Fonts Fonts Fonts

How sure can you be that the font you specify will be present on the end user's machine?

The Code Style font sampler is a guide to the most common fonts on Windows, Mac and Linux. This is the latest cross-platform snapshot of the Code Style font survey and should give you greater confidence in selecting a font. Use the font sampler to pick the right font style codes for your site.

Font Picker
Font Picker is a simple application that previews your text using different typefaces to help select from the fonts installed on your own computer.

To use, simply highlight any of the example boxes and type in your own text, which will be replicated to the rest of the items. Use the check boxes to select the fonts you like, and the Clear button to remove the fonts you don't, leaving you with a smaller list of fonts to choose from.

Font Picker is a free download for the (Windows/Mac/Linux) Adobe Air platform, or can be run in a browser without installation.

Typsetter
The Typetester is an online application for comparison of the fonts for the screen. Its primary role is to make web designer's life easier. As the new fonts are bundled into operating systems, the list of the common fonts will be updated.

WhatTheFont
Ever seen a great font in a magazine ad, poster, or on the web and wondered what font it is? Snap a photo, upload it and WhatTheFont will identify that font in seconds!
try it out

TypeDNA FontShaker
TypeDNA FontShaker, lets you explore your locally installed fonts online, find out how others rate your fonts & save data into the Font Manager.

Fonts 500
The web's top 500 free fonts, calculated based on download counts from some of the biggest free font archives. You can preview your text right on the page before downloading.

dafont.com
Archive of freely downloadable fonts. Browse by alphabetical listing, by style, by author or by popularity. Themes include Fancy, Foreign look, Techno, Bitmap, Gothic, Basic, Script, Dingbats and Holiday.

TypeNow.net
Here you can find TV / Movie-related fonts, Music / Band fonts, Games-related fonts and a bunch of miscellaneous fonts - mostly commercial brands but that's where you'll find a Calvin & Hobbes font.

How to install a font under Windows?

Unzip the files you have downloaded.

Details: Click on the "Download" button, save the zip somewhere on your hard disk, go to the place where it is saved, double-click on the zip to open it, then either click on "Extraxt all files" or drag and drop the files elsewhere from the zip window (hold down the CTRL key to select several files at once)
For the 20th century versions of Windows you must install an unzip tool first.

· Under Windows Vista:
Select the font files (.ttf, .otf or .fon) then Right-click > Install

· Under any version of Windows:
Place the font files (.ttf, .otf or .fon) into the Fonts folder, usually C:\Windows\Fonts or C:\WINNT\Fonts
(can be reached as well by the Start Menu > Control Panel > Appearance and Themes > Fonts).

Note that with the internal unzip tool of Windows (unlike Winzip), you cannot install a font by a simple drag and drop of the .ttf from the zip window to the Fonts window. You must first drag and drop it anywhere (for example on the desktop) then into the Fonts folder.
You can also go through: File > Install a new font... in the Fonts folder menu then browse the fonts, instead of drag and drop the fonts into the window. Although this method is laborious, it would seem that it functions better in some cases.

There are some videos on YouTube if that helps.

Tip: if you punctually need a font, you don't need to install it. Just double-click on the .ttf file, and while the preview window is opened you can use it in most of the programs you'll launch (apart from a few exceptions like OpenOffice).

How to install a font under Mac OS?

Mac OS X recognizes TrueType and OpenType fonts (.ttf and .otf) but not the PC bitmap fonts (.fon).
Files are compressed, you may need an utility like Stuffit Expander.

· Under Mac OS X 10.3 or above (including the FontBook) :
Double-click the font file > "Install font" button at the bottom of the preview.

· Under any version of Mac OS X:
Put the files into /Library/Fonts (for all users),
or into /Users/Your_username/Library/Fonts (for you only).

· Under Mac OS 9 or earlier:
The old Mac fonts are not supported anymore at dafont. First, you have to convert the font files (.ttf or .otf) you have downloaded.
Then drag the fonts suitcases into the System folder. The system will propose you to add them to the Fonts folder.

How to install a font under Linux?

Copy the font files (.ttf or .otf) to fonts:// in the File manager,
or:
Go into the /home folder, in the menu select View > Show Hidden Files, you will see the hidden folder .fonts (if not, create it) then copy the font files there.

How to use a new font with a software?

It is sometimes necessary to relaunch the current application to be able to use the new font.
Then you may proceed as usual, the font will appear in your software's font combo-box (word processing, drawing etc.).

How to use for a web site?

If you specify a particular font in your web pages which is not installed on the visitor's machine, it will be replaced by the default font in his browser, Usually Times New Roman.
Of course, you can specify several fonts in the CSS by priority order, but nothing is guaranteed.

The 4 main solutions:
- to realize a title with a particular font, the easiest method is to make an image. Use a drawing program and save the image as .gif (or .jpg if there are too many shades of colour, or .png).
- for a long text and only under IE, you can embed the fonts so visitors will download them at the same time as the pages. Details
- for a long text under any browser, you can use this script
- generate an image with PHP

Why the fonts don't show up in e-mails / instant messengers?

Your correspondant can only view the fonts installed on his computer. Better avoid to send a email or an instant message (MSN Messenger, etc.) with a non-standard font; or then make sure your correspondant has installed it too, otherwise he will see a default font.

Why aren't stressed characters or numbers included?

Many fonts are freeware or shareware, sometimes demos, which don't systematically include stressed letters, figures or certain punctuation chars. Some even work only in lower-case or upper-case letters.

[via Dafont]

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It's easy and fun to digitize your handwriting, so go make your own font now!

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