email or the web. Simply because the other person who opens these documents does not have the same font installed on their computer or printer and will see a badly sized default font like Arial or Times New Roman, which might make your beautifully designed font look ugly.
Similarly the website you designed with these fonts will look bad since the surfers computer will not have the font installed and will show the default font, so although it still looks good to you, just ask your friend from across the globe what he sees! There is a trick to fix this too which I will post later. Your font will not surprise you now I hope!