26 Must-Have Free Fonts
May 12, 2009 Web Roundup
Fonts are one of the essential parts of graphic design. The font that accompanies a graphic or web design helps define the feel and compliment the design.
There are a plethora of free fonts available on the internet, but many of them are lackluster or completely impractical. Today, we have 26 must-have fonts that are free to download and use in your personal designs. Make sure to read the license agreement for each font, as some are for personal use only, while others are free to use in commercial work.
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Fonce Sans Regular
Mindriders
Fertigo
Avante Garde ALT
MOD Font
Advent Font
Apogee Rounded Sans Beta
Akashi
ABC Font Typeface Version 2
Megalopolis
Contemporary Modern Font
Kraken Beta
Evolution True Type
Sliced AB
Bobsmade
TyporM01 Round-ans-Square
Simplistic
Origram
Ultravioleta
Font HMG
InDEAL Regular
Estrya's Handwriting
Getting Blocky Abstract
Comfortaa
Dirt2Death
Sunday Morning Garage Sale
Tags: 1864, Abc, Advent, Apogee, Beta, Compliment, Evolution, Font Typeface, Fonts Download, Fonts Free, Free Download, Free Fonts, Graphic Design, License Agreement, Modern Font, Personal Designs, Personal Use, Plethora, True Type, Web Design
May 12th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
nice fonts thanks for the list..
May 13th, 2009 at 3:07 am
Great set!
May 13th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Please differentiate between fonts that are for personal and commercial usage; out of the 26 fonts listed, the following 11 specifically state they should not be used in commercial products (eg, graphic design, some web sites):
* Sunday Morning Garage Sale
* Dirt2Death
* Estrya’s Handwriting
* Re-Noise
* Ultravioleta
* Simplistic
* Sliced AB
* Evolution
* Kraken Beta
* MDRS-FD01
* Advent
Additionally, the author of Apogee Rounded Sans states the font is in beta and not to be shared outside of DeviantArt:
Please be aware that even if it’s shared on dA, this font is not especially meant to be a freeware (or a shareware). It should be not shared anywhere else than here.
It’s a good list, but just wish the fonts had been more thoroughly vetted for designers’ purposes.
May 13th, 2009 at 9:22 am
Sweet. Some nicle looking fonts here, like the look of akashi
May 13th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
That was a truly uninspiring list. Must have? Please. You bore me.
May 13th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
To Fletcher: Only a DA would take the time to send a comment like that. Grow up.
May 13th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
With all due respect, most of these are amateurish and not very well-designed. The few that were made by real typographers stand out nicely, while the rest look like they were done by high school kids with pirated copies of FontLab.
May 14th, 2009 at 3:42 am
Fantastic post and solid font case! Congrats!
May 14th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Any designer with creative versatility would see the value in a diverse range of styles. If you’re successful and work with a variety of clients, it’s beneficial to have a wide range of fonts & typestyle variations available.
Only narrow minded designers would write any of these fonts off as uninspired. I think it might just be the designer who’s uninspired in this case, and I’d bet their portfolio shows a narrow range of style and taste.
Great fonts, thanks for posting.
M
May 15th, 2009 at 2:59 am
some people knows nothing but criticism. you should dare show your own artwork when criticizing one. seems like you have too much to say but nothing show off. uhh. i must say they’re a bunch o’ losers.
May 15th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Some of these are alright, but no free-fonts list is complete without Museo and Museo Sans, two of the best free fonts any designer can get their hands on. Surprised not to see them on the list.
May 15th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Some of these are good. Some of these are very creative but bad. Some of these are almost unreadable. Is the smoke one even really a font, or is it someone’s ad? Either way, cool idea for an ad, but definitely NOT a “must have font”. It’s almost impossible to read. Mindriders is a cool idea that’s hard to read also. It’s easier to read than the smoke one, but it’s still not at all practical. So as to not be COMPLETELY negative, InDEAL Regular, Comfortaa, evolution, and a few others are nice. I recently downloaded Fertigo and find that it is nice (though not for every day use). Dirt2death is good for posters for certain types of things and events. I just really wouldn’t call most of these “must have”s.
May 16th, 2009 at 4:47 am
Nice list.
May 16th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
As a trade shop designer, I get requests for so many fonts that the list will always grow longer.
Thank you for adding a few more drawers to the overflowing cabinet.
May 16th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
If this is a must have list I’d hate to see the Must Not Have list!
