Here are 30 of the Best Fonts / Type Faces that every designer must own sorted by alphabetical order. There are 15 serif fonts and 15 sans-serif fonts. These fonts will last you your whole career! A brief description of what each font is best suited for is provided however are not limited to this. There are [...]

Typographica’s fourth annual review showcases the best in new typeface design. Twenty-five of the world’s brightest graphic and type designers selected their favorite font releases of the year. We welcome to our regular cast of contributors: David Berlow, Ellen Lupton, and Erik Spiekermann, among others. Full article

There are some basic approaches, guidelines and goals to consider when working with type on the Web. Overall, the medium of Web typography involves readability, accessibility, usability, and brandability. On the Web, these aspects function together to accomplish design’s goals of communication and user interaction. There are many ways to approach Web typography in order to [...]

CSS has brought us many capabilities in terms of typography and the web, but we always seem to be limited to the same 4-5 typefaces over and over again. There is an inherant problem, if the font you specify isn’t on the viewers computer it won’t render in that font. So as designers and developers [...]

FontStruct is a free font-building tool brought to you by the world’s leading retailer of digital type, FontShop. FontStruct lets you quickly and easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks. You create ‘FontStructions’ using the ‘FontStructor’ font editor. Once you’re done building, FontStruct generates [...]

This one is already a year old, but it’s definitely worth watching… An awesome video on typography created by the Vancouver Film School. Pretty cool!  Link to video

Sweet but not saccharine, earnest but not grave, Archer is designed to hit just the right notes of forthrightness, credibility, and charm. Slab serifs have been evolving for two hundred years, yet the category continues to be dominated by two basic styles: Antiques and Geometrics. Antiques arise out of the same nineteenth-century tradition that produced the [...]

Are you interested in typography? Do you feel that you don’t quite know what you’re doing when it comes to letterforms and text? Do you want to know more? Or perhaps you just want to visit the ‘Typographic Archipelago’ (and get your company to pay)? TypeCamp is one of the few places in the world [...]

The ATypI 08 St Petersburg conference will be held in St Petersburg, Russia from 17 to 21 September 2008 (Wednesday to Sunday). The TypeTech/TypeTools Forum and the pre-conference workshops will be held on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 September. The main conference will open with an keynote presentation on the evening of Thursday 18 September, [...]

In a world where fonts are people, Times New Roman is king. But also, Wingdings is annoying and talks in gibberish, Arial Narrow is a racist, and Futura is a sexy lady from the future. How awesome is this? Full article

While many designers have been quick to embrace web standards, it’s surprising how often the basic standards of typography are neglected. Here are ten deadly sins to avoid in your web typography. Full article

Typechart is an online experiment that lets you flip through, preview and compare web typography and then retrieve the corresponding CSS. Read more

This is a guide to typography website for people who are not professional typographers — namely, lawyers. I assume that your goal is pragmatic: to achieve the best typographic result at the minimum possible cost (= your time). This website is organized as a set of typographic lessons. Rather than group these lessons into topics and [...]

This tutorial will teach you how to create a very appealing and slightly abstract text effect that looks like the text is made from plants and flowers; you really have to see it to know what I mean. We’ll be using a lot of floral brushes which look great and also learning a really useful [...]

Here is a list of 22 free fonts available from myfonts. All you need to do is register on the site to gain access to them. I also want to point out that you don’t need to register any credit card (unless you want to buy fonts that is). Click on the image or name [...]

The main advantage of elegant CSS typography lies in its ability to be both attractive and improves the user experience. When chosen wisely and used carefully, it can be very effective to support the overall design. There are many outstanding examples of how we can do this, and below you will find some of the [...]

We see film posters every day. But have you ever stopped to think about the lettering they use? Sebastian Lester has. As a typeface designer for Monotype Imaging, he’s a literal font of knowledge.  Read more

He’s opinionated. He’s punctilious. He’s fussy, finicky, hard-to-please, exacting, demanding. He’s persnickety and nitpicking. He has the arrogance which comes of being … well, right (don’t you just hate those people?). He has a bit of an accent … sounds kind of German. Max Kerning: he wants type in good taste, not type that tastes [...]

