Quite possible thousands. I have Adobe’s main folio installed and also Linotype’s Gold CD’s contents. I perhaps use only about three or four main fonts from this collection, though. Helvetica, Futura, and possible variations of these (condensed, oblique, and so on).
About 700 fonts, of which I’ve probably used, like, four? Probably fifteen or so I use on a very regular basis, another fistful that I’ve used sporadically, and then 600-something that are just sitting there because I see them somewhere and they’re free and bitchin’.
I have 324 .otf/.ttf files and 12 .fon files actually installed.
Probably half or more have been installed with software (Office XP, SureThing CD Labeler, who knows what else), but the extra fonts that I install, I typically do use.
If I have need for a one off use of a font, I typically do the “cheap” way of opening the font in fontview.exe, opening the program I want to use it in (which allows me to use that font temporarily, even though it’s not installed), and then close both programs when I’m done. It’s great for doing font sample sheets.
Unusually I only have 50 fonts installed. I believe basically the OS X default. This isn’t normal, I had a hard drive meltdown recently and just haven’t gotten around to reinstalling the fonts. But, normally, they number upwards of 1000.
Total number of fonts: 1000+
Total number of fonts used: maybe 5
Comfort of knowing I always have the option: priceless
I might not use every font but time to time its good to just pick a font and say to yourself, “self, force yourself to use this ridiculous unreadable font”. Even if in the end you don’t use that font, it puts you in a position of, and I hate to say this, “thinking outside the box”.
1740 installed, and over 500 I haven’t gotten around to installing yet. (I’ve never gotten a CD-ful, so most of these have just been obtained somewhere around online.)
I actually use a surprising amount. There are probably 20 to 25 serif faces I rotate for schoolwork assignments, for starters. I also make graphics in an extremely amateur way, and use maybe a couple hundred for that? I’m really not sure; I’ve never thought about counting the ones I use on graphics.
I think just about every font has at least one limited use, and every time I see one up for download, I go “Hey wait, if I ever wanted to do X, I would totally NEED this font. I better download it now because I’ll never be able to find it again.”
i use different fonts for diferent things. i have about 50 favorites that i always go back and start from, but somethings need a little twist so you have to go digging until it hits you as “wow” that’s the font.
so i think i’ve probably used most of my fonts at some point - but most don’t really use all fonts unless they’re in design
Argh, I hate it when I’m wrong. You inspired me to go and clean stuff up and sort around for a bit, and I found some big .zip files I’d forgotten about, so I have new totals.
1,740 installed; 475 sorted but not installed yet; 3,329 downloaded but not yet sorted through.
For those of you playing along at home, this adds up to a total of 5,544 fonts on my computer at the moment. However, I doubt I’ll keep even half of the zip-filed fonts, so really my total will be more like 3,880 or something.
1000 font files installed, which translates to c. 400 different fonts (yeah, it’s way too many for my poor system)
6653 font files not installed, waiting to be browsed through for use in special projects.
I would say I’ve used a couple of hundred of them
As a fontaholic, I’m proud to say:
19,000 fonts from “indie” sources
6,500 fonts from “major” foundries
some considerations:
-of course only small amount of them are among my favourites…
-the good thing of having a big bunch of fonts it’s that when i’m tryin’ to get that seventy-looking-style or the hyperfuture one it’s only a matter of time… I’ll get the right font for that job!
- the WORST is that the digging process, altough funny, is VERY time consuming…
…offtopic..
I’m always looking on a convenient way of managing fonts, but actually I0m just stuck with 1)Sue Fisher’s The font thing // 2)moon’s Font Xplorer // 3) Fontrenamer // 4) Fontmatcher (old, uncomfortable but unique!)
P.S. Joey, why don’t we start a new topic: how to manage fonts?
I’ve got over 300. I’ve probably actually used a three dozen of them at least a few times. There are only 7 or 8 that I use regularly, the rest were for used as part of some specific/cheesy requests by friends/family.
Palatino and Gill Sans get a workout on a daily basis. The other installed fonts are leftovers from design jobs that could probably be cleaned up as they will more than likely never be used again.
The folder of fonts to be installed is always growing and like others on this list, I turn to that folder when starting a design job that needs a new font.
