# Graphic designers, recommend some fonts, please!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 24, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869 "2014-04-24T16:17:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869/1 "2014-04-24T16:17:59Z")
I’m primarily an illustrator by training and throughout most of my career; typography was never a strong suit for me. I know the basics and generally I keep to the “safe” but boring fonts for my current job (newspaper ad design): Helvetica, Avante Garde, Myriad, Minion, Frutiger, Futura, Garamond, etc.
We get a fair amount of requests for fonts that have a fun, hand-drawn look as well as “elegant script” fonts. I generally default to Snell Roundhand for the script font, but we don’t have a lot of options for the hand-drawn look. (Even I refuse to use Comic Sans, and Dom Casual only goes so far.)
I’ve asked if we could get some more fonts, and I got the go-ahead to recommend a few. I’m looking mostly for the hand-drawn look, hopefully fonts that have good readability when printed in newspapers, sometimes as small as 8-10 pt.
Any recommendations are welcome and appreciated!
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2014, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869/2 "2014-04-24T16:46:43Z")
Take a look at Comic Neue. It’s out there for free download by the designer. I also get mileage, in specialized cases, from Braganza, Tekton and Bergell.
A lot of times, with handwriting and script fonts, you just have to type out the content or significant phrases and see which font works - it’s not unusual to need, say, a strong G or S and have a font with a weak, swashy mess for that letter.
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### Author:  [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869/3 "2014-04-24T16:50:30Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#):
>
> Take a look at Comic Neue.
Damn it. Ninja’d while I was digging up the [link](http://comicneue.com/).
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### Author:  [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869/4 "2014-04-24T17:00:22Z")
For fonts that go handwritten but are still legible at small sizes you may want to look into what people consider “comic book fonts”.
The main purveyor of these fonts is Blambot. You will want what they call dialogue fonts. Some are free but I would wager that the better fonts for the most part are pay only.
For elegant scripts, which you didn’t ask for but I will provide anyway, I like Aphrodite Pro a lot (though it uses up scads and scads of space). Adios Script is also great, and Metroscript is great for a “ballpark” feel. House Industries’ “Studio” line of fonts has some great scripts that make me feel “Las Vegas”. There’s also the classic standby Champion Script Pro.
Carolyna is a good font from Emily Line that feels like a handwritten script. I looked through her other offerings and there are some other good handwritten fonts in there too that you may want to look at.
You can use the MyFonts website to search by tag as well, such as “hand-drawn” to get a list of popular results.
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### Author:  [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869/5 "2014-04-27T17:19:46Z")
When you say ‘hand drawn’, do you mean handwritten, like handwriting? Or a font which literally looks like it has been drawn by an illustrator (which is used a lot at the moment).
[These](http://www.myfonts.com/search/handwriting/fonts/) are examples of ‘handwritten’.
[This](http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/la-goupil/the-hand/) is an example of ‘hand drawn’.
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### Author:  [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869/6 "2014-04-27T17:54:52Z")
> [@SanVito](#):
>
> When you say ‘hand drawn’, do you mean handwritten, like handwriting? Or a font which literally looks like it has been drawn by an illustrator (which is used a lot at the moment).
>
> [These](http://www.myfonts.com/search/handwriting/fonts/) are examples of ‘handwritten’.
>
> [This](http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/la-goupil/the-hand/) is an example of ‘hand drawn’.
Both, actually. We get requests to emulate the look and feel of various “fun” fonts that have various swirls and flourishes, some with irregular line weights and variations when letters are used consecutively in a word (for example, the double “t” in “letters” would have the same basic letter forms but would not be identical). We also get requests for headlines in bold, graphic letters that “look unique”, in other words, not just Impact or Aachen Bold or what have you.
Some very good suggestions thus far, thank you!
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### Author:  [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869/7 "2014-04-30T21:48:38Z")
Check out [tackorama.net](http://tackorama.net/Fonts/50s/a.htm) for some fun free fonts from the 50s. For more handwriting fonts, there’s a website that regularly converts handwriting to fonts, also free, called [Two Peas in a Bucket.](http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/freefonts.asp) Actually now that I look at that site, it’s not the handwriting converter one so I can’t remember the name but it had something to do with scrapbooking.
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### Author:  [@foj3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foj3000)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869/8 "2014-05-01T02:53:42Z")
Ton of free Fonts Here:
> **[DaFont - Download fonts](https://www.dafont.com/)**
>
> Archive of freely downloadable fonts. Browse by alphabetical listing, by style, by author or by popularity.
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2014, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869/9 "2014-05-01T03:50:19Z")
As it turns out I was recently looking at fonts for a comic project and one warning is needed here: Several links (like the ones from [dafont.com](http://dafont.com) and [myfonts.com](http://myfonts.com)) with “free” fonts are only free if you will use them for personal use or if you are an independent artist or comic book creator.
As soon as you get to work for any company or do work for someone you are getting into the “you must ask for permission to use” or pay a fee for their use. Sometimes the creators have some very creative ways to make them free: like at the retro tackorama, many fonts are made by one guy that does request that if you make a profit to send a contribution to Doctors Without Borders.
Always check the “read me” file that comes with many of those fonts or the notes in the websites to see how free they are and the restrictions that they actually have.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2014, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graphic-designers-recommend-some-fonts-please/686869/10 "2014-05-01T07:29:34Z")
The one I use most often that looks like hand written printing is [Anke Print](http://www.1001fonts.com/anke-print-font.html).