Design and Style: Let's Go Fonts Shopping!

Image from www.myfonts.com

My latest shopping addiction is not shoes or clothes. (Actually ever since I learned minimalism, I stopped craving for those things.) Anyway, my latest indulgence is F-O-N-T-S shopping. Premium fonts can get too pricey but as always, they are so worth it as proven by my clients' satisfaction. Fonts can make or break a design. Sometimes, my work/craft/hobby calls for a particular type of font that no matter how many I already have, I just need to have the perfect one. My Fonts and Fontshop are my usual go-to places for fonts shopping. You can type a particular word or phrase to test/preview the fonts instantly and they have galleries showcasing samples on how to use the fonts. Sometimes I visit these sites, especially My Fonts, just to immerse myself in visual inspiration.

Why buy fonts when you can get theme for free?

You would want to buy fonts when you are producing something for commercial use or if you are simply going to profit from it. You are technically paying for its license. Licenses varies and you need to read each font's terms of use carefully. Also, usually only paid-premium fonts contain extra features like alternates, ligatures and swashes (You will usually need  Open-Type aware applications to access these.). Sounds too technical for you? Check out this image from one of my recently acquired ultra-gorgeous (Oh no, I'm font crushing!) font, Julieta, below. Those complex curves protruding from the letters are examples of swashes and endings. This particular font has 809 glyphs, giving it thousands of design possibilities. Thus, justifying the price tag.

Image from www.myfonts.com.

Strapped for cash? My Fonts has a "Specials" sections that features freebies, promos and discounts for a given time. This page is one of my favorites because here I often get very good deals on deeply discounted fonts and their promotional posters alone make my mind overflow with ideas on effective design.

If you still wish to get good fonts for free, there are still lots out there. You just need to do a little bit of digging. Just recently, I discovered this free font, Gaunt, alongside with other beautiful free fonts, and even used it as the main font for the words "Schemaholic" of this blog's logo (Update: Changed it.). Yes, I make my blog buttons myself, yay! (Hey, let me know if I should make a blog button design service available so I can push it at the top of my to-do list.) Digging cutesie fonts? Check out Kevin and Amanda and MissTiina now! 

Image from www.thriftandthistle.co.uk

I am relatively new at using premium fonts, so if you have some more tips on this topic, I would love to know. Hey, what's your favorite font?