TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Sun Nov 3 06:34:05 EST 2024

SEARCH THIS SITE:

IMAGE SEARCH:

FONT RECOGNITION VIA FONT MOOSE

LUC DEVROYE


ABOUT







Type parasites



[The finger! A glyph from Martin Majoor's FF Scala Sans Hands, 1998]








SWITCH TO INDEX FILE


1001freefonts
[Jason Nolan]

Good-sized archive by Jason Nolan. Lots of bells and whistles. It gets hairy when he asks 10USD for a 2000-font download, and 20 USD for a 10,000-font download, charging for freeware and shareware fonts made by others. He writes in 2011: 1001 Free Fonts first opened its doors in December 1998 and has since grown to become the most popular free fonts archive online. We receive more than 50,000 visitors daily and have received 150,000,000 visitors since 1998. Over 3,000,000,000 free fonts have been downloaded since 1998.

Creator of Pray for Paris (2015), Aerobus Dotty (2014, a halftone texture font), Dirty Old Town (2014), Ghost of the Wild West (2014), Fresco Stamp (2014), My type Of Font (2009, typewriter) and Emma Sophia (2009, hand-printed). Dafont link. It is interesting, but not surprising, that Monotype (+ITC) is a "partner site". [Google] [More]  ⦿

2200 Free Fonts
[Anton Rukhlin]

Medium-sized font archive. But wait, for 5 dollars, you can get all fonts at once. Who cares that none of the fonts were designed by the web site owner, and not a penny will go to the real designers. Owner: Anton Rukhlin, 500 Catlin Rd, Cary, NO Carolina 27519. [Google] [More]  ⦿

2-free.net
[Ugnius Kiguolis]

I do not know why I even bother. This site is like many others---a gathering place for parasites. Advertised as a free font site, most clicks will take you right away to Monotype Imaging (fonts.com), without any warning. Can someome explain the connection between the name "2-free.net" and Monotype please? Most other stuff you click on is commercial as well. Do not waste your time here. And *please*, Monotype, stop this deceptive advertising---it borders on the criminal. Another sub-link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Absolute Fonts Archive

Crash-prone 6000+ font archive with pop-up windows. Dingbat archive. Individual downloads. For a group download, you will have to pay. This guy is charging for fonts made by freeware/shareware people such as Aenigma and others. Better to go to a clean archive such as FancyForFonts (over 10000 fonts). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alexandru Cuibari
[Fontstock.net]

[More]  ⦿

Alexandru Cuibari (ffonts.net)
[ffonts.net]

[More]  ⦿

Allfontz.com
[Mohamed Waly]

Advertisement-laden archive with over 23,000 fonts. Asking money for freeware/shareware fonts made by others. Contact: Mohamedwalysite@yahoo.com, +20105685621 [Google] [More]  ⦿

Allmyfonts

Archive with 129,000 fonts, most of them commercial. One needs to add two numbers and type the result in to download one font. At ten seconds per download at best, one would need 215 hours. That is over 5 full work weeks. Also included on this ad-driven site are about 200 of my own fonts---I would not mind this on sites that are passionate about the open source and free software movements, but this site seriously offends me. To top it off, the main ad leads to Monotype. I do not want my fonts used as a medium to facilitate sales at Monotype, which itself has ripped of countless of hard-working type designers in the past. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Anton Rukhlin
[2200 Free Fonts]

[More]  ⦿

ArtToday.Com

Welcome to the sewer of the internet. For 78USD per year, you can subscribe to this service, which offers lots of font downloads (almost 6000, they claim). Not only are the fonts rather standard, but upon inspection of the fonts (Erik's Hand, Stencil, Snowcaps, HotTamale, etcetera), it is clear that these guys are asking money for access to freeware/shareware fonts made by others! Holy cow! So, I did some digging and learned that ArtToday.com is owned by Zedcor Inc, 5232 E. Pima St. Suite 200C Tucson, AZ 85712. The head parasite seems to be Peter Gariepy, tel: (520) 881-8101 520-881-1841. Gariepy has become rich (at least judging from his hobbies and other information culled from the web), so, as is often the case in this world, the bad guy won. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ben Kothe