Not inspiring nor really interesting type faces at all.
May 17th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
What a bunch of mismanaged blatant promotional hee haw of what seems to be a load of old failed fonts NO ONE wants to buy or use for free.
I can’t imagine why you would risk your reputation by promoting such rubbish. (Rubbish = garbage when spoken in english)
R.A.
May 18th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Great collection!
May 18th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Geez! So much artistic sniping! I wasn’t thrilled with every font, but hey, they’re free! How can you bitch about that?
Personally, I’m grateful for the list, and will take what I can use, and toss the rest.
Chill out, folks! We’re in the Earth Changes. If we can’t get beyond petty gripes, we’ll never survive … we might not anyway, but wouldn’t it be nice to at least go out feeling good about ourselves and each other?
May 18th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
One word… awesome
thanks!
May 19th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Inspiring list
)
May 19th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
yea very nice and greant pot thanks
May 20th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
A very nice selection of fonts! Thanks for posting these.
May 23rd, 2009 at 6:54 am
Great post, a zip file with all the of the fonts would have been awesome tho
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Well bugger me, that is a collection of mostly boring and un useful fonts, well done in compliling mediocraty.
stumbleapon kak.
dont keep up the day job, dont even bother collating shite, these fonts are yawn….. dull, nicely presented on designs though, give you that
May 24th, 2009 at 5:14 am
wonderful! thanks.
May 26th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Thanks for taking the time to compile and publish the list.
I notice that the people who posted the negative comments about your list did not provide a link to their list of super duper fonts. Why do you think that is?
May 28th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Wow, those are some crazy fonts. Some of them aren’t really readable though – I’m not sure what the point of those are?
The Top 10 Cigars
May 29th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Anxious to try some of these fonts.
May 31st, 2009 at 8:18 am
Nice collection. Thanks for sharing
June 5th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Sweet fonts collection!
June 5th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Glad you like!
June 8th, 2009 at 7:49 am
Good post. I like how you’ve illustrated each font – it makes it easy to see the differences between the fonts
June 10th, 2009 at 8:20 am
I just love it!Thanks!
June 12th, 2009 at 1:31 am
great list. i didn’t know most of them before.
June 14th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
non of the links work!
July 9th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Great list thx for sharing
July 16th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
thanks for your sharing!
July 16th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I’m not so sure some of them are “must have” but it’s definitely a useful list.
August 31st, 2009 at 4:20 am
I have been looking for a nice collection of fonts because I want to do a areal logo for my site and this is a great resource! Bookmarked and will be looking over it for the next couple of days to find the right one. Thanks for sharing!
August 31st, 2009 at 4:21 am
These are glorious days for typography: the quality and quantity of fonts being developed is impressive. Also I’m cheap… I Always prefer your free font lists
August 31st, 2009 at 4:29 am
Thanks for ur font list. it is very useful to my site ubdation.
September 11th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Thanks for the list, cant wait to try some out.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Thank you!!!!!
Good!!!!!!!
it’s Cute , Pretty
and so on
October 29th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Thank youuuuuuuuuuu !!
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:07 am
Thank u….. Very creative and useful fonts…….
November 24th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
great fonts, I just wish web browsers would allow for greater use of fonts.
December 1st, 2009 at 6:03 pm
creative fonts…
good visual, color and body font..good concept.
visit my blog http://de8lapan.wordpress.com
thanks..
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Thanks dear i like these fonts
December 14th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Hey…! Great list dude, It really works, I was searching for this kind of list and i got because of you,,, Thanks a lot broo…!
December 17th, 2009 at 2:51 am
uh.
just wondering what you do with the fonts after you download them?
cant seem to do all that much with them.
thanks.
December 17th, 2009 at 4:24 am
Add them to your system fonts, then you can use them in your graphics program
December 26th, 2009 at 1:51 am
Nice fonts ..Thanks for sharing…..
December 29th, 2009 at 7:57 am
If you are looking for free fonts, check http://www.fonts2u.com. Discovered it just few days ago. Their
character map search is awesome! Saved some time when looking for specific character maps supported.
January 22nd, 2010 at 1:11 pm
How do I download one of these fonts?
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Click the font image which will redirect you to the host site, then download there.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Thanks. I really like these fonts. I love really “out there” fonts. These are great.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:25 pm
I just used the MOD font with a black outline and a tiled fill (like a bathroom shower tile, and used my water drops tube and it looks awesome. Thanks so much!