Hello. My name is Debbie Rodriguez, and I'm a Font-aholic. I don't mean to disrespect anyone by that comment. What I'm saying is, I have so many fonts that I can't even scroll through them all. I love new, fun fonts almost as much as new, fun content packages. I wish it were as easy to manage my fonts as it is to organize my content.
As a content junky (I have no intention of slowing down), I've been asked numerous times where I get fonts and how to install them. So here's just a short list of some fun places to find new fonts and then a quick couple of steps for installing them. It's really easy.
The first site I started frequenting for free fonts was 1001Fonts.com. There are easily more than 1001 fonts on that site, with new ones added all the time. If you think you might become a “collector” like me, I'd recommend starting with a handful of the ones you think you'll really use (not just anything that looks good at the time). You can always go back for more. This site isn't going away.
As I watched more and more training webinars, I kept hearing the trainers referring to DaFont.com as the place where they found their fonts. Some of the ones you find there will be the same as the ones on 1001 Fonts, but some will be different. Again, there's a gigantic selection of fun fonts on this site.
My newest find is Fonts for Peas run by Kevin and Amanda. Here's a link for their Free Fonts page, which has a link to two different pages they maintain with some really fun handwriting type fonts.
Each of these sites provide instructions for how to download and install fonts. In most cases, you'll just click on the link for the font or if that doesn't do it, you can always right click on the download link and Save Target As (IE) or Save Link As (Firefox) to download. Make sure you save it to a location that you can find easily on your computer, whether it's your desktop or a downloads folder. Just make sure you know how to get there once you finish downloading.
Once you have the font downloaded, go to the folder that you downloaded them to. The fonts will be in .zip form. Then, follow the instructions below to install them (based on your operating system).
To install new fonts in Windows Vista or Windows 7:
- Right click on the zipped folder and choose Extract all.
- In the Extract dialog box, check the box that says Show extracted files when complete. Click Extract.
- When the folder opens, look for the file with the same name as the font. The logo should look like a piece of paper with either TT or O on it.
- Right click on the font file and select Install. (You may get a box asking if you want to give permission for this process. Go ahead and click OK.)
- That's it! On to the next font.
To install fonts in Windows XP:
- Right click on the folder and select Extract all. This will open a wizard that will create a new folder with the font name. Check the box to show the folder when finished.
- Now, go to the Start button and select Control Panel. Then double click on Fonts.
- Inside the Fonts folder, select the File drop down and select Install new font.
- In the dialog box, browse to the location of your new font file (the extracted one, not the zip folder). When you click on the folder, the new font will appear in the List of fonts. Select it and click OK.
That's all there is to it! Enjoy your font hunt!