3754 families (how many fonts is that? 10,000 or so?) installed. This is, admittedly, about 3524 too many. I have about 17 families in my “daily use” folder in suitcase (now including Kontapunkt!). I’ve been threatening to organize my font folder for pretty well as long as I’ve had a font folder.
I second the “start a thread about font organizers” motion so I can rant about my undying furstration with suitcase…
I didn’t realize I have 2300 of these — it sneaks up on you. In practice, I use about 25, and regularly only 8 at a given time. In sum, I have used maybe 100 of them total, but 30/100 are ones I’ve digitized or designed myself (these are also half of the fonts I regularly use). 300 live on my drive, and 2000 lurk elsewhere, and are kept for when I do collaborative work, and need to translate files and maintain the design concept.
One-third of the faces you use are your own designs? Hmmm … If you don’t mind answering, are they (1) guarded for exclusive business advantage, (2) for sale, or (3) available as freeware somewhere? (If the third choice, URL?)
23 Comments
Scott / April 1, 2005 @ 5:30 pm
Quite possible thousands. I have Adobe’s main folio installed and also Linotype’s Gold CD’s contents. I perhaps use only about three or four main fonts from this collection, though. Helvetica, Futura, and possible variations of these (condensed, oblique, and so on).
Diego / April 1, 2005 @ 5:31 pm
> How many fonts do you have on your computer?
A lot.
> How many of those fonts have you actually used?
Some.
(I bet 99% of the people out there have the same answers…)
Nick Findley / April 1, 2005 @ 5:32 pm
About 700 fonts, of which I’ve probably used, like, four? Probably fifteen or so I use on a very regular basis, another fistful that I’ve used sporadically, and then 600-something that are just sitting there because I see them somewhere and they’re free and bitchin’.
Bryan Price / April 1, 2005 @ 5:58 pm
I have 92,788 fonts right now.
I have 324 .otf/.ttf files and 12 .fon files actually installed.
Probably half or more have been installed with software (Office XP, SureThing CD Labeler, who knows what else), but the extra fonts that I install, I typically do use.
If I have need for a one off use of a font, I typically do the “cheap” way of opening the font in fontview.exe, opening the program I want to use it in (which allows me to use that font temporarily, even though it’s not installed), and then close both programs when I’m done. It’s great for doing font sample sheets.
Nemoflow / April 1, 2005 @ 6:25 pm
> How many fonts do you have on your computer? How many of those fonts have you actually used?
1118 Fonts/1118 Fonts
Chris / April 1, 2005 @ 6:27 pm
Unusually I only have 50 fonts installed. I believe basically the OS X default. This isn’t normal, I had a hard drive meltdown recently and just haven’t gotten around to reinstalling the fonts. But, normally, they number upwards of 1000.
Total number of fonts: 1000+
Total number of fonts used: maybe 5
Comfort of knowing I always have the option: priceless
I might not use every font but time to time its good to just pick a font and say to yourself, “self, force yourself to use this ridiculous unreadable font”. Even if in the end you don’t use that font, it puts you in a position of, and I hate to say this, “thinking outside the box”.
Anne Onney-Musse / April 1, 2005 @ 7:59 pm
1740 installed, and over 500 I haven’t gotten around to installing yet. (I’ve never gotten a CD-ful, so most of these have just been obtained somewhere around online.)
I actually use a surprising amount. There are probably 20 to 25 serif faces I rotate for schoolwork assignments, for starters. I also make graphics in an extremely amateur way, and use maybe a couple hundred for that? I’m really not sure; I’ve never thought about counting the ones I use on graphics.
I think just about every font has at least one limited use, and every time I see one up for download, I go “Hey wait, if I ever wanted to do X, I would totally NEED this font. I better download it now because I’ll never be able to find it again.”
felipe / April 1, 2005 @ 8:46 pm
that answer is natural from designers who downloads a lot of fonts having no idea of typographic thought, and correct use of this tool in design.
Daniel / April 1, 2005 @ 8:48 pm
i don’t know how many fonts i have.
i use different fonts for diferent things. i have about 50 favorites that i always go back and start from, but somethings need a little twist so you have to go digging until it hits you as “wow” that’s the font.
so i think i’ve probably used most of my fonts at some point - but most don’t really use all fonts unless they’re in design
Anne Onney-Musse / April 1, 2005 @ 9:20 pm
Argh, I hate it when I’m wrong. You inspired me to go and clean stuff up and sort around for a bit, and I found some big .zip files I’d forgotten about, so I have new totals.
