Free masthead fonts?

September 17, 2005 9:44 AM

I am trying to find some free fonts that would be good for use in a masthead.

I'm starting an online and print newsletter on a shoestring budget. Does anyone know of some free fonts that would be good for a masthead? I am looking for fonts ranging from classic NYT-style masthead with gothic-type letters to more modern serif fonts. I've never really done this before, so apologies if I am not being clear about what I want.

posted by nyterrant to media & arts (10 comments total)

Dafont.com is a good resource for free fonts. Typefaces are really a matter of personal preference, but if I read your particular needs right, I might consider:

Bebas
Go Long
Imprimerie
Athena Unicode
CM Tiempo
posted by TonyRobots at 9:51 AM on September 17, 2005

Goodfonts.org is another good source of free fonts.
posted by cerebus19 at 11:05 AM on September 17, 2005

http://www.moorstation.org/typoasis/designers/steffmann/index.htm
posted by atom128 at 12:00 PM on September 17, 2005

Don't forget Ray!
posted by blag at 5:07 PM on September 17, 2005

Dafont and Goodfonts aren't ethical. Dafont will allow people to upload fonts they don't have the rights to distribute. (They take them down if they get a complaint, but they should be reviewing uploads before redistributing them.) Goodfonts appears to have some pirated fonts. Both sites are getting banner ad revenue.

Chank has some funky free fonts, but perhaps nothing appropriate for the newsletter.
posted by D.C. at 8:21 PM on September 17, 2005

Those places are 99% junk. There was a weblog - fontleech or something like that - which purported to find the very few original high-quality free fonts out there.
posted by luriete at 9:24 PM on September 17, 2005

Fontleech. I was about to write something up about how free fonts will get you nowhere because they all suck, but actually Fontleech has a couple of options that aren't half bad for a cheapo newsletter. If you're willing to raise your sights a bit, there are a bunch of digital type foundries that sell decent-to-great fonts for cheap; T.26 is great but perhaps a bit expensive if you're on a very tight budget, but places like Larabie Fonts and Aerotype offer typefaces in the $20-$40 range.

Don't forget about typefaces that come with certain software packages; Adobe's pretty good about putting in some basic typefaces like Myriad (the current Apple identity font) and Garamond that, if used creatively, might be just the thing. (Well, maybe not Garamond. That's best used as a body copy type, not display type.)
posted by chrominance at 10:31 PM on September 17, 2005

Atom128 beat me to it. That steffman site has the best and rarest gothics. And more.
posted by brautigan at 10:43 PM on September 17, 2005

Try:

http://www.1001freefonts.com
http://www.searchfreefonts.com
http://www.webpagepublicity.com/free-fonts.html
posted by richmondparker at 10:54 AM on September 18, 2005

Epilogue: I went with the first couple of suggestions and came up with this.

If you can do better for a modest fee, email's in my profile.
posted by nyterrant at 9:32 PM on September 18, 2005