So you’re browsing through your favorite website and found a site that uses a font you love. You want that font too, (and must be as quickly as possible!)… so how do we go about finding out what that font is called? Sounds familiar? Yes… we’ve all been there before! One easy option is to simply [...]

The term Font refers to a set of characters and numerals that have common characteristics. It defines the size of each letter and the number of characters in a line. Fonts affect the readability and appeal of a document. Selection of an appropriate font is vital for the success of a web site. Windows comes with some preloaded fonts along with their variations. They are: Courier New Arial Times New Roman Symbol Wingdings MS Serif Sans Serif Apart from these fonts, Windows also provides additional fonts to beautify your documents. To view these fonts, click the Font icon in control panel. All the fonts already installed will be visible. On clicking any font, a popup box displays a sample of that font in all its variations and sizes. The copyright information is also displayed here. You can also print this sample. Installing new fonts: There are innumerable fonts available on the Internet. They are free to download and can be used in various programs after being installed. To install a new font follow these steps: Unzip and save the font file on the computer. Click Fonts icon in the control panel. Click File > Install New Font. Select the folder where font file is located. The list of all the fonts stored in that location is displayed in the List of Fonts Box. Clear the Copy Fonts to Windows check box if you wish to save space. It is not recommended if the font files are stored on a removable drive. Choose the font to be loaded from the list of fonts or select all. Hold down the control key if multiple non-contiguous names have to be selected. Click OK. The font is installed and its name now appears in the Installed Font list. Removing existing fonts: Installed fonts occupy memory. Therefore, those fonts that are not being used can be removed to free memory in the following manner. Click the Fonts icon in the Control Panel. Click on the font to be removed. Go to Files > Delete. You will be asked to confirm the deletion of the font. Click on Yes. The font is deleted and is removed from the Installed Fonts list. Do not remove the MS Sans Serif font as it is used for most of the Dialog Boxes.

