Any good designer knows that choosing the right font is a critical step in any web project. The wrong one can muddle the layout or be difficult to read, limiting user interaction. On the other hand, the right one can flow seamlessly throughout the design, enhancing readability and increasing the amount of time a person stays on the site.
Fortunately, the world of font design—it’s more of an industry really—continues to create on a daily on basis, so there’s no reason to stick with the old boring stand-bys or classics. Check out these seven sources where you can pick your perfect font—all for free and all very easy to download.
• With a library of more than 20,000 options, Dafont leads the way with one of most comprehensive collections available. It’s also easy to navigate with search options by category, title or author.
• Similar to Dafont but with a bit harder-to-use layout, FontSpace offers 20,858 fonts in their database. Popular fonts at the moment include Cookie Monster, Motion Picture and Confetti Stream.
• Use FontStruct to create your own font using a basic drawing tool, then save and upload it to your library. Or you can also search the site’s many other options.
• 1001 Free Fonts actually contains more than 10,000 fonts, organized alphabetically by title. A nice bonus? They’re free to download individually, or you can take the option of downloading all of them with a single click for only $20.00.
• Font Squirrel works pretty much the same as the others but with one cool option: you can see which ones have been uploaded recently or ownloaded the most.
• You can purchase Urban Fonts “premium” offerings—which are linked through Fonts.com and run from $20 to $50—or choose from more than 8,000 free downloads.
• The beautiful layout of Acid Fonts makes it a favorite of more edgy designers, and the category searches are cooler than others, with offerings such as horror, graffiti or retro. There’s even an option to connect with featured typography designers through personal links.
