Today, I'm going to talk about how to find the best fonts online and the legalities of using these fonts for personal and commercial use.
Fonts are really important to print and web design. They can either make or break a design. Sometimes, I get into a rut and start using the same fonts in some of my projects. I admit that I've abused Century Gothic more times than I can remember. To break free from the Century Gothic overload, I go online to my favorite font websites to download the ones that would be a perfect fit for my work. It's important though to not get side-tracked by the pretty fonts on there. There are a lot of trendy and awesome looking fonts on these sites, but it's important to pick one that would best visually represent the kind of message you want to convey about your client's business or image.
Fonts are really important to print and web design. They can either make or break a design. Sometimes, I get into a rut and start using the same fonts in some of my projects. I admit that I've abused Century Gothic more times than I can remember. To break free from the Century Gothic overload, I go online to my favorite font websites to download the ones that would be a perfect fit for my work. It's important though to not get side-tracked by the pretty fonts on there. There are a lot of trendy and awesome looking fonts on these sites, but it's important to pick one that would best visually represent the kind of message you want to convey about your client's business or image.
Now let's get started on the font websites. The two best websites I go to for fonts are:
1001FreeFonts.com and UrbanFonts.com.
1001FreeFonts.com and UrbanFonts.com.
1001 Free Fonts is my top favorite fonts site to go to because of the excellent variety it offers. It features a list of font categories at the top of the homepage. If you needed a font that has a specific theme, then 1001 Free Fonts makes it easier to find what you are looking for. Keep in mind that even though it says it's free, you will still have to pay in order to use a font for commercial use. If you want, you can download all 10,000 fonts for commercial use for only $19.95!
Here is a link to that deal: http://www.ultimatefontdownload.com/
Urban Fonts has a good variety of unique fonts which I have used many times for my own designs, even my own logo. This site categorizes the fonts by free fonts, dingbats, and premium fonts. With the premium fonts, if you like a certain font and click on it, it will send you to another site, usually Fonts.com. Sometimes you will have to pay for these fonts. It all depends on which font you click on. On the Urban Fonts homepage, there is a description of the commercial uses of the fonts. These are categorizes as freeware, shareware, or linkware.
Commercial Uses of Fonts
Freeware means that you can use this font for free, but only for personal use. Shareware means that there are some limitations when using this font and are only free for a short amount of time. When using a shareware font, some of the character sets might be missing. This can be annoying when using a shareware font in a design and you find that certain characters are missing, but the sole purpose of a freeware font is for you to judge if the font will be useful to you for the long run before purchasing it. So if you find a shareware font that you absolutely can't live without, then keep in mind that you will have to pay for it after the trial period expires.
Linkware means that that font is copyrighted and the author of the font can determine how their font will be distributed and reproduced. So if you find a linkware font online, then it's best to contact that author. Many of these font websites will provide the author's contact information. If the contact information is not provided then please use to your own discretion.
If you have any questions about finding fonts online or the legalities of it, please let me know in the comments.
Sources: http://fontfeed.com/archives/free-fonts-free-is-not-always-free/
Linkware means that that font is copyrighted and the author of the font can determine how their font will be distributed and reproduced. So if you find a linkware font online, then it's best to contact that author. Many of these font websites will provide the author's contact information. If the contact information is not provided then please use to your own discretion.
If you have any questions about finding fonts online or the legalities of it, please let me know in the comments.
Sources: http://fontfeed.com/archives/free-fonts-free-is-not-always-free/
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