Chances are your computer and the software that is installed on it has plenty of the basic fonts pre-installed. But for many users, the basics are just the tip of the iceberg. Finding the perfect font for a particular publication becomes a quest or even an obsession. Many turn to the internet as their first choice in finding the perfect font. Finding fonts on the web is as simple as entering the word "fonts" into a popular search engine. Hundreds of millions of hits come up pitching both free and commercial font web pages. But what can you expect when searching for fonts? Commercial web pages such as fonts.com provide thousands of fonts available for purchase in the form of libraries of fonts, font packs, family packs, volume packs and even specialty packages such as eBook fonts and FunFonts. Depending on your needs, you may purchase an individual font or an entire collection. Prices can vary from about $40 for an individual font to upwards of $8000 for a library of over 2900 fonts. A library of fonts is an extensive package of bundled fonts designed as a one stop resource for the serious graphic designer. Libraries typically contain thousands of fonts in a particular format such as OpenType format or PostScript format. Purchasing a library of fonts is a large investment but typically costs less per font than other bundles. Other font packs such as font.com’s value packs contain a bundle of several themed fonts as a group that you can buy. For example, you could purchase a value pack of five different Celtic style fonts for a discounted package price. It’s like getting five fonts for the price of two. A volume or family pack is a collection of fonts from the same font family. Each font in the collection would be of the same font but have varying weights and attributes. For example, the Agenda Family Pack could contain Agenda Bold Ultra Condensed, Agenda Semi-bold Condensed Italic, Agenda Black, Agenda Light, Agenda Thin Italic and many more variations. Specialty packs such as the eBooks pack are also available for licensing. In the case of eBooks, the fonts, along with the proprietary font software, must be embedded into the document itself. This requires a license from the software manufacturer granting distribution rights. Using a specially designed eBook font and purchasing a license for distribution in eBook format is a vital step in the eBook publishing industry. Most of these commercial web sites also have a searchable database of their fonts so that finding just what you want is as easy as possible. If you are looking for a Celtic style font, simply type in the word "Celtic" in their keyword search box. A listing of Celtic fonts appears along with Celtic styled dingbats featuring Celtic knots and other designs. Other ways to search include searching by classification, designer, foundry, alphanumeric, libraries, packages, volumes or even by sight. Searching by sight or vision is unique in that you view a series of images and answer questions about the font style you desire. This is great for trying to match an existing font style. For example, if you have a font that you need to match and are unsure of what the font is called, use the visual tool to match the various attributes of the font. First you’ll compare various images to your font and answer questions about it such as, "What type of tail does the letter Q have?" Some of the answers to consider include: Does it cross the circle? Touch the circle? Is it below and separated from the circle? You’ll continue this type of questioning for an entire series of letters and questions. At last, the software will define the font that best matches your criteria. From there you can display the font and determine if it meets your needs. Most font web sites also feature new releases or their "Most Popular" font lists, for example a top ten list or top downloaded font list. These listings are fun to browse to see what’s new and what’s popular. Viewing the fonts is generally a breeze. Once you’ve found the font of your choice, a preview or image is displayed on the screen. If you choose to purchase the font, there’s usually an "add to cart" button or a link to download it. Downloading instructions can vary from web site to web site so be sure to check the instructions on the web page. Whether a font web site is free or commercial, font sites are good sources of information. Many web sites are loaded with articles about fonts, font technology, the art and science of fonts, font theories, font techniques, font history, how to use fonts, how to make fonts, profiles of font designers, and more. Graphic Design and Typography are vast and extensive subjects and these web sites are a great place to begin to gather information. Many web sites also offer other font services such as licensing, conversions, custom made fonts, logo fonts, conversion to OpenType, adding the Euro symbol to a font, consulting and more. They can even design fonts for use on specific OEM devices and with specific software programs. After browsing the commercial font web sites, you may have a slight case of sticker shock. Some of the libraries, while extensive, cost thousands of dollars. Before you click the "check out" button, you owe it to yourself to check out some of the free font web sites. Free font web sites offer similar features as their full price counterparts. In many cases, the free font web sites have both free and commercial fonts available. You’ll notice more advertisements, banners, affiliate links, and perhaps membership or premium options on the free web sites. Many of their free fonts will be freeware, shareware or demoware, and some may have restrictions for commercial use. In addition, some free font web sites do offer commercial fonts for purchase as well. In these cases, they usually have a separate portion of the web page set up for free fonts and for paid fonts. Oftentimes, the paid fonts are links to a paid website such as fonts.com where the free web site is an affiliate and will receive a commission from the purchase. Browsing for fonts on a free site is similar to browsing on a commercial site. Simply enter a keyword, browse by category or alphabetically. Some even have their own version of a visual lookup, or font recognitions system, similar to those found on the commercial pages. Just like the commercial web sites, the free font will be displayed on the computer screen as a preview. Again, downloading instructions vary from web page to web page. To download a free font, you may have to follow a link to another site or download either a zip or ttf file. Be sure to follow the instructions given on the web page for downloading the free font of your choice. Perhaps you want to replicate the font that Disney uses for a publication where you are featuring a trip to Disneyland. Simply go to your favorite free font website and enter in the keyword, "Disney" in the search box. The results will pop up and you may choose the font that best meets your needs. Many of the free fonts are freeware fonts designed by talented hobbyists. The ability to submit designs to free websites is a bonus to both the designers and to the end user as well. The designer gets exposure for his work and the end user gets a fantastic font for free. Free websites also tend to attract a community of designers and users with message boards, forums, chats and ratings systems. A vibrant community of fellow fontaholics is a great spot to go to for companionship, information, ideas, creativity and more. The ability to rate fonts lets other users know how useful or unique the font was. In addition to online font communities, many free font web sites set themselves apart by also offering tools and tutorials to aid in the design of fonts. For the novice designer, these first steps will help them launch themselves into the art of font design. Choosing a free web site over a commercial one has advantages besides pure economics. By using a free font, you are not locked in to using it simply because you need to get your money’s worth. If the font doesn’t quite fit your design as expected or if you’ve switched gears and want to try something different, you have the freedom to do so. Also, if it’s a one time use and you don’t foresee needing the font beyond this particular application, you won’t feel the need to store it on your hard drive once the project is delivered. This makes font management easy. www.urbanfonts.com is an example of one of the web’s premier free font web sites. This comprehensive web site is on par with the more expensive commercial sites. Why pay thousands of dollars for fonts when urbanfonts.com is just a click away? Here you will find a wealth of free fonts, numerous informative articles, an extensive and searchable database, a vibrant web community and a responsive behind the scenes staff. Urbanfonts.com makes searching simple, downloading a dream, and acquiring knowledge as easy as one, two, three. With hundreds of thousands of choices of font web sites, and hundreds of thousands of fonts out there and new ones being designed every day, finding the fonts that are right for you can be an overwhelming task. Instead, pick the web site that makes finding fonts easy, painless and free. Be sure to bookmark urbanfonts.com and visit often.

