Where are the best places to go to download gratis fonts? Justin He
of medleyweb.com reveals websites where you can find quality typography
that won't cost a penny.
There are plenty of places to download fonts on the web. But which of them contain the ultimate free typefaces?
There's a lot of noise and clutter on the web, and it's easy to end
up falling down the rabbit hole of poorly structured sites and low
quality fonts. So we've taken on ourselves to find you the gems in the
rough.
Besides the obvious places to download fonts, we've also unearthed
some less known sources - including personal portfolios, agency sites
and type projects. So read on, and start discovering a world of
typographical inspiration!
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.
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 catalogue that also includes a wide range of
web fonts.
A small but growing number of designers and institutions are creating
typefaces for the public domain. Free Font Manifesto provides
information and airs ideas about the concept of free fonts.
This list of the 20 best free quality fonts from Vitaly Friedman are
more likely to be used for official, serious presentations (such as
business sites) than a colourful teenager’s homepage.
Edge Web Fonts gives you access to a vast web font library made
possible by contributions from Adobe, Google, and designers around the
world. The fonts are served by Typekit, so you can be sure of high
performance and stability. Plus, it's free!
Igino Marini runs iKern:
a service for autospacing and autokerning digital typefaces based on a
mathematical model and programmes he developed since 2002. When he's not
doing that, he set up a site devoted to the Fell Types with some modern
revival fonts.
The Fell Types take their name from John Fell, a Bishop of Oxford in
the seventeenth century, who created a unique collection of printing
types. Here, you'll find digitalised versions of them for use in your
design projects.
Jeff Schreiber is a designer, illustrator and typographer from
Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Although he doesn't have too many fonts
available on his site, it's all about quality and not quantity here. His
'Razor' creation is brilliant for print and poster work, with his 'Fat
Frank' font offers a more playful approach.
Neogrey is the portfolio of Ivan Filipov. Working as a graphic and
web designer, he's created some stunning fonts that he's very generously
made available for free download. We particularly love his latest font,
a multicolore vector font that was released just over two weeks ago.
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 taster of what
they've got on offer, check out their top 100, which showcases the most
popular fonts on the site.
Smashing Magazine provide a wide range of tutorials, inspiration and
helpful advise for creatives on a daily basis. The site also has a great
series of articles collating quality free fonts for you to choose from.
These guys know what they're talking about, so it's a reliable place to
download free fonts from.
A student at California College of the Arts in San Francisco,
James Edmondson's online gallery is staggeringly well put together.
Designed in a fluid grid, it features both his own personal projects and
those of friends. A great place to download free fonts: not only are
James's creations stunning but they're presented in an attractive and
innovative way too.
Github project The League of Movable Type is a typographical
revolution in the making and anyone looking to download free fonts
should make a beeline for it. The very first free and open-source type
foundry, it's a hand-selected group of typographers who've created an
amazing set of high-quality free fonts for all to download, such as the
popular League Gothic.
"I think that typefaces are living beings," says Pablo Impallari,
"they continue to evolve over time. Even if the original designer died
over 500 years ago, contemporary designers push their ideas forward,
keeping up keeping up with the always-shifting way we perceive the
alphabet." You can find some incredible fonts at his site, Impallari.
There's a lot of detail in updates too, which gives a helpful insight in
how they're put together.
Filiz Sahin, an interactive designer and illustrator based in New
York, has created a number of cute and well-designed free fonts,
including DropType, Muscle and Ant. If you’re looking to download free
fonts that will truly inspire you, her site is a great place to head.
Zozu is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Spain whose
website is quite spectacular. And that imaginative and unique approach
is also reflected on the fonts, like Nina, available to download here.
Created by Lukas Bischoff, a designer based in Germany, Artill is a
nice little website that's aimed purely at people wishing to download
free fonts. Minimalism at its best, and some great typography to be
sampled.
TypeDepot is a nifty little type-design studio website that offers a
number of free fonts for visitors to download. There are also great
commercial fonts to buy.
There are many ongoing typography projects to be found on
Wetecacahuete.com. Wete is a Spanish graphic designer who loves
typography and editorial design. Head here to download free fonts such
as Favela.
Check out this gallery of design works created by Josip Kelava, a
Melbourne-based designer. You’ll find elements of typographical
inspiration in each of his projects, and you can download free fonts
such as Metropolis into the bargain.
A massive collection of free fonts is being shared by type designers
as part of this project curated by Jovanny Lemonad. They’re totally free
and everyone can take part in the project. If you like what you
download, you may consider making a donation.
Glukfonts is the site of Polish designer Gluksza, which offers some
nicely designed typography. You can download free fonts and other design
resources too, including PHP scripts.
An independent type foundry launched by Bulgarian designer Svetoslav
Simov, FontFabric includes a lot of paid fonts but its freebie section
is also a great place to download free fonts.
Founded by Riley Cran and Tyler Galpin, LostType is a type foundry
that offers you the chance to pay whatever you like for a font (and yes,
it's possible to type in '$0' for a free download).
Dafont.com is a massive archive of freely downloadable fonts. Browse
by alphabetical listing, by style, by author or by popularity. A lot of
it is on the unprofessional side but you can find some choice stuff
here. It's also a good place if you're looking to download free fonts
with a novelty theme, like the Pacman font featured above.
Want to download free fonts for commercial use? Then Font Squirrel is
the place to head. The quality of the fonts is high, they're mostly
@font-face compatible, plus it's got a very nicely designed website into
the bargain.
Ten by Twenty is the impressive creation of Ed Merritt, a designer at UK web design agency Headscape.
You can download free fonts from his site, as well as templates, themes
and icons, for your web design projects - all of high quality.
If you want to download free fonts for a craft or scrapbook-themed
project, then head to Kevin and Amanda. It offers over 500 handwriting
and scrapbooking fonts to download for free and they're adored by fans
of cute across the world.
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 customise 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.
You'll find some amazing free fonts to download listed in our popular
article, 'The best free fonts for designers' (you'll find it on the
right-hand nav bar). If you haven't already, check it out now for a
burst of typographic inspiration, and keep visiting Creative Bloq every
day as we bring you more free fonts and design resources the moment they
appear!
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