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- Lately I have noticed that it would be nice to have more fonts. Particularly any that are useable as vectors in Paint Shop Pro and Illustrator. They’re for my own printing use so they don’t have to be used on the web:
—PSP does not seem to have as many fonts as Win98 comes with, so I don’t know if they’re the same things or not.
—And I have seen books at art stores that were just pictures of different fonts, but aside from scanning them as bitmaps and placing them manually (which I won’t bother with) I dunno how you use them. How do you make a font? -Like, one you can use from the keyboard, or in a painting program?
—Also I have seen cheap CD’s (<$10) that have font collections on them, but I don’t know if they are useable with PSP/Illustrator or not. (I assume the first 100 of the 250 fonts is the regular stuff Windows has anyway, but that still leaves another 150 new possibilities) How can I tell? Is there some standards symbol that I should look for on the CD? - MC
- Lately I have noticed that it would be nice to have more fonts. Particularly any that are useable as vectors in Paint Shop Pro and Illustrator. They’re for my own printing use so they don’t have to be used on the web:
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I thought it was touching when he went blind and then put the motorcycle together by hand.
(Oh, did you say “fonts”? I thought you said “Fonz.”)
There’s billions of free fonts on the web.
Here’s a set I have handy, but there are lots of others.**
I am truly touched. <sniff>
It’s always nice to have more fonts. 
There are two font creation software programs I can think of: Macromedia’s Fontographer and FontLab. (There’s also URW’s Ikarus-M, but I haven’t heard much about this program. From what I’ve read, though, it’s harder to use than Fontographer, and is better suited for professional font designers.) You can use these programs to add a character to font you already have (say, for example, the euro symbol to Times New Roman), or you can create a whole new font.
Font creation is challenging; it’s not something you should undertake just so you can get one or two fonts you like. If a couple fonts is all you want, you’re really better off looking through Adobe’s or Eyewire’s type sections for a font you like. They have tons, and you’re bound to find something that suits your fancy.
Font creation is also expensive: FontLab is $399, and although it’s effectively discontinued, Fontographer still has a price tag of $300. Given such prices, paying $30/font to Adobe or Eyewire isn’t so bad, and those free fonts sites |:•) linked to are looking better and better.
Those CDs that feature anywhere between 100 to 3,000 fonts are good buys for those interested in seeing variety (but not necessarily quality) in type design. Typically, they don’t really have 3,000 (or however many) different typefaces; they just have about five or six variations of each face. Also, many of the typefaces bear striking resemblance to one another, so you really only end up with a dozen or so distinct typefaces.
Even so, I don’t think that those fonts CDs have the same fonts Windows comes with. (I’m on a Mac myself, but I own quite a few of those CDs. Few of the fonts resemble Mac standard-issue fonts.) There might be some similar ones (something like Times, something like Courier, etc.) but the fonts on the CDs are generally more decorative than OS-standard fonts. Take a look at the type samples that are usually included on the back of CD case or box; you’ll see what I mean. As they’re intended for use in banners, signs, greeting cards, and the like, CD fonts tend to be more ornate and attention-grabbing than sedate ol’ Helvetica.
As to whether you can use them with you paint and illustration programs: I think so long as the font comes in both TrueType and PostScript flavors, you should be able to work with the fonts in whatever way you choose.
Just type free font downloads into your browser and stand back.
I’ve about 50 stored in my computer and I keep changing them as I discover new ones. You just download into your font file from the web page. Some you have to install, which is easy. There are thousands out there, unfortunately only about 200 are not variations on everything else.
My personal collection of fonts can be browsed at http://www.rpi.edu/~waterj2/fonts/ . Email me if anything there (about 600 total fonts) interests you.
Two of my favorite free font places are:
http://www.chank.com
http://www.members.home.net/apostrophe/main.html
And probably the best resource for fonts overall is Luc Devroye’s font pages at http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/fonts.html which has information about absolutely everything related to fonts. I mean, really everything. It’s friggin’ incredible.
waterj2, I think about half of your collection there interested me.
Thanks for those links, by the way, especially the one to Devroye’s site. It’s the most comprehensive font sites I’ve ever seen. Awesome!
Some other free fonts sites:
Font Diner-- specializing in retro-look fonts. This is the link to their free fonts page.
My first and favourite-- Fonthead Design. This also is a link to a free fonts page.
http://www.fonthead.com/freeware.html
And if you feel like buying, try p22. Their library is absolutely amazing. Also, try Emigre. They’ve got a lot of highly recognizable typefaces there.
I seem to recall that you’re a Mac person from other font threads. If you want TTF format fonts though, I’ve got an ftp server on my computer (with cable modem connection) with an account for my font directory that I can email you (or others here) the information for. Since it’s my computer, I’m not exactly willing to post the info publicly.
waterj2, I’d be very grateful to you if you did e-mail me the ftp info. (Address is in the profile.) TTFs are fine; I’ve got a conversion utility that can turn them into Mac fonts.
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- 2 more questions:
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- Are the downloadable fonts ones that you can use in MS Word and the like? Paint Shop Pro brings up a dialogue box for usng yer own, but Word doesn’t say anything about the ability to add more fonts although I have run across the directory they’re kept in. If I put them in there, will it find them automatically, or is there some “installation” procedure?
- I never really liked Happy days, so I didn’t watch much. Why did Fonzie go blind? - MC
MC - you just place them (unzipped) in your C:\WINDOWS\FONTS directory (obviously for PC users). All MS programs should pick them up automatically.
If you put TTF files in your fonts directory all Windows applications will have them available. I believe the same applies for PS files as well. Since all are loaded when you start an application, having a whole shload of them slows things down. That is why some programs allow you to use fonts kept in other places as well.
Fonts actually should be installed into the Windows/Fonts directory.
The easiest way to do this is to unzip the fonts into a separate directory, then access the Windows/fonts directory. Choose ‘File/Install New Font’ and the rest is straightforard to work out.
I’ve just been downloading some fonts, and one thing I did notice is that although you can simply copy the font files into the directory I still had to access the directory before any applications would pick them up. I don’t know if this is because I have an aging PC that needs some time, or if you really do have to open the FONTS folder before they’re fully “installed”.
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- Some of these sites really suck: they’re almost as bad as porno sites. Bullshit links that send you in circles and open windows of crap you don’t want. A couple I never did see any fonts; I don’t think they really had any. - MC
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The link that ssskuggiii posted was pretty good, although some of the fonts were a little rough.
I know exactly what you’re talking about. For the reasons you mentioned, I avoid totally free fonts sites. Instead, I go to the freebie sections of professional type foundries’ sites. The selection is smaller, but it’s worth it to me to not have to put up with that stuff.