Comments on: Help Me Find A Mac Font

Question: Help Me Find A Mac Font

briank — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:49:43 -0800

Mac Font question: I am doing some home tech support for an elderly couple, and they're looking for a symbol/dingbat sort of font that draws frame/table elements (corners, etc.). I know I have seen fonts just like this but can't for the life of me remember what they might be called. If you can think of the names and/or give a link to a free download, I would appreciate it.

No need to point me to the zillions of font download sites, thank you, unless you are sending me directly to the sort of font I am looking for.

By: amtho

amtho — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:16:58 -0800

Victorian Ornaments 1 or 2 from P22 can be used to make borders. These are not free fonts (~$20 each), but the borders are pretty interesting, and your clients might like them. Their fonts are available for Mac or PC, and I like the company in general -- they have nice fonts.

By: reptile

reptile — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:24:33 -0800

If you have unicode support, any unicode font with the right symbols should work. On my WinXP system, for example, Arial and Courier New work. I don't see why a suitable Unicode font wouldn't work on a Mac. The characters in question are around unicode point 0x2500.

Example (spacing may be off but symbols should still display):

x250c;x2500;x2500;x2500;x2500;x2500;x2510;
x2502; x2502;
x2514;x2500;x2500;x2500;x2500;x2500;x2518;

By: reptile

reptile — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:25:23 -0800

That worked in preview but not in the post, oh well. Imagine an ampersand and # before each of the xs above.

By: briank

briank — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:33:03 -0800

Nice tries, amtho and reptile. The Victorian one is too ornate, and the Unicode characters are not decorative enough.

Keep the suggestions coming!

By: reptile

reptile — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:03:02 -0800

A google search for "border fonts" finds some hits that might help.

A commercial collection here: http://www.fonts.com/FindFonts/detail.htm?pid=400814&osadcampaign=1001

A few free ones here: http://www.1001fonts.com/fonts_overview.html?page=1&category_id=29

Hope this helps.

By: briank

briank — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:22:55 -0800

Bingo. Thanks, reptile