Ben Kothe (Kontur Networx, Germany) created the tape font XuitsFont (2013). This is a commercial hook. Fontspace link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Better Fonts

10,000 plus archive of freeware/shareware fonts. For faster service, you need to pay them for fonts you can download from a thousand other places. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Christa Röhrich

Christa Röhrich (Oskar Lernt Englisch, Germany, b. 1987) created the hand-printed typeface OskarFont (2013). This is a commercial hook. Fontspace link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Christmas Fonts

This guy is selling other people's Christmas fonts, quite unbelievable! [Google] [More]  ⦿

Clipart.com and Agfa

Clipart.com is a parasite site where you can download, so they say, an unlimited number of images and fonts (from a 5000+ font collection) at 7.95 USD a week. It's a bottom feeding outfit, asking money for fonts that are freeware and or shareware. Now, click on "Fonts" and you are transported to Agfa/Monotype. How about that? Owned by DNSADMIN@gettyimages.com, Getty Images, 601 North 34th Street, Seattle, WA. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Cool Fonts

Archive with 10,000 fonts. For a fee, you can download all in one go. To top it off, we have an ad for Monotype---the aging prostitute of type land. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Copyfonts
[Dos Gamer]

A parasite download site full of bleeping and treacherous ads. I have no idea what will happen to your computer if you click on any of the links. You have been warned. Owner: Dos Gamer, 12 Evergreen Close, Chorley, Lancs PR7 3QB, UK. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Criemos

Download site via 4shared, only created to maximize profits from ads for the site owner. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Denis Gorohovskiy

Kiev, Ukraine-based "designer" of the sans typefaces Axiom (2016) and Equilibrium (2016), Arsenal Slab (2016), Parabola (2016, geometric display font), the hairline avant-garde typeface Amsterdam (2016), the minimal rounded sans typeface family Straus (2016), the sans family Aurora (2016), the condensed sans display typeface Tokiozza Light (2016) and the circle-based display typeface Parabola (2016).

Typefaces from 2017: Arson (sans family), Arthur, Adderley, Ashley, Azalea, Havana (a great super-heavy display sans), Atlas, Alicia, Martin, Apollo, Aroma, Tilt (modern geometric sans), Napster (ultra-condensed sans), Equilibrium, Arizona (condensed rounded sans), Argentina (a smooth high-contrast brush typeface), Aroma, Melony Sans, Argo (rounded monospaced sans), Aura (squarish sans), Bloke, Arnold Thin, Arnold Black (heavy geometric titling sans), Anima (rounded sans), Axiom Sans, Arcadia (minimalistic sans), Diod (a tall minimalist sans), Diod Bold, Aurora Thin, Emerald Modern Serif (a skyline typeface), Aqueduct, Arcanzas (a didone, +3D), Alabama (squarish and tall small caps), Antsy (a slab serif that comes across as a typewriter font), Steady Hand (handcrafted caps). Graphicriver link.

Now, alert typophiles have pointed out that most---if not all---of Gorohovskiy's fonts are renamed and plainly stolen fonts. I leave the images on my site for the historical record. Here is a list of equivalences, as reported by this Italian blog:

  • Bebas Neue (Adderley)
  • Canter Bold (Alabama)
  • Chivo (Arthur)
  • Dense (Aroma)
  • Gotham with unofficial (pirated corporate) Cyrillic part (Arson Pro)
  • Josefin Sans (Arsenal Sans)
  • Josefin Slab (Arsenal Slab)
  • Long Tall Sally EEN Plain (Emerald)
  • Source Sans (Equilibrium)
  • TT Chocolates (Arnold)
  • Uniform Black by Miller Type Foundry (Tilt)
  • Vidaloka (Arcanzas)
  • Vollkorn (Martin)
As a result, Gorohovskiy's Creative Market account has been suspended. But why did Creative Market let this matter go on for a full two years? Incompetent editors? As a matter of fact, another distributor, Graphicriver, still has not removed his account as of late February 2018. His sales there amount to about 900 dollars, so this is plain theft. But then again, is this very different from Book Antiqua (Monotype's copy of Palatino) and Fotura (Linotype's not-so-subtle copy of Futura)? [Google] [More]  ⦿

