Free fonts for use on web are quite useful for the professional or student web/graphic designer using font face css and knowing where to find free fonts to use in your designs is even better! As a man who believes sharing in knowledge with others I have compiled a list of websites with varying free fonts for use on web below. I have also added a few where you have to pay and a couple of other tools for those who are wanting to develop websites to the latest html5 and css3 standard. If you know of any others please feel free to include it in the comment box below the post.
Free fonts websites
Please check that the fonts you are downloading are suitable for web before you use them, I know most of you will understand this but for those just starting to learn about web design check that the font will be a) compatible with all browsers and b) not slow down your site considerably.
Fontsquirrel
So you want to download fonts for free, well then fontsquirrel.com is a great starting point! A font on this site range from the fancy fonts, handwritten fonts to sans serif fonts. You can type in some text to their website and see font examples with each type face.
font files
The league of moveable type
free cool fonts are available on the league of moveable type, check them out, they believe in freedom of design!
cool fonts
Google Fonts
Google web fonts are totally free and really gaining in popularity. When choosing a font from the google fonts website make sure that its size isn’t going to effect the performance loading speed of your site. Google have also gone to the trouble of comparing different fonts with the google fonts making it easier to see google font combinations as not every font will match easily and it might look quite strange if too different but also if they are too similar this can be a problem also. google fonts google fonts download google fonts
NOT free fonts for use on web
Although its great getting free fonts sometimes paying a little fee can help you get fonts that really perfect the look and feel of your website’s brand image. Obviously there is is only so far free fonts can go and sometimes paying just a small fee for a custom font may not be so bad especially if you have many clients. The following websites are fee based but still worth a look.
Typekit
Fontdeck
Fonts.com
Webtype
Webtype is another place where you can download fonts for a fee.
http://www.webtype.com/
Other things to consider when selecting fonts for use on web
There are several things you must think about when selecting the fonts you use in your design and these are as follows : –
- Readability
- The mood the fonts give
- Font Compatibility
- Tracking/letter spacing
- Vertical Rhythm
Readability
Readability is all about how easy it is to read the font. At the end of the day it is important that the user feels that they can read the font easily, if they can’t then its kind of defeating the object of the task at hand. Make sure the free font you choose is easy to read.
The mood that the font gives
Even though readability should always be the number one reason for choosing a font ( in my opinion ) different types of typography give a mood or feel. Ask yourself is the font you have chosen given the appropriate mood or should you keep on looking for an appropriate typeface?
Font Compatbility
Font compatibility is also an issue, the modern way of typography expects two or even three different fonts to sometimes be used on a website. Making sure these fonts are compatible is really important. When I talk about compatibility I am talking about how they blend together. It is said that two font types shouldn’t be too different but at the same time they musn’t be identical either, there needs to be a good balance and on the likes of the Google Fonts website they give some suggestions of how you can pair certain fonts together.
Tracking/letter spacing
Tracking or letter spacing of a font is also important, if it is too close together it can look too cluttered and if it is too exposed it can be hard to read. I suggest that having a large space between each letter should only be used in titles if possible.
Vertical Rhythm
Vertical Rhythm is the hidden lines that make up a composition in a piece of writing. By using a vertical rhythm you will create a better UX and more likely to get the user to read your text. To find out if your website has vertical rhythm you can use a free bit of code from this website basehold.it
Earlier last year I did make another blog post about free fonts for web. Please visit the blog post here for more suggestions. I hope you find this post useful, please do share it and feel free to leave a comment in the box below.
