While we were experimenting with layouts for a news letter for a project currently in the marketing department, we came upon the need for some additional font options for the headline and titles. While the built in fonts on a Mac are impressive, the headline wanted something more futuristic and stylized than those provided by default. A quick Google search identified that there are several sites which offer free fonts, and as the newsletter must be re-creatable, we wanted a freely available font for the headline on the style guide. After all you don’t want to pay for a custom font which you have to license for every user who may recreate the newsletter in the future.
On a Mac it is simple to install extra fonts. You just download them and then open the Zip or Archive file in Finder and then double click the font so that it opens in Font Book. If the font is what you are looking for just click the Install Font button. OpenType fonts work in Mac OS X, and TrueType fonts work in Mac OS X and earlier versions.
There is a little bit more to do in Windows, and you must be an Administrator on the target machine to install or remove fonts.
To install a font in Windows the hard way, follow these steps:
- Click Start, and then click Run.
- Type the following command, and then click OK:
%windir%\fonts - On the File menu, click Install New Font.
- In the Drives box, click the drive that contains the font that you want to add.
Alternatively, you can also browse to a file in Explorer and then either
- right-click on the font file, and then select ‘Install’ from the drop-down menu.
- double-click on the font file to open the font preview and click the ‘Install’ button.
We are installing the new font for embedding in a header graphic, so everyone will see the same result. We tend not to use these custom fonts on web pages as most viewers will not have them installed, and you dont want to lose fancy twirls and long descenders.
A great site to visit is dafont.com where they have an excelent selection of Free, Shareware, Free for Personal Use and Public domain/GNU GPL fonts which will meet most needs. We particularly liked the Sci-Fi selection which includes gems like Star Jedi and terminator! We discounted fonts marked “Free for personal use” as this newsletter is to support a database which is launching in a corporate market.
Why not explore the wonderful world of fonts and give you next newsletter some character?