Designdrops

Another parasite trying to make money by luring free font archive visitors to Monotype (fonts.com). There are 5000 free fonts and tons of links to commercial sites, fonts.com (Monotype) being the main sponsor, it seems. Handwriting font archive with juist fonts by Ellinor Rapp (Font Garden). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dos Gamer
[Copyfonts]

[More]  ⦿

Dreamy Design

Dhaka, Bangladesh-based outfit. Vendor of ripped-off typefaces (copied with a new name). The typefaces include Legacy (2018: a sans), Nayori (2018), Lemon Love (2018), Alita (2018), Adamant (2018), Ping Pong (2018, possibly a neon font), Scriptton (2018), Forest (2018), Latest Zig Zag (2018), Latest Shadow (2018), Latest Outline (2018), Latest Blur (2018), Latest Distort (2018), Latest Round (2018), Positive (2018), Victory (2018: script), Lider (2018: paperclip style), Victory (2017), Parachute (2017: monoline script), Glamour (2017: script), Simplesign (2017, brush script), Runway (2017, script), Skyline Script (2017), Legend (2017), Signtouch (2017, signature font), Dreamland Brush (2017), Signesign (2017), Crown (2017), Decor Brush Script (2017), Breeze (2017), Humorous Handwriting (2017), Divine Signature (2017), Captain Signature Brush (2017), Hunter (2017: gothic), Popular (2017), Amethyst (2017), Snow White (2017), Zaytun (2017), Blanket (2017), Piano (2017: a monoline script), Alpana (2017), Wizard (2017, script), Neptune (2016), Cloud Camp (2016), Benjamin (2016), Imagination (2016), Portfolio (2016), Miniver (2016: futuristic), Karikatur (2016), Gravity (2015), Revolution (2015), Arch (2015), California (2015, multi-lined; +AR, +AR Distressed), Sea Beach (2015), Neuron (2015: a sans and serif typeface family, +Outline), Butterfly (2015), Iron (2015), Dominion (2015), Dominion Style (2015), Electron (2015), Manama (2015), La Fontana (2015) and Valentine's Day Font (2015: an illegal copy of Calligri by Summit Type). Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Efont.com

One of the world's parasites. They advertise on nice sites like this one as follows: Download exciting fonts. That leads to Efont.com, which is only a shell with five links---Adobe, Agfa/Monotype, Linotype, ITC and Ultimatefontdownload. Talking about the fox sleeping with the chickens. It gets better: if you click "free fonts" at Efont.com, you get 4 additional links, including the Monotype and Linotype links mentioned above. None of the four links leads to a free font site. And it is incomprehensible, but not surprising in view of their recent behavior, that Monotype engages in this kind of false advertising---I, for one, have been on their case for at least six years on this very issue. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ele-Fonts
[Jennifer Kinsey]

Large free font archive. Hooks and links to commercial things like ITC, Linotype, Ascender, Monotype, and FontGod (commercial handwriting font service). Heavy with ads. Owner: Sinister Creations, Jennifer Kinsey, 612 Bald Rock Rd., Hendersonville, North Carolina 28792, United States, Phone: +1.8286859391, Email: kinsey_jenn@yahoo.com. [Google] [More]  ⦿

ffonts.net
[Alexandru Cuibari (ffonts.net)]

Large free font archive, a guise for thru-clicking to Monotype (fonts.com). Owner: Alexandru Cuibari (ffonts.net), Str Huedin nr 1, Bucuresti, 040911, Romania. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font Bundles

London-based font vendor who started in 2015 or 2016, and carries mostly brush script typefaces. They are mainly pushing their own work.