When it comes to running a business, whether on the internet or in the brick and mortar world, there are many things to consider. One of the most important of these considerations, however, is also one of the simplest and most often overlooked. The fonts you choose to install on your business computers can have a big impact on the success of your business, both in terms of capturing customers and in terms of controlling the costs of doing business. One way that the right fonts can capture customers is through a compelling and user friendly display. When designing forms, letters and other documents for a web site or other type of use, it is important to think like a customer, and to be able to see things from the customer’s point of view. One way to do that, of course, is to choose fonts that are both easy to read and pleasing to the eye. While a fancy script type font may be pleasing to look at, for instance, reading such a font for a long period of time can be tiring to the eye. It is important therefore to restrict the use of these fancy fonts to short documents, and to use a more standard font, such as the web enabled Verdana font, for longer documents or forms. It is also important to consider the color of the fonts, as well as the size. A larger font will of course be easier to read, but it is important not be make the fonts so large that they overwhelm the other content on the web site. It is also important to choose a font color that coordinates well with the rest of the web page, and that will be pleasing to the eye of the visitor. It is important, for instance, to consider the background color you are using, and to choose a font color that goes well with it. A mixture of green background and blue font, for instance, will be difficult if not impossible to read, while a black font on a white background, or vice versa, will be quite pleasing and easy to read. Not only can the right fonts help your business capture new customers through innovative and user friendly designs, but the right font can also help reduce your costs of doing business. One way the right fonts can lower costs is through the automatic printing of post office bar codes on letters and other mailings. There are special fonts that can take the ZIP code from a mailing and produce a bar code that can be scanned by the post office, thus reducing the cost of postage to your company. In most cases these fonts must be purchased separately, but for companies with large quantities of mailings, such an investment can quickly pay for itself.

In the same way that you can make yourself stand out with the clothes you wear, you can customize your documents and maximize their effectiveness simply by "dressing them up" with an appropriate font. And like clothing, the font you choose can affect people’s perception so it’s important to choose wisely. When it comes to variety, the Internet is a virtual dress-up box for text; there are fonts available for any type of document, whether your goal is to make it look professional, whimsical, or somewhere in between. To determine what font is best to reach that goal, you must first look over your options. There are many high-quality commercial fonts available to download for very little money. If you’re on a tighter budget, though, you can easily find free fonts. Just type "fonts" or "free fonts" into any search engine and you will be rewarded with a multitude of sites hundreds of thousands of fonts for the taking. Narrowing your choices down may be a bit more difficult. First, consider what type of feeling you want to convey to the reader. If you’re looking for a professional tone, for example, you may want to use a more traditional font such as Times New Roman or Helvetica. Using a more fanciful font, such as Curlz or Jester, may not convey the type of professionalism you desire; the reader won’t take it as seriously as a more conservative font. Another factor to consider when choosing a font is whether you prefer serif or sans-serif. "Serif" simply means that the characters have small decorative lines added to their basic form, such as Times New Roman. Arial and Helvetica (Arial is shown here) are two well-known examples of sans-serif fonts (sans-serif is French for "without serif"). Research has shown that serif fonts provide easier readability; the vast majority of newspapers and magazines use these types of fonts. Sans-serif fonts are thought to convey a more modern feel. They’re often made bigger and used for headlines, while the body of the text is done in a serif font. For text that will be displayed on the Internet, a sans-serif font may be easier to read, especially if it’s small; serifs may blend together and make distinguishing between letters a little more difficult. The best way to choose the perfect font for your document is to grab a key word or sentence from the text one of the main points of the document and "try on" several different fonts to see which typeface best expresses the tone you’re trying to capture. Also keep in mind the ease of readability, the desired size of the text, and whether the document is meant to be printed onto paper or read on a computer screen. If you’ll be using more than one font, make sure they complement each other; using two completely different and contrasting fonts is like mixing plaids and polka-dots; it just doesn’t work, and will end up looking haphazardly thrown together. A good rule of thumb is never to use more than two fonts, one for headlines or titles and the other for the body of the text. And make sure that the design of the font coordinates with the subject of the text; for example, you wouldn’t want an old-fashioned calligraphic headline on a piece about robotic technology in the 21st century. Like the perfect outfit, a font can make a statement and provide a favorable impression. Dress your words for success!

