# Where can I download useful freeware fonts?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 22, 2001, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617 "2001-08-22T21:16:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/1 "2001-08-22T21:16:44Z")
I’m looking for a sans-serif font, like Arial or helvetica but with a little less white padding around it, all of the font download sites I’ve come across so far are either scams (no fonts, just links to similar no-font sites) or are full of wacky fun fonts but nothing professional looking.
Can anyone suggest a no-nonsense font download archive?
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### Author:  [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/2 "2001-08-22T21:44:15Z")
[Typesource By Proxy](http://moorstation.org/typoasis/tbp/) is probably the best place to go since the original Typesource shut down.
also:
[http://www.larabiefonts.com](http://www.larabiefonts.com)
[http://www.pizzadude.dk](http://www.pizzadude.dk)
[http://www.chankarmy.com](http://www.chankarmy.com)
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### Author:  [@Amazing\_Magic-Gro\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazing_Magic-Gro_Monster)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/3 "2001-08-22T21:51:09Z")
[Fontastic!](http://rover.wiesbaden.netsurf.de/~kikita/) rocks my little world and weighs down my hard drive.
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### Author:  [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)
#### Post date: [August 22, 2001, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/4 "2001-08-22T22:03:37Z")
I’ve bookmarked a few I’ve chanced across and liked but, I agree, they do tend to be dreadful. Anyway, here’s some – probably better for you to find what you want:
[http://members.home.net/mickie99/paintshop198.html](http://members.home.net/mickie99/paintshop198.html)
[http://www.all-4-free.com/fonts/a1.html](http://www.all-4-free.com/fonts/a1.html)
[http://www.arts-letters.com/freefont100/freefont1.HTML](http://www.arts-letters.com/freefont100/freefont1.HTML)
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### Author:  [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/5 "2001-08-23T03:27:50Z")
On the subject, does anyone know where you can get free Chinese fonts? I suspect they may be so hard to create that free ones are impossible to come by, but I’m hoping that’s not true…
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### Author:  [@Sultan\_Kinkari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sultan_Kinkari)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/6 "2001-08-23T04:05:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Avumede \*
> \*\*On the subject, does anyone know where you can get free Chinese fonts? I suspect they may be so hard to create that free ones are impossible to come by, but I’m hoping that’s not true… \*\*
Hey lazy ass, I just typed in “chinese font” @ google and came up with 153,000 responses. Do some homework, foo!
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### Author:  [@IceQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IceQueen)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/7 "2001-08-23T04:17:03Z")
What’s wrong with Arial Narrow?
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### Author:  [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/8 "2001-08-23T04:40:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by wishbone \*
> Hey lazy ass, I just typed in “chinese font” @ google and came up with 153,000 responses. Do some homework, foo!
You can do some homework as well. Did you happen to look at the links, or even read the titles? Trust me, I’ve searched Google months ago for this stuff, I just don’t get any good hits - the few fonts I can find are not very good. Hey, Google is not magic. Just because it returns 153,000 responses, that doesn’t mean anything really. I need some specific information. That’s why I’m asking… so take it easy.
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### Author:  [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/9 "2001-08-23T06:08:17Z")
**Avumede** , try here:
[http://www.4gee.com/font/pages/fonthtml/chinese.htm](http://www.4gee.com/font/pages/fonthtml/chinese.htm)
I didn’t know what to make of it until I ran my pointer over the double question marks (??). They link to a whole bunch of pages where you can download Chinese fonts. Hopefully, you know the difference between “GB” and “Big5”, because I sure as heck don’t, and hopefully, you find a font you like there.
If it helps any, I searched Google for “Chinese font freeware”, which reduced the results to about 7,400.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/10 "2001-08-23T08:53:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by IceQueen \*
> \*\*What’s wrong with Arial Narrow? \*\*
Arial narrow is the best I’ve found so far, but I need something a bit ‘fatter’ (not necessarily wider).
I’m developing an application which will print a commercial price list with 5000+ lines that have to fit onto something like 16 pages (2 columns), so I have to use the font at 6 points, but Arial narrow has just a little too much white padding around it; I’m looking for something that occupies more of the available space.
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### Author:  [@Avumede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avumede)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/11 "2001-08-23T14:20:14Z")
Thanks AudreyK - that is indeed the first good free Chinese font site I’ve seen!
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### Author:  [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/12 "2001-08-23T14:36:25Z")
I guess _AGaramond_ is pretty obvious (so it’s not what you want) but in case you overlooked it;
[http://www.digitdesigns.com/WebType/AGaramond.htm](http://www.digitdesigns.com/WebType/AGaramond.htm)
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/13 "2001-08-23T15:12:55Z")
Thanks for all the suggestions folks.
I went for a pseudo-Helvetica font in the end; the characters occupy just a little more space within their natural height, plus the lower case characters are a bit taller than Arial (in proportion to the upper case).
I learned a useful tip too; when googling for font archives, include the word ‘categorised’ in your search.
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### Author:  [@Pyrrho12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyrrho12)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2001, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/14 "2001-08-23T16:42:51Z")
Does anyone know of a good place to find bitmap fonts for Windows, as opposed to outline types like TrueType or PostScript? I’m working on a computer program and am looking for a small, legible, bitmap font (around 7 - 12 pixels high). At this size, most of the TT fonts I’ve tried haven’t been particularly readable.
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### Author:  [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2001, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/15 "2001-08-24T01:52:27Z")
**Pyrrho12** , I found [this site](http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/7677/index.html), but I’m not sure it’s what you need. Click “Fonts”, and then scroll to the bottom of the page.
I was able to download “ckfnt.zip” and unzip it, and they popped out as “.fon” files, which _are_ bitmap font files. I’m not sure if they work, though, as I’m on a Mac, and I’d need to convert them first before I could use them. And I don’t have my converter installed. But anyway, hope that helps.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2001, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/16 "2001-08-24T03:39:02Z")
You may already have them.
A lot of people don’t realize that many office suite packages like MS Office 2000, Corel/WordPerfect’s Office Suite and many graphics and desktop publishing packages come with hundreds of megs of additional or alternative high quality TTF font sets that are available as optional or additional installs if you re-run the install CD. Once installed these fonts would be available to any windows application.
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### Author:  [@Pyrrho12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyrrho12)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2001, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/17 "2001-08-25T04:03:24Z")
Thanks, **AudreyK**. That’s exactly the kind of thing I’ve been looking for.
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### Author:  [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2001, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-download-useful-freeware-fonts/77617/18 "2001-08-25T05:13:39Z")
[http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/fonts.html](http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/fonts.html)
Just about the greatest single source for font related links. Ever.
As for Chinese fonts, I use [Jim’s Kanji](http://www.geocities.com/fontboard/cjk/fonts.html#jims) for that sort of thing. Much better looking than the unicode stuff you get with Windows, but you have to look everything up by Nelson Number.