Typefaces from 2017: Treasure Script, Hastter Sontial script, Dealina (calligraphic script), Red Mist, Queen, Wishing Well, Highlights, Handy Man, Hey Betty, Polar Bear, Realtech, Golly Gosh, Magic Man, Ardina Script (by Ari Fadli), Rusty Bucket (dry brush), Dolly Script (calligraphic wedding script), Handstyles, Bouncy Hunter (spurred), Django (Western), Olivia Script, Questioned, Renegade, One Dance (calligraphic), Mammoth (script), Honey Bee, September Script (calligraphic), Amanda (calligraphic), Sandy Pro, Lilly Mae.

Typefaces from 2018: Squishy, Squishy Extras (sea life dingbats), Billie Harley, Origami, Arkinay, Moscow (a Cyrillic emulation typeface), Bindi, Felt Tip, Christina, Park Ranger, Rembulan, Catchy Script, Champagne (brush and ink splatter), Azalea, Loft Yian (script), Love Candy, Wisdom Script, Montage (signage script), Bristol, Stephanie Jane (brush pen font), Glamorous Silhouette (font duo), Sun City (sans), Crackers, Sliders Script, Jaquilane (upright script), Gladis (formal calligraphic script), Wheatbread (monoline sans), Monstera (a stylish serif typeface), Sailor (tattoo font), Comic Boom (cartoon font), Kely Rose, Radical, Granger (brush font), New Type (prismatic), Sugar Script, Aloha Big Man, Magical Unicorn, Chocolove, Gentle, Roseland, Queensland (copperplate calligraphy), Pink Grapefruit, Jingle Boo, Old Press, Michigan (outline slab serif), Boulder Holder, Angelica (a creamy signage script), Anchor, Freshca (upright connected script), Zimbra (zebra-striped, by Alex Etewut), Adele, AlyshiaScript, BackStitch, BirthdayScript, Brat, BringHearte, CherryBlossom, Eastland, ElhammerBrush, Enyssala, Florva, GloomyDay, HappyBirthday, Heavenfield, Herbie, Junitha, Kayleigh, Mirantie, Mountiane, Nattalia, Quance, QuickBrush, Rafifi, Reebiolla, Rockets, SandyBeaches, Springer, Strangelove, TheCharlotte, Valentino, VictorianMonogram, WinterTime, Zebra.

Typefaces from 2019: Radicals (signage script), Lovebird, Ridgeway, Lindale, Moscow, Anthem, Blackstar (blackletter), Maskoolin, Tatima, Hands Down, Monday Blues, September Script, Restuner, Mammoth, Hey Betty, Ciscopic, Hatterline, Jaiho Script, Diamonds, Indah Script, Amanda (calligraphic), Molyna, Mellow Line, Sandy, Renegade, Loveya Script, Angelina Script, Heilig, Dealicha, Allana.

Typefaces from 2020: Sleeplesson, Nostalgia Script, Fb Super Fun, Fb Lawnmower, Fb Lovehearts, Fb Leonardo, Fb Fancycorgi, Fb Bananasandwich, Fb Doodled, Fb Mighty Spiky, Quirkle, Toasted Cinnamon, Loveya Doodle, Neon Light (a marquee font), Cliche, Zipper, Fb Mainland, Fb Strawberry, Fb Many Mondays, Fb CountryGirls, Fb Caramelong, Sausages (a chunky script). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font Village

Pop-ups and announcements spoil the fun at this 6000 font archive. Besides, the downloads either do not work or are laborious. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font Zilla

Mumbai-based font parasite, who sells fonts made by others and claimed as his/her own, including Michael Script (connected script), Gail Davis (handcrafted), Rustick (by Alex Haigh) and Umbrella (by Ront Beld). On Behance, they claim to be from Dayton, OH. Sales point. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font-cat

I like the Russian internet presence a lot, but this 25000-font archive site misses the boat. One can download evaluation fonts in which some letters have been destroyed. A commercial trap. Plus, captchas for every download? And more ads than fonts? English version. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontcenter

German archive. But this is just a hook to links to certain products. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontemple

Large archive, estimated at about 11,000 fonts, which includes Bitstream, Monotype, WSI, Letraset, ITC, Corel and other fonts, despite the statement All The fonts mentioned are the property of their respective owners, and are either freeware, shareware, demo versions or public domain. In addition, they are begging for PayPal support. Owner: Ray, Jl Pemancar Timur no 43 Seturan, Yogyakarta. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontes Gratis

Annoying Brazilian archive with over 30,000 fonts, neatly categorized, but demonized by ads, pop-ups, and graphics. They sell the free fonts on CDs. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontheaven

Font archive overrun by ads and pop-ups. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontPark

This archive is said to have 70,000 fonts. However, downloads are quite impractical (lots of clicks per single font), and designers are not identified. Plenty of ads too. Finally, the site's owners and managers are not named either. This site exists not because of the love of fonts but because someone wants to make a quick buck. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontriver

Another place run by internet slackers. An archive of free fonts as a bait to attract traffic so that the advertisers can pay up. There is no attempt here to add content. To be avoided. German version. A newer URL. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fonts Black

Instagram site alive in March 2018 that sells any MyFonts font for 3 dollars. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fonts500

Archive featuring the web's top 500 free fonts. Ad site. Asking money for free fonts not made by themselves. Belongs to DomainsByProxy.com, 15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353, Scottsdale, Arizona 85260. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontsIQ.com

"Download" for these people means "a link to a commercial vendor". Enough said. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontSite
[Sean Cavanaugh]

Online font site run by Sean Cavanaugh (b. Cape May, NJ, 1962) out of Camano Island, WA. This used to be called Title Wave Studios. Since 1996, Sean Cavanaugh is the head of FontSite. In the archives, one can/could find essays on writing style, rules of typography, and a comparison by Thomas Phinney (program manager of Latin Fonts at Adobe) of T1 and TTF. The Fontsite 500 CD (30 USD) offers 500 classical fonts with the original names, plus a few names I have not seen before, such as Bergamo (=Bembo by Francesco Griffo), Chantilly (=Gill Sans), Gareth (=Galliard), Noveo sans (=Neuzeit Grotesk), Palladio (=Palatino), Savoy (=Sabon), URWLatino, Unitus, Toxica, Publicity, Plakette, Pericles, Opus (=Optima), Melville, Function, Flanders, Cori Sans, Binner. Uli Stiehl provides proof that many of the fonts at FontSite are rip-offs (identical to) of fonts in Martin Kotulla's (SoftMaker) collection. This is perhaps best explained that Sean Cavanaugh's last real job was director of typography for SoftMaker, Inc., where he oversaw the development and release of SoftMaker's definiType typeface library and associated products [blurb taken from Digital Type Design Guide: The Page Designer's Guide to Working With Type, published in 1995 by Hayden Books].

Free fonts: Bergamo, CartoGothic (1996-2009), CombiNumerals. At MyFonts, the CombiNumerals Pro and CombiSymbols dingbat families are available since 2010. The site has a number of fonts with the acronym FS in the name, so I guess these are relatively original (but I won't swear on it): Allegro FS, Beton FS, Bodoni Display FS (+ Bold, Demibold), Bodoni No 2 FS (+ Ultra, Bodoni Recut FS (+Bold, Demibold), and so forth. His 500 Font CD has these fonts:

