If you like free fonts that begin exclusively with the letter “C”, then boy do I have the site for you! Japanese foundry c-font has 45 free fonts available for download, including Camelia, Comons and, uh, Hope. Come on, nobody’s perfect.
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My coworker Jason Fields pointed me towards Buro Destruct’s typedifferent.com this morning. The site collects 10 years of Buro’s fonts, many of them free. The free fonts don’t have their own section, so you’ll have to scrounge a bit, but it’s worth it. Check out Wurst and Sirca.
When I posted about Cape-Arcona way back on Fontleech’s first day in business, I didn’t know about phantompower, the site of CA co-founder Stefan Claudius. Stefan’s got several free fonts that predate Cape Arcona, including my favorite of his, Kalish.
I could’ve dragged this out for years like the cast of Friends but luckily for the Internet I decided to just dump all the rest of the free pixel fonts on you. And don’t worry, we’re taking a break from bitmap fonts for a while after this.
9031 is worth a visit just for Bangalore, one of the few free pixel fonts I’ve ever used. A script font that’s actually usable? In pixel format, no less? Alright, where’s Ashton?
Clops only has a few free fonts for download, but I like the blocky Ozon.
You should recognize some of codeman38’s video game fonts (if you spent your adolescence playing Super Nintendo). Return of Ganon hit me like an arrow poisoned with sweet, sweet nostalgia.
Core has 3 packs of free pixel fonts. Pack 2 features my favorite, Bongonaut.
The free font section at Habitat Seven sports an interface that is sure to infuriate some of you, but I kind of like it. Drag a chunk of trash (?) from the bottom of the screen into the tree chipper(?) and press the Windows or Mac button and it’ll spit out a nice bitmap font.
Orgdot has a nice selection and a very cool interface that lets you type a preview of each font right on the page. Check out the Teacher’s Pet and Kharon families.
Sucharaka has 4 tiny free fonts. I’m really running out of stuff to say.
Underware’s Unibody family is an example of truly high quality pixel font design. If you use these fonts, you might accidentally look professional!
Okay, that was great. Now I never want to see another pixel font ever again.
The late 90’s were a turbulent time in the graphic design world. As design tools became cheaper (and widely pirated) and hosting services allowed any jerk with a few bucks to set up a website, the explosion of creativity was nearly (?) washed away by the almost simultaneous flood of mediocrity that followed. Here’s a couple foundries that were part of the explosion:
It’s kind of exciting to stumble upon websites frozen in time, exactly as you remember them, like that fly in the amber on the end of that guy’s cane in Jurassic Park. To my delight, Germán Olaya has preserved the Typo5 font site in all its 1999 grunged-out glory. I remember using Fango way too much. In hindsight, Oil is probably the most interesting and useful of the lot.
Although Sacred Nipple’s site seems to have gone offline about a year ago, you can still download their free fonts from TypeIndex.org. I think Albino deserves to be put to good use.
Another Monday, another detox ward to break out of so I can make it back to the office by 9:00 am. Here’s some more bitmap fonts to strain your already bloodshot eyes:
04 is a Japanese foundry with about a dozen free pixel fonts on their site. One of my favorites is the easy-to-remember 04B-25. Not to mention 04B-03!
Fonts for Flash has some nice offerings, although I’m not entirely clear on the connection between bitmap fonts and Flash. Check out FFF Neostandard and FFF Harmony.
Miffies is another Japanese foundry with almost 50 free bitmap fonts, almost all of them video game related. Most of their fonts are meant to be used at much higher point settings than 8-12pt fonts on most of the other sites you’ll find. That means they can have some fun with fonts like Spinball. LostPet is also worth a download.
Still more pixel fonts to come, as if you needed any more!
I wish there was something I could tell you about Gray Graphics besides the fact that they’re a Japanese foundry. I mean, you could figure that out by glancing at their URL. So let’s just say that all the fonts on the Gray Graphics website were designed by violent criminals as part of an experimental government rehabilitation program. Who’s gonna call me on it? Anyway, their kanji hiragana fonts look really nice, but I’m sure most of us don’t have much use for them. So check out these gaijin-friendly typefaces: Lumine Sign, Milky Well, Pollyanna.
Want to know a secret about so-called “techno” fonts? Aside from handwriting (and possibly bitmap) typefaces, they’re probably the easiest kind of font for a lazy designer to throw together. Think about it: lots of straight lines, tons of repeatable characters and low expectations from Battlestar Galactica webmasters just looking for a headline font for their fan fiction. Needless to say, it’s always refreshing to see high-tech fonts done well.
onezero pulls it off. I’m not sure who this person is, but visit the portfolio section of their site (Flash ahead) for several nice techno fonts to choose from. Check out: Quer, Racer and Television.
Thanks to John McHugh for the link.