Whether you are designing logo items, a web site, or a school project, the font can make all the difference. Choosing the correct font is just as important as the use of colors, images, and graphic placement. All aspects used together can brand a product or web site for success or send it to the trash heap!
When fonts are used as part of a design or logo, they can have an artistic or playful quality. Ideally, the correct font will support the overall design of the finished project. Artistic fonts are available for every situation:
Retro fonts: Font Diner has a collection that will send you back in time.
Famous brands: From the Dallas Cowboys to Pac man, Simply the Best is the perfect place to find all of the famous font styles.
Grunge: Perfectly messy, faded, and warped fonts for DVDs, band designs, and posters can be found on the Outlaw Design Blog.
When creating a brochure, web site, or something that will have paragraphs of text, it is smart to choose a simple and readable font. Many web sites have lost credibility just because of their misuse of fonts. (Remember when every web site with information about preschool or elementary-aged children used Comic Sans?)
Simple fonts: An overview of readable fonts based on web design research is available as a free downloadable booklet at the Lewis-Clark College.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, there is an entire font family named Dingbats that isn't readable at all because it's made up of pictures and symbols.
Dingbats fonts: Dingbat Depot, Bittbox, and Dingbats-UK all have symbol fonts available.
New fonts are being created and added to web sites daily. Find the perfect font for any occasion by visiting a free font web site! The following sites all have an incredibly large collection of free fonts:
Font Freak: Over 5,000 free fonts for use with both Mac and PC
Simply the Best: Fonts are categorized under headings
Dafont: Over 8,000 fonts for personal use
Eternal Font: Thousands of free fonts for Mac and PC
If you still can't find the right font, Brothersoft has a download called Font Maker 1.0. Be creative and use fonts to your advantage when planning your next project!
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