  • Garalde, Venetian: Bergamo, Bergamo Expert, Bergamo SC&OsF, Caslon, Caslon Expert, Gareth, Garamond, Garamond Expert, Garamond SC&OsF, Garamond Condensed, Garamond Modern, URW Palladio, URW Palladio Expert, Savoy, Savoy Expert, Savoy Small Caps&OsF, Vendôme.
  • Slab Serif: Clarendon, Glytus, Typewriter, Typewriter Condensed.
  • Script: Commercial Script, Deanna Script, Deanna Swash Caps, Hudson, Legend, Mistral, Park Avenue, Phyllis, Phyllis Swash Caps, Vivaldi.
  • Uncial: American Uncial, Rosslaire.
  • Blackletter: Fette Fraktur, Fette Gotisch, Olde English.
  • Borders and symbols: Celtic Borders, Deanna Borders, Deanna Flowers, Picto, Sean's Symbols.
  • Transitional: URW Antiqua, Baskerville, Baskerville Expert, New Baskerville.
  • Didone, modern: Bodoni, Bodoni Expert, Bodoni Small Caps&OsF, Modern 216, Walbaum.
  • Sans serif: Chantilly, Franklin Gothic, Franklin Gothic Condensed, Franklin Gothic Cnd. SC&OsF, Function, Function Small Caps&OsF, Function Condensed, Goudy Sans, Opus, Opus Small Caps&OsF, Syntax, Letter Gothic.
  • Decorative: Ad Lib, Algerian, Arnold Boecklin, Binner, Caslon Antique, Chromatic, Copperplate Gothic, Davida, Delphian Open Titling, Function Display, Glaser Stencil, Goudy Handtooled, Handel Gothic, Hobo, Honeymoon, Horndon, Mercedes, Mona Lisa, OCR-A&OCR-B, Plakette, Reflex, Salut, Stop, Toxica, VAG Rounded.
Some more fonts: Alperton, Anaconda, Arizona, Bamboo, Bellhop, Bellows Book, Bernhard Modern FS (2011), Boehland (a revival of Johannes Boehland's Balzac, 1951), Le Havre. MyFonts link. Fontspace link. His art deco fonts, as always without "source" and confusing Victorian, art nouveau, and psychedelica with art deco, include Rimini, Arnold Boecklin, Eldamar, Erbar Deco, Rangpur, Pinocchio, Azucar Gothic, Boyle, Busorama FS, Winona, Abbott Old Style, Almeria (after Richard Isbell's Americana) and Adria Deco, Bernhard Modern FS (2011). FontSpring link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Fontsner

Site where one can download fonts from many major foundries. Interestingly, the ads are by Monotype (which owns fonts.com), which by virtue of this site condones downloads of other foundries. Why is there no outcry? [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontstock.net
[Alexandru Cuibari]

Archive run by Alexandru Cuibari. Has about 11,000 fonts. German URL. On the down side---an all-in-one download is offered at 12 dollars. I don't think that he is sending the cash to the font designers. Without asking me, he put my own fonts up on his site, as part of a 12 dollar download package. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontstory

Mysterious site advertised as a free membership online community that provides access to exclusive fonts and pricing. I like it--access to pricing. There are no buttons and links---the page is dysfunctional. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontzone.net

These guys do it all. They say that All font [sic] on this site are either freeware or shareware, yet do the opposite. Downloaders who would like a piece of the 50,000+ font pie, will have to type captcha letters anew for each download, and perform several clicks, for a total of about 30 seconds per download. Let's see, that is 25,000 minutes in all, or over 400 hours. OK, ten work weeks 9 to 5, and you'll be through and ready for the asylum. Font creators are not identified. Not surprisingly, the main "sponsor" and advertizer is Monotype. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Friedrich Mischke

German creator (b. 1986) of the hand-printed typeface Photocad (2013). This is a commercial hook. Fontspace link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Frolicking in the gutter

The web is full of junk---web readers have come to expect it, and are too tired to denounce bad practice or bad habits. But sorting out the junk in the web's gutters is educational, once in a while. When visiting Acidfonts earlier today, a "typical" free font archive by today's standards, several things bothered me. Like many "free" sites, there is a premium service that allows you to download fonts more comfortably----this is a fee for downloading fonts that one can find in many places and that are made by individuals who have nothing to do with the site. There is even a membership. If you can sell snow on EBay, then why not? Well, there is a more obscure source of income---the site attracts a decent amount of traffic, and so there are many clickable ads leading via click-counting sites to Monotype, Fonts.com (also Monotype) and ITC (also Monotype). It sure looks like either this is a Monotype front (I doubt it, but never say never), or it indirectly accepts money from Monotype via a pay-per-click service (and Monotype does not object to it since this has been going on for some time). In fact, in its list of fonts, we find nothing but links to Fonts.com. On the one hand, Linotype (part of Monotype) has been complaining about clones of its fonts for years and has shown a distaste for free font designers and free font sites, so why would it support the parasitic business practices of Acidfonts? If it's a front for Monotype, Acidfonts should say so on page one. If the income is mainly from clicks on Fonts.com links, Acidfonts should say so on page one. Monotype is like a bad tourist trap restaurant that needs to send out shady characters into the street, menus in hand, to lure them in. [Google] [More]  ⦿

