Downloadable wedding monogram font?

November 2, 2006 2:13 PM

A friend is looking for a free (or really cheap) downloadable font to create a monogram for her wedding invitations consisting of the bride and groom's first initials and an ampersand (ie N&V). Any tips for a scripty, engrave-y, calligraphy-y, weddingy type font with lots of flourishes? Is it a monogram if it's for two people? I have no idea.
posted by obiwanwasabi to writing & language (12 comments total)

DaFont.com (Caligraphy)?

It let's you type preview characters before you download. Check out the handwritten category too.

Dali, perhaps?
posted by niles at 2:17 PM on November 2, 2006

If you can get on a Mac, there's a lovely font called Zapfino. It leans towards the simple flair end of the spectrum, rather than the ornate and detailed end. It also has a few variant forms for each character, so there's some playing around you can do.
posted by chrismear at 2:52 PM on November 2, 2006

Porcelain and Selfish from misprinted type are both pretty and flourishy, with a little bit of edge. Edwardian is very pretty as well. Also check out the script category of Wanted Fonts, although I think there are pop-ups.
posted by iconomy at 2:53 PM on November 2, 2006 [1 favorite]

Any time I need a font, I start at 1001 Free Fonts. The fonts are listed by name (instead of category) which is mildly annoying. But they are 100% free and easy to get - find your font, select mac or PC, open the folder (instead of saving), then extract the file to your system font folder. I've got a whole collection...
posted by youngergirl44 at 3:03 PM on November 2, 2006

For the money they might be better off sponsering a corporate contest over at worth1000.com
posted by damn dirty ape at 3:41 PM on November 2, 2006

"Is it a monogram if it's for two people? I have no idea."

Answers.com says yes.
posted by niles at 4:24 PM on November 2, 2006

er..Answers.com
posted by niles at 4:25 PM on November 2, 2006

I've always been fond of Poetica and its variants.
posted by plinth at 5:08 PM on November 2, 2006

I've tried plowing through 1001 fonts and gave up. The fonts appear to only be organized alphabetically, which is particularly meaningless for fonts, and most of them are quite ugly. Dafont, on the other hand, has the fonts categorized by style, and it should be quite easy to find a beautful font this way.

While Macs once had Zapf Chancery included free, they now have Apple Chancery instead, which in many ways is even better, as it has extended ligatures and variants of a number of characters, including the ampersand. You'll need to use an OS X text-tool savvy application, though, although simple TextEdit might do fine for laying out the invitation.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:05 PM on November 2, 2006

Zapfino
posted by govtrust at 12:35 AM on November 3, 2006

I do these all the time for people. E-mail's in profile.
posted by pyjammy at 8:05 AM on November 3, 2006

Thanks! She mixed Porcelain and Selfish (one for the letters, and the other for the ampersand).
posted by obiwanwasabi at 2:54 AM on November 7, 2006