March 11, 2005 at 1:01 pm / Foundries
It’s hard to look for free fonts on the web without stumbling across some of Ray Larabie’s work. In the 10 year history of Larabie Fonts, Ray has produced hundreds of typefaces that are available for download free of charge. Exploring the site should help you kill the rest of this slow Friday afternoon.
Obviously, giving all your work away doesn’t pay the bills. So in 2001, Ray moved away from the free font scene with the launch of Typodermic, his commercial foundry. But wait, there’s good news. Ray offers a free typeface from several of Typodermic’s commercial families. Check out Pakenham, Fenwick and the brand new Expressway.
March 10, 2005 at 8:47 pm / How To
It’s come to my attention that not everyone is blessed with an innate knowledge of font installation, and for this reason I’ve crafted a simple guide for Windows users to install all these great free fonts that you’re finding. Installing fonts is not a complicated process, but it does have a few quirks that can throw off even competent computer users. I’ll take you through it step by step.
1. Save the font’s .zip file to your desktop.
Right-click on the link to the zip file and save it your desktop:
The zip file should now show up somewhere on your desktop:
If you see something similiar to the above on your desktop, you’re doing good so far.
2. Unzip the .ttf file.
Double click on the .zip file to open it up.
Find the .ttf file (the font), and drag it back on to your desktop.
3. Copy the .ttf file to your fonts folder.
Open up your C:\Windows\Fonts folder and drag the .ttf file into it. If everything goes right, Windows will let you know.
Now you can delete all the crap you just cluttered up your desktop with and start using your new font!
March 10, 2005 at 2:10 pm / Foundries, Japan
If you like free fonts that begin exclusively with the letter “C”, then boy do I have the site for you! Japanese foundry c-font has 45 free fonts available for download, including Camelia, Comons and, uh, Hope. Come on, nobody’s perfect.
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March 10, 2005 at 9:19 am / Foundries, Europe
My coworker Jason Fields pointed me towards Buro Destruct’s typedifferent.com this morning. The site collects 10 years of Buro’s fonts, many of them free. The free fonts don’t have their own section, so you’ll have to scrounge a bit, but it’s worth it. Check out Wurst and Sirca.
March 9, 2005 at 1:05 pm / Foundries, Europe
When I posted about Cape-Arcona way back on Fontleech’s first day in business, I didn’t know about phantompower, the site of CA co-founder Stefan Claudius. Stefan’s got several free fonts that predate Cape Arcona, including my favorite of his, Kalish.
March 9, 2005 at 10:02 am / Foundries, Japan, Europe
I could’ve dragged this out for years like the cast of Friends but luckily for the Internet I decided to just dump all the rest of the free pixel fonts on you. And don’t worry, we’re taking a break from bitmap fonts for a while after this.
9031 is worth a visit just for Bangalore, one of the few free pixel fonts I’ve ever used. A script font that’s actually usable? In pixel format, no less? Alright, where’s Ashton?
Clops only has a few free fonts for download, but I like the blocky Ozon.
You should recognize some of codeman38’s video game fonts (if you spent your adolescence playing Super Nintendo). Return of Ganon hit me like an arrow poisoned with sweet, sweet nostalgia.
Core has 3 packs of free pixel fonts. Pack 2 features my favorite, Bongonaut.
The free font section at Habitat Seven sports an interface that is sure to infuriate some of you, but I kind of like it. Drag a chunk of trash (?) from the bottom of the screen into the tree chipper(?) and press the Windows or Mac button and it’ll spit out a nice bitmap font.
Orgdot has a nice selection and a very cool interface that lets you type a preview of each font right on the page. Check out the Teacher’s Pet and Kharon families.
Sucharaka has 4 tiny free fonts. I’m really running out of stuff to say.
Underware’s Unibody family is an example of truly high quality pixel font design. If you use these fonts, you might accidentally look professional!
Okay, that was great. Now I never want to see another pixel font ever again.
March 8, 2005 at 1:50 pm / Time wasters
While you’re waiting for the final (I know, I’m sick of it, too) installment of the pixel font blowout, check out this amazing gallery of fonts from old Namco arcade games. Things go pretty nuts when you get to page 2.
March 8, 2005 at 11:54 am / Foundries
The late 90’s were a turbulent time in the graphic design world. As design tools became cheaper (and widely pirated) and hosting services allowed any jerk with a few bucks to set up a website, the explosion of creativity was nearly (?) washed away by the almost simultaneous flood of mediocrity that followed. Here’s a couple foundries that were part of the explosion:
It’s kind of exciting to stumble upon websites frozen in time, exactly as you remember them, like that fly in the amber on the end of that guy’s cane in Jurassic Park. To my delight, Germán Olaya has preserved the Typo5 font site in all its 1999 grunged-out glory. I remember using Fango way too much. In hindsight, Oil is probably the most interesting and useful of the lot.
Although Sacred Nipple’s site seems to have gone offline about a year ago, you can still download their free fonts from TypeIndex.org. I think Albino deserves to be put to good use.