1,740 installed; 475 sorted but not installed yet; 3,329 downloaded but not yet sorted through.
For those of you playing along at home, this adds up to a total of 5,544 fonts on my computer at the moment. However, I doubt I’ll keep even half of the zip-filed fonts, so really my total will be more like 3,880 or something.
Still not bad. . . .
Hipocondríaca / April 2, 2005 @ 12:16 am
I’ve got around…2.000 fonts but actually I only use like 100 of them regularly. I’ve probably used each one of the 2000 at least once.
I love collecting Fonts!
eyolf / April 2, 2005 @ 3:33 am
1000 font files installed, which translates to c. 400 different fonts (yeah, it’s way too many for my poor system)
6653 font files not installed, waiting to be browsed through for use in special projects.
I would say I’ve used a couple of hundred of them
tYpomane / April 2, 2005 @ 6:58 am
As a fontaholic, I’m proud to say:
19,000 fonts from “indie” sources
6,500 fonts from “major” foundries
some considerations:
-of course only small amount of them are among my favourites…
-the good thing of having a big bunch of fonts it’s that when i’m tryin’ to get that seventy-looking-style or the hyperfuture one it’s only a matter of time… I’ll get the right font for that job!
- the WORST is that the digging process, altough funny, is VERY time consuming…
…offtopic..
I’m always looking on a convenient way of managing fonts, but actually I0m just stuck with 1)Sue Fisher’s The font thing // 2)moon’s Font Xplorer // 3) Fontrenamer // 4) Fontmatcher (old, uncomfortable but unique!)
P.S. Joey, why don’t we start a new topic: how to manage fonts?
Kevin / April 2, 2005 @ 10:40 am
I’ve got over 300. I’ve probably actually used a three dozen of them at least a few times. There are only 7 or 8 that I use regularly, the rest were for used as part of some specific/cheesy requests by friends/family.
Mark / April 2, 2005 @ 6:13 pm
Font Book says I have 808 fonts installed.
Palatino and Gill Sans get a workout on a daily basis. The other installed fonts are leftovers from design jobs that could probably be cleaned up as they will more than likely never be used again.
The folder of fonts to be installed is always growing and like others on this list, I turn to that folder when starting a design job that needs a new font.
fontana / April 3, 2005 @ 9:54 am
Fewer than 300 installed, to keep everything running smoothly.
A few hundred more stored on hard drive, ready to install but not installed, including downloads from sites I learned about on fontleech.
Thousands more stored offline on original manufacturer CDs, plus some CD-Rs I burned for downloaded freeware not on the hard drive anymore.
Erzengel / April 3, 2005 @ 3:56 pm
2182 installed rite now… the number may grow of course.
50% of them had been used.
Peter Flaschner / April 4, 2005 @ 5:04 am
3754 families (how many fonts is that? 10,000 or so?) installed. This is, admittedly, about 3524 too many. I have about 17 families in my “daily use” folder in suitcase (now including Kontapunkt!). I’ve been threatening to organize my font folder for pretty well as long as I’ve had a font folder.
I second the “start a thread about font organizers” motion so I can rant about my undying furstration with suitcase…
bummer / April 4, 2005 @ 5:15 am
I didn’t realize I have 2300 of these — it sneaks up on you. In practice, I use about 25, and regularly only 8 at a given time. In sum, I have used maybe 100 of them total, but 30/100 are ones I’ve digitized or designed myself (these are also half of the fonts I regularly use). 300 live on my drive, and 2000 lurk elsewhere, and are kept for when I do collaborative work, and need to translate files and maintain the design concept.
Good question.
Stephen / April 4, 2005 @ 10:37 am
The topic of font managers for OS X has been discussed extensively at Typophile.
Tom / April 4, 2005 @ 2:50 pm
Lots and lots, some dont even work. Im just about to reboot my machine so perhaps a fair few will end up in the trash.
fontana / April 5, 2005 @ 11:43 am
One-third of the faces you use are your own designs? Hmmm … If you don’t mind answering, are they (1) guarded for exclusive business advantage, (2) for sale, or (3) available as freeware somewhere? (If the third choice, URL?)
ddknndy / March 23, 2006 @ 5:54 am
i have about ~55k fonts, 982 of them installed and used frequently.
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