Font Design

Archive for the ‘Free Fonts’ Category

This month’s free font download at Softmaker is Delano Caps. The font is available at http://www.freefont.de/us. It is available in 3 formats – Windows TrueType and Type 1 PostScript and Macintosh Type 1 PostScript.

Delano Caps is a Display font and its attributes include decorative, engraving, caps only. Delano Caps is similar to URW Dextor which was originally designed by L. Meuffels in 1994. Dextor was originally offered by the French company, Mecanorma. It is also offered by URW, Linotype and Scangraphic.

Check back often for information on font design and font editing.

This month’s free font download from Softmaker is Flagstaff. It is a display font that looks like it was inspired by the Op Art style of lettering that was popular in the U.S.  in many photo type houses in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

The Flagstaff font can be downloaded this month for free from http://www.freefont.de/us. It is available in PC TrueType and PostScript Type 1 formats and Macintosh PostScript Type 1 format. This font is very similar to the Glyphic Series originally designed by Richard A. Schlatter in 1972. There is also another font family released in 2002 – Glyphic Neue by Typeco – which is also very similar.

This month’s free font download at Softmaker (http://www.freefont.de/us/index.htm) is Henderson. It is available in 3 formats: TrueType Windows, Type 1 PostScript Windows and Type 1 Macintosh. Henderson is based on the Linotype Hawthorn typeface. Hawthorn is a serif typeface created for display usage. It was created by Mike Daines in 1968.

Henderson combines both round and sharp stems and serifs and it has a distinct, late 60s feel. It is at home with the late 60s pop art feel of its era. Its sharp and pointy serifs are probably its most unique feature. Henderson is slightly condensed with tall x-heights like many other display faces intended for use is advertising headlines.

This month’s free font download from Softmaker is Stone Handwriting. Each month, a new font is available as a free download from the same url: http://www.freefont.de/us/index.htm. There are a ton of handwriting fonts available online and a lot of them are unsuitable for many layouts because they are messy in appearance. This one has a nice, neat and clean feel. The characters have a uniform height, but does not appear to be draftsman-like, thus lending itself to informal usage without being messy.

This font comes in TrueType (TTF) and OpenType PostScript (OTF) formats. The PostScript variety makes it a good candidate for professional layouts output by printers and service bureaus.

If you are having trouble accessing Mac fonts in downloaded Stuffit files (files with a sit file extension), it is because the newer Mac OS doesn’t have a helper application for the browser for older sit files. You can download and install the free Stuffit Expander (http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/stuffit/expander.html). After you download a Mac font (a sit file), first navigate to the folder where the sit file is. Hold down the Control key and click the file. In the context menu, choose Open With > Stuffit Expander. That will expand the sit file and give you access to the actual fonts.

ShyFonts.com (ShyFonts Type Foundry) was the original home for font designer Derek Vogelpohl where his fonts were available for free. Although the site was shut down in 2001, his fonts were still available at TypeOasis (http://moorstation.org/typoasis/typoasis1.htm). Now ShyFonts is back at ShyFoundry at the new domain: www.shyfoundry.com. Derek’s free fonts are still available – along with his commercial fonts (pay fonts).

The ShyFonts free fonts archive has always been one of my favorite free fonts collection. These are quality fonts – many of them are comic book / cartoon font designs.

This month’s free font download at SoftMaker.de is Digital. Download this font from this link http://www.freefont.de/us/index.htm. This is a very popular typeface and is often used for display and headlines.

You can download one of SoftMaker’s high-quality fonts each month absolutely free of charge. Check back each month for the latest free font download.