GOEMO
[Goetz Morgenschweis]

Another parasite has entered and left the font world. GOEMO is Goetz Morgenschweis's site in Karlsruhe, Germany. He had his own "creations". Yvonne and Yvonne Script are just Freebooter (Meade) and Scriptina (Apostrophe), with the copyright removed and replaced. So, we have to assume by extrapolation that all his 51 "fonts" were made in the same way. The downloads stopped working recently (luckily!). The "fonts" are gone, only to be replaced by more pop-ups. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Goetz Morgenschweis
[GOEMO]

[More]  ⦿

GreenBayCD.com

Absolutely crooked outfit that downloads fonts from web sites (such as Apostrophic Labs, Larabie Fonts, and Shy Fonts), and sells them for about 12 USD on CDs such as Font Studio 2002. The company operates out of Sunnyvale, CA. Administrative contact: Shan Chi of Compact Media, Inc., 6987 Calabazas Creek Circle, San Jose, CA 95129. If you want to call this parasite: +1 408 982 9888 (FAX) +1 408 257 2180. Alternate URL. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ingrid Garcia

Ingrid Garcia (Kontur Networx, Germany) created the tape font Typo3InspiredV2 (2013). This is a commercial hook. Fontspace link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Jason Hogrefe
[Summit Type (or: macware Inc, or: Summitsoft Corporation)]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Jason Nolan
[1001freefonts]

[More]  ⦿

Jason Nolan
[Ultimate Font Download]

[More]  ⦿

Jennifer Kinsey
[Ele-Fonts]

[More]  ⦿

Jerak Durzan
[MacAppware]

[More]  ⦿

K&J Supplies

Another parasite archiver. For a fee, one can download fonts that one would normally find in other archives. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kelly Media

Crooked font vendor in Germany who has a few cheap CDs with renamed commercial fonts. Run by Hans Fremuth, who founded Kelly Data GmbH in 1994 (since 1999 Kelly Data AG). Kelly Data AG went bankrupt in 2002. Ulrich Stiehl has evidence that Fremuth is based in München. On the Kelly Media or Kelly Data web sites, one can find cheap font CDs under names such as Profi-Schriften Business Schriften (679 truetype fonts), Firle Fonts, and Profi-TYPO (2000 fonts). Stiehl discovered a connection between Hans Fremuth and Charles Biddle, who set up Bay Animation, an Annapolis, MD, outfit of equal questionable taste. Font names used by both Kelly Data and Bay Animation include Alps (Hevetica), Amaretto (Bitstream Amerigo), Amethyst (Garamond No. 3), Antiqua 101 (Antique Olive), Attila (ITC Avant Garde), Bangla (ITC Benguiat), Bid Roman (Melior), Bliss (Janson), Block (ITC Machine), Centime (Century Old Style), Chelsey (ITC Cheltenham), Chisel (Copperplate Gothic), Clayton (Caxton), Clean (Orator), Congo (Trump Medieval), Cupid (Cooper Black), Schroeder (Schneidler), Tech (Arquitectura), and Vogel (VAG Rounded). Stiehl's PDF file shows without a shadow of a doubt that Biddle copied several fonts, giving examples of Bid Roman (a copy of Zapf Elliptical).