Typography is a discipline that goes back many centuries. With the revolution of desktop publishing came a level of typography that was only known to a select few. Today, the use of type by graphic and web designers has developed into an art in itself. Now sophisticated software enables anyone to be a type expert! Communication Through Typography In verbal communication there is a transfer of information between speaker and listener. So that your message is understood, you choose words that are pertinent to the conversation and you speak in a tone of voice in order to communicate an idea. To communicate in print is a bit more challenging. However, the basic goal is to get the message across as successfully as possible. In print, the appearance of text enhances the message the author is trying to convey. By changing the appearance of the words, you can make a connection with the reader. Without typography the words would be left to the unvarying typewriter-style font. The Beginning of Type For many years the only way to reproduce information was for each copy to be handwritten. The development of print by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century changed this and enabled the mass production of moveable type. Gutenberg developed a system to produce type more quickly. Each letter was carved into steel which was then cast into molds. The letters were assembled into words and lines which were then assembled to create a page. Gutenberg’s invention revolutionized printing and formed the basis of all printing for centuries to come. He paved the way for the publishing world to produce type more effectively and efficiently. Anatomy and Development of Type Each letter on a printed page has been stylized and cast in a "glyph", or graphical character. Over the years a terminology has developed to include: Stems - the main vertical strokes in characters such as i and t Counters - the half-enclosed spaces in the letters c and e X-height - the height of a lowercase x Ascenders - lines which extend above the x-height Descenders - lines which extend below the x-height Bowls - the enclosed looped spaces in the letters b and d Serifs - ornamental ticks on certain typefaces as in the font Times New Roman Each of these elements are put together to give each glyph its own character. There are many possible glyphs for each letter. The typographer’s art is being able to create unique and recognizable typefaces. In the beginnings of type, the handwritten style was replicated often, but eventually the angles, fluidity, and serifs were reduced to increase readability. A trend eventually emerged where typefaces had no serifs at all. Nowadays you will see many combinations of old type and new type. Fonts Each font has its own unique shape and personality. The computer user has literally thousands of different typefaces to choose from. As a type designer, the goal is creating a character set, or "font", that shares a unique look and feel. As a graphic or web designer, the goal is to choose the type of font that fits in with the project and will produce a particular effect. Early typecasters used the "point" to measure type size and this measure is still used today. There are 72 points to an inch and each point is 1/72 of an inch. The main text used to read falls in between 9 and 12 points. For most projects it is recommended to use as few fonts as possible so that it does not distract from the message. It’s much better to use simple combinations of fonts. Layout and Spacing Composing the type to fit a line takes some skill and little bit of strategy. An important factor to remember is that the line can neither be too short nor too long because the reader may find it tiring to read. A rule of thumb is that a line should have around 10 words on average. The ideal line length is not a hard-and-fast rule, so it is advisable to just experiment. Another important aspect of typography is how the letters are combined to produce an attractive and readable arrangement. There are many ways of balancing letter and word spacing. "Justifying" or the alignment of text to the left, center, or right produces different effects on a printed page. Another way to handle space on the page involves choosing the ideal space between each line. Computer Type and the Web The advent of the computer and the internet has revolutionized the world of typography. Thanks to companies such as Adobe, Quark XPress, and Microsoft, it has become easier to publish and share information universally and instantly. Designers now have the flexibility and are able to control their type directly on the page just as it would appear in print. The possibilities are endless.