30

I was reading The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams and was very impressed how on almost every page, Ms. Williams seems to "pull out" some beautiful typeface which I've never heard of. I'm not a design professional, but this got me wondering:

  • Where do professional designers find their typefaces? Any books you can buy with nothing but type samples? Certain websites which are commonly used by "the pros"?
Improve this question
1

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
29

While this is primarily a list of sites, know that browsing a website is not the only way to look for typefaces. Some type foundries still publish specimen catalogs, and some now have mobile apps and Adobe plugins. Many will also have e-mail newsletters to update on new things.

  • MyFonts
  • FontFont
  • Typophile
  • Letterhead Fonts
  • Linotype
  • FontShop – A great collection of fonts including all of the FontFont collection. They have a plugin to help you browse while you work and their now-digital FontBook is a really extensive thing.
  • Emigre – One of the pioneers of digital typography, but they've continued to make quality type. You might recognize Mrs Eaves from the WordPress logo. You can also get their catalogs for just a couple of bucks.
  • House Industries – Prolific, cool, unique. They have some great fonts. They distribute their well-designed catalogs for free. They also run a website called Photo-Lettering where you can buy typeset headlines at a low flat price if you don't want to pay the full price for a font you'll only use once.
  • Sudtipos – Their stuff is available on MyFonts, but sometimes it's nice to browse straight from the foundry. They tend to make really high-quality, script-y, hand-lettered-looking stuff.
  • Hoefler & Frere Jones
  • Chank – Mostly quirky display faces.
  • Process Type
  • Font Bros – Specializing in Retro faces
  • Lost Type Co-Op – a foundry releasing on a 'pay-what-you-want' pricing model. One of the few places to get a really nice set of curated faces for very little money (free, if you want). The drawback, however, is their stuff tends to be over-used.
  • Adobe – one of the grandfathers of the type foundries.
  • Okay Type Foundry

Webfonts

  • Webtype
  • Fontsquirrel – Great free webfont packages with the actual different vector versions. Also has a tool to generate webfonts from your own ttf fonts.
  • Google Fonts – Massive selection of CDN hosted fonts that you can also download for desktop use
  • Typekit – Commercial webfont provider

I encourage others to edit this post and add additional links if something has been missed. But please try and refrain from specific, opinion-based, typeface recommendations. This should be a list of where a user can find typefaces, not what specific fonts you feel are better than others.

I don't think there's any typeface "commonly used by professionals." Every designer has their own preferred typefaces. And many designers simply use what's on their system and rarely, if ever, purchase additional fonts unless they are forced to.

Improve this answer
14
  • Just FYI, Letterheadfonts has a rocky history. Some info: typophile.com/node/30452
    – DA01
    Feb 13, 2013 at 18:51
  • 1
    And MyFonts is a great place these days. They sell type from many, many foundries and their newsletter is a great way to see what's new out there.
    – DA01
    Feb 13, 2013 at 18:52
  • @DA01 Sorry, that post at Typophile is completely contrary to my experience. I notice that's a 2007 post. Perhaps they've changed things. I download and install fonts from letterheadfonts.com the same way I do from MyFonts.com. There's absolutely no difference and I've purchased dozens of fonts from both sites.
    – Scott
    Feb 13, 2013 at 18:58
  • I'll just chip in and mention FontShop.com - it has all of the FontFonts plus other stuff.
    – Brendan
    Feb 13, 2013 at 19:39
  • 1
    Possibly :) I just remember 99% of what's there from more than 15 years ago :) Not that old type is bad type. And House does shoot for a "dated" aspect in many fonts. My point was, check that since once a decade and you've seen all they have to offer.
    – Scott
    Feb 15, 2013 at 14:50
7

Not exactly an answer on "where to go to find fonts", Scott has mentioned the best places to do that, but in my experience it's great to also start from history.

A good book on typography (one of my favorites and excellent if you are new to the subject is Just my Type by Simon Garfield) can give you a solid foundation on how typefaces have been developing since they were first created / used.

Every font choice has a reason behind it, it tells a story or at transmits something. This is what opened my eyes to the amazing art of typography, so I guess I'm a font-history advocate :)

Improve this answer
3

For good quality fonts you might want to search for Font Foundry on whatever your favorite search engine is and then look at some of the current foundries around. One nice one is Lost Type Foundry. Generally a font foundry is going to be much higher quality then a lot of the other sites that just have thousands of fonts from anyone that got their hands on the required software.

Another suggestion is to look up articles on top fonts on sites like Smashing Magazine or Six Revisions.

I'm not familiar with any books that just have fonts but there are font CDs, most notably is Adobe Fontfolio which I believe is now in version 11.

Improve this answer
2

Go to Google Fonts. You can get the font files and they have a wide range of open source fonts. You can choose what font you want based on width, slant, style, script, thickness, and much more.

Improve this answer
2

Dafont is another source for free fonts, but be advised some (most?) are only free for personal use, not commercial use. Make sure you read the author's notes regarding licensing.

Improve this answer
3
  • 7
    Professional designers don't go to dafont all that often. I wouldn't exactly call dafont's offerings 'quality' most of the time.
    – DA01
    Feb 14, 2013 at 17:25
  • 2
    There are a few diamonds in the rough though!
    – Matt Rockwell
    Feb 15, 2013 at 14:28
  • define professional....at the very least, dafont offers a cornucopia of reference/inspiration material. [the rest of this comment was edited because it received flags as offensive]
    – albert
    May 1, 2014 at 6:45
2

Just adding a few to the ones already posted:

Improve this answer
-4

If you are a business or if you have a legal department; using free fonts is a good way to open your company to a lawsuit since open source basically makes you liable for anyone who ripped it off.

Just go with a professional grade library like fonts.com

I wouldn't take a free computer off the street from someone if my company needed a cheaper way to run

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    Do you have any source for this rather huge claim of liability?
    – KMSTR
    Sep 28, 2015 at 15:19

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.