I really wish that I would remember to use STC fontBrowser. Instead of using the handy web app to see what a given text sample looks like in any of the fonts I have installed on my system, I always use Photoshop to awkwardly run through all my fonts. Instead of dealing with easily overrun text boxes and inverted colors, I should just plug my text (”My Totally Awesome Homepage!“) into fontBrowser and let it do the work. But I always forget.
Another Monday, another detox ward to break out of so I can make it back to the office by 9:00 am. Here’s some more bitmap fonts to strain your already bloodshot eyes:
04 is a Japanese foundry with about a dozen free pixel fonts on their site. One of my favorites is the easy-to-remember 04B-25. Not to mention 04B-03!
Fonts for Flash has some nice offerings, although I’m not entirely clear on the connection between bitmap fonts and Flash. Check out FFF Neostandard and FFF Harmony.
Miffies is another Japanese foundry with almost 50 free bitmap fonts, almost all of them video game related. Most of their fonts are meant to be used at much higher point settings than 8-12pt fonts on most of the other sites you’ll find. That means they can have some fun with fonts like Spinball. LostPet is also worth a download.
Still more pixel fonts to come, as if you needed any more!
So we’ve been diligently pointing you to some good fonts for two weeks now. That’s long enough for the results to start showing up on the web, right? Leave a comment and show us how you’ve used one of the fonts you found through Fontleech. And check it out, we’re using Kontrapunkt in our header now.
I wish there was something I could tell you about Gray Graphics besides the fact that they’re a Japanese foundry. I mean, you could figure that out by glancing at their URL. So let’s just say that all the fonts on the Gray Graphics website were designed by violent criminals as part of an experimental government rehabilitation program. Who’s gonna call me on it? Anyway, their kanji hiragana fonts look really nice, but I’m sure most of us don’t have much use for them. So check out these gaijin-friendly typefaces: Lumine Sign, Milky Well, Pollyanna.
Want to know a secret about so-called “techno” fonts? Aside from handwriting (and possibly bitmap) typefaces, they’re probably the easiest kind of font for a lazy designer to throw together. Think about it: lots of straight lines, tons of repeatable characters and low expectations from Battlestar Galactica webmasters just looking for a headline font for their fan fiction. Needless to say, it’s always refreshing to see high-tech fonts done well.
onezero pulls it off. I’m not sure who this person is, but visit the portfolio section of their site (Flash ahead) for several nice techno fonts to choose from. Check out: Quer, Racer and Television.
Thanks to John McHugh for the link.
If you thought Dieter Steffmann had cornered the “old German guy with a billion free fonts” market, boy were you wrong! Manfred Klein puts Dieter to shame with his mind-boggling collection.
Browse by year:
Archive: 2001
Archive: 2002
Archive: 2003
Archive: 2004
Fonts so far: 2005
2001 & 2002 suffer from an interface that cramps my Firefox tab-launching lunatic style, so I didn’t dig as deep there. But here are some great finds for those of you who don’t feel like spending all day with Mr. Klein: EmkaSansCondensed, Nonserif, PetitLatin, SlimSansSerif, TraditionSans XL Light, TypoLatinSerifBold, U-Bahn.
Matthew Gotth-Olsen sends a link to Fountain, the one man Swedish foundry that I just hadn’t gotten around to posting about yet. Designer Peter Bruhn offers several “pro bono” fonts for download. CloseCall, Coma and Partisan are all highly recommended. And speaking of pixel fonts, Fountain’s Sevenet is a nice bitmap font that served as the basis for Silkscreen.
I like the idea of a lone, noble Swede sitting at an Ikea desk somewhere, churning out beautiful fonts as an unpaid service to the general public. It almost makes me wish I didn’t spend all my free time watching American Idol in a drunken stupor.
Almost.
I still have a few megapixels of bitmap fonts to get through, but why not spotlight one of the masters of the form?
Sven Stüber’s Vectorize features some of my favorite free pixel fonts on the web. Make sure to click both the “Fonts” and the “New” links to check everything out. I would link directly to them, but the site’s a little crazy.
Sven’s Superlooper has even more great fonts. Stüber really cranks this stuff out!
Spend a few minutes exploring those sites and you’ll get to see his fonts put to very good use. His type design manages to find the sweet spot somewhere between usability and adventurousness. It’s rare that you find someone giving away so much good work.