Free fonts: Intro Condensed

The Black and Light versions of Intro Condensed are available for free here from Fontfabric. Personal and commercial use are fair game! These are two useful freebies, I guarantee it. Elegant, clean, and geometric. If you need more weights, buy up all their brothers and sisters and cousins at MyFonts.

Free font: Composition

Composition is a quirky little handwriting typeface by Noe Araujo. Download it here, free for personal and commercial use. Be sure to type in all caps to make it work! I installed the OpenType file and noticed that uppercase I's, L's and dashes seem to have a strange preview in which they look outlined instead of filled (and print that way, too), but converting the type to outlines in Illustrator solves it. The upshot: it could come in handy for something, but has a few kinks that need working out.

Free font: Akura Popo

I've gotten a few requests for the name of the main typeface I used on yesterday's Oscar bingo cards. It's Brothers Regular, available from myfonts.com for $49. If you're looking for something free that has similar 19th century squared-off properties, try Akura Popo by Twicolabs Design. It's fair game for personal and commercial use. Akura Popo is more condensed and you'll have to do some manual kerning, but it might come in handy for your craft beer and banjo night invitations. Get it here.

P.S. I almost hit the publish button without noticing I'd made an unfortunate typographical error on "Popo." I have corrected it.

Free font: Blenda Script

If you're a fan of Pablo Impallari's ubiquitous Lobster typeface, you might like Blenda Script by Seniors Studio. It's an experimental font inspired by Lobster and comes with swashy OpenType alternate characters. Blenda Script is free for personal and commercial use.

(P.S. Is Lobster the new Comic Sans? I don't think so. But this cracked me up. If only there were a mustache on it.)

Helpful typography websites

Here are a couple of useful websites for those interested in type. The first is Fonts in Use. It's a gallery of, you guessed it. Search for typefaces used by a particular industry, a particular design format, or look up particular fonts. Let's say you're considering using Cooper Black on the flyer for your new high-end hair salon, and you're wondering if it could ever look anything but dated and kitschy. Check out the designs users have shared and form your own conclusions (The answer is no.)


If you want to impress your friends because you know what the little doohickey is called that hangs off certain lowercase "g's," Aaron Bloom's Typography site will help. Read about type anatomy and classifications, consult the glossary, or take a short quiz to see if you learned anything.

Good free fonts

If you haven't visited Fontfabric for awhile and you're a compulsive typeface hoarder, it's probably time to go check out their freebies bin again. This time I'm going to grab High Tide.

Free font: Ayres

Ayres is a condensed serif typeface designed by Mariel Gornati. It's got some pretty ligatures and alternate characters. Download it at the bottom of this page at Behance— free for personal and commercial use. (Firefox works best.)

Free font: Fantaisie

Fantaisie is a typeface designed by Lev Berry, based on lettering from 1882. It comes in six varieties you can layer and color to create depth and gorgeous titles. Best of all, it's free for commercial use. Wowzers! Get it here. Along with the fonts, the .zip file contains interesting examples of Fantaisie in action, plus tips for working with it.

Ten free Halloween fonts

If you're planning to make any Halloween invitations or banners this month, a round-up of ten free Halloween fonts from Creative Pro might be just what you're looking for. I tried out Tango Macabre and Needleteeth above. (Thanks for the tip, Elizabeth!)

Say it in llama font

It's so silly. Go to this website, type a phrase, and your text will be displayed in a typeface made from llamas. "Need to send a harsh message to a loved one? Helvetica is cold. Say it in llama." Why? Because llamas make everything better. (Thank you, Patty.)

Update: Clicking "save" for your text results in offers to download a file that I didn't understand--if you want to save your llama words, my suggestion is to take a screen shot of your text and then share that image however you like.

Free ornamental font: South Rose

South Rose is a free typeface inspired by the South Rose window at the Notre Dame Cathedral. This ornamental loveliness was designed by Sydney Goldstein, and it's available for non-commercial use from here at Behance. Grab it!

Free font: Idealist Sans

Idealist Sans, designed by Elena Kowalski, is a hip sans serif with pretty discretionary ligatures. It's available for free in Regular and Light weights over here at Behance. Use the text link at the bottom of the page under the images, or get it from myfonts.com here.

While you're at it, you might grab Sreda, too! Thank you to font foundry Glen Jan for making these available.

Free faceted font: Adamas

Adamas is an interesting font created by Octavian Belintan. The geometric letterforms look like prisms or faceted rocks. Or something. It could be cool for words or titles. (Type in all caps to use it.) Download Adamas here, free for personal or commercial use.

Free font: Hello Denver

Hello Denver is an outline display typeface commissioned by Arts & Venues Denver for an event in 2012. It's also available to the public for personal and commercial work. Grab it here! To see how it's been used in a few projects, click here. It's nice for totes and t-shirts.

Free font: Cherry Swash

Need a pretty little slab serif typeface? Check out Cherry Swash, designed by Natalia Kasatkina. It's available right here from Font Squirrel, free for commercial use.

Free font: Corki v.2

If you compulsively collect fonts, you might want to grab Corki v.2 from Type Depot. It's a condensed slab serif that comes in four styles. Download the family for free right here!

Manlike, a free font

Roydon Misseldine recently created Manlike, a free font with a name that made me smile. You may need to do a little custom kerning and some leading adjustments, but Manlike might be just the thing for a quirky logo or bit of headline type. Download it here at Pixel Pixel Pixel.

A good gallery of free fonts

If you like adding free fonts to your collection, you might take a stroll through FreeTypography.com. It's a round-up of some of the best free fonts contributed by designers around the globe.

Illustrated typography desk calendar

I had a fun mail day recently: one of my packages contained a 2013 calendar gift from Italian designer Simone Massoni. Called "Chicks and Types," Simone has illustrated a series of pin-up girls and paired each one with a featured typeface for every month of the year. A few of the ladies are a bit spicy and missing their tops, and I'm too bashful to show you those. But here's a sampling of the more modest pages. There's a Sherlock Holmes girl!

I'm completely charmed by the illustration style, the interesting color palette, and the deliciously thick, soft paper stock. Plus I get to familiarize myself with more fonts. Terrific!

Calendars are available in Simone's Etsy shop. Meet the other girls here.

P.S. Simone has added a comment to this post, and I wanted to share it:

"It's funny how you picked Rosa as the main image for the post, since it's one of my faves.

Just for people to know, every pin-up has a story. I'd like to suggest few hints to better feel the mood of the artwork: Fabrizio, is a display font by a friend of mine and well-recognized designer, Federico Landini.

Fabrizio is named after Federico's father, who the font has been dedicated to. Federico's mom is Rosa (italian name which means "rose"), they both come from Pistoia, a medieval wonderful city in the centre of Tuscany. Despite the pin-up is not the mom's portrait I imagined to build a story about a romantic picnic lunch in the country side surrounding Pistoia."

Now we can appreciate this page even more!

Free font: Mathlete

Quirky, hand-drawn fonts are more popular than ever. If you need another one for your typeface arsenal, try out Mathlete from Mattox Shuler. It comes in four styles: Skinny, Skinny Slant, Bulky, and Bulky Slant. Best of all, it's free! Get Mathlete here.

The name takes me back to my days on the high school math team. Too bad I've forgotten every single thing I ever knew. I recently asked my engineer husband what that little symbol in calculus is called that looks like a fancy "S." I used to be able to solve problems that had those things. Nerds who can still do math, I salute you.