Owner info: Hetzner Online AG, Stuttgarter Strasse 1, 91710, Gunzenhausen, DE, +49 9831610061, +49 9831610062, info@hetzner.de. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Liquid Fonts

Part of an annoying trend: sites where one can download freeware fonts for a price. Parasite city. Related site. What I don't get is why MyFonts is advertising on this page. It is even worse than I though: pages like this, reached by clicking "download", lead to a Monotype Imaging pay site, fonts.com. [Google] [More]  ⦿

MacAppware
[Jerak Durzan]

This vendor in Omaha, NE, describes itself this way: MacAppware is a division of 128bit Technologies and a dedicated Mac software developer currently offering disk utility applications, graphic design apps, Mac bundles and unique commercial use fonts. For 30 USD (in 2015), one can buy their 1800-font Premium Fonts collection. Other collections include 1000 Opentype Fonts. Virtually all, if not al, fonts are renamed digital fonts from elsewhere. Examples: Lindonna is Poster Bodoni, LuckyRacer is Bernhard Fashion, Memotype (2013, Jerak Durzan) is Century MT, Metropica (2013, Jerak Durzan) is Enviro, retropop (2013, Jerak Durzan) is Pump Triline, and so forth. The list of free fonts offered in 2015 contains mostly material by Nick Curtis, Dieter Steffman and a few other designers. [Google] [More]  ⦿

MacFonts (or: macXware)

A CD with 1000 truetype fonts for Mac OS/X sold for 30USD and advertised by Creative Pro. This PDF file shows that most fonts are by Ray Larabie, Aenigma and other shareware foundries. I wonder if Ray and Aenigma know about this. For an extra 30USD, you can get an additional 750 fonts on the MoreMacFonts CD. That second CD, whose fonts can be viewed here consists of nothing but renamed stuff from elsewhere. The dubious company, called macXware, is run by Ishan Amin out of Omaha, NE. People on Typophile complained that most are freeware/shareware fonts by people such as Ray Larabie, Tom Murphy and Brian Kent (Aenigma). Amin said he obtained permissions. I do not believe that. And a big booh to Creative Pro. On September 4, 2004, 5 months after my original complaint, Creative Pro is still at it advertising this work. Typophile thread. Finally, on September 21, 2004, macXware withdrew its font collections from the market. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Martin Williams
[Ufonts]

[More]  ⦿

Mofonts.com

Archive with 10,000 fonts. For 20 dollars, one can dowbload all the fonts in one click---all those fonts made available for free by their designers, with cash going to Mofonts.com. Swoosh---that is the sound of my toilet flushing. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Mohamed Waly
[Allfontz.com]

[More]  ⦿

Morefont.com

Disgusting archive giving you the choice between free slow one-font-at-a-time downloads or a fast 200-font mega download for a price. The problem is that the fonts are all shareware or freeware. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Oleh Tiurkin
[So Sick Studio]

[More]  ⦿

Peter Vismann

Peter Vismann (Sopra, Germany) created the primitive font Sopra (2013). This is a commercial hook. Fontspace link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Peter Willemoes
[Simon Mikkelsen]

[More]  ⦿

Pure Fonts

Clifford L. Williams is an entrepreneur from Kentucky. He calls himself CEO of ICC2000. He sells 10,000 fonts (no doubt lots of shareware and freeware fonts on there) for 9.99. At the same site: a CD with 5500 XXX pictures for 9.99. And the guy is looking for military graphics. A pillar of the community. [Google] [More]  ⦿

QuicKutz

A scrapbooking company which, like most others, gives the impression of innocence of a baby shower. Not so: these little devils for a while sold quite a few fonts under the QuicKutz label by just changing the name of some commercial fonts. Examples: QKEliza is Goodfellow (1993, Scriptorium), QKFrankie was originally made by Nick Curtis, QK Gidget is due to Chris MacGregor, QK Honey is one of Chank's fonts, QK Indigo comes from Brendel Informatik, QK Katie is Fontdinerdotcom Sparkly (1998, Font Diner), QK Khaki is a renamed font of Patricia Lillie, QK Marisa is Lucida Handwriting, QK Paige is P22 Garamouche (1995, P22), QK Sophie is Chocolate Mint Surprise BV (1999, Blue Vinyl), and so on. Cute new names will not do it---this is theft. Alternate sales point, where