Favorite Fonts

I've seen a lot of collections of fabulous fonts on Pinterest, and I am always so sad when they end up costing money.  As a digiscrapper/DIYer/teacher/writer/volunteer secretary, I do find fun fonts to be almost a "necessity," but there is NO WAY I'm gonna pay for something like that--especially not the high prices many cute fonts cost!  :)  Fortunately, there are LOTS of great, FREE places to download any of thousands of fonts, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite places to find them, how to download and use them, as well as some of my absolutely favorite fonts with all of you.  :)

These are my favorite FREE font finders:
www.dafont.com
http://www.searchfreefonts.com
http://www.1001freefonts.com

Let's walk through (for the technically challenged, like me) how to download & install a font onto your computer once you find one you like.  :)  It's incredibly simple, actually.  I'm sure it's relatively similar for Macs, too, but as I don't have one, I can't promise anything. 

Once you've found a font you want, click the "download" button and save it to whatever folder you want--I have a folder for fonts--one installed and one TO install, and transfer them over.  :)

Your font will save as a zipped file, so you'll have to unzip it.  Just right click the little book icon and select "Extract Here."  This will save the "insides" of the zipped file in the same folder.

You should see a file that is a "truetype font" or "open type font" or something like that, usually named whatever the font is called.  Right click on it and select "Install."

 It's that easy!  Your new font will show up wherever fonts are used--so in your word processors/image editing software/wherever, you will see this!

NOTE: The only downside to downloading fun fonts is that if other people don't have them on THEIR computers, they won't be able to see them, and it can easily mess up formatting of documents when they try to.  So in most cases these fonts are for personal use--if you use them, save your files as images or .pdfs, or print them out. 

I use these fun fonts for cards and invitations, digiscrapping and other crafts, titles for otherwise BORING organization documents, and in just about EVERYTHING classroom-related.  Not to mention that I often like to pick a font when I write that suits what I'm writing about, whether it's a fun title for our annual newsletter or writing from different characters' points of view and wanting to distinguish them all.  So here are a few of my favorites.  I couldn't sift through the THOUSAND or so I have and narrow them down to just a handful very easily, so you'll get these in categories.


HANDWRITING FONTS: for journaling/anything where you'd want it to look semi-handwritten. 

FAMOUS FONTS: For themed pages and parties, little treat labels for goodies for the kids (or husbands), and other SUPER SPECIFIC purposes.  :)

EASY-TO-READ FONTS: I use these for a few different reasons--usually journaling my digipages, though.  These are the sans-serifs and such that are mostly, well...easy to read.  :)

SCHOOL-WORTHY FONTS: Mostly having to do with kids' handwriting or learning to print/write in cursive, these fun fonts are GREAT for anything having to do with school or children.

I think I'll come back tomorrow and work on showing you the rest.  :)  After a while, looking through gazillions of fonts gives me a headache...I definitely need a break from the computer for a while.  But I hope this is useful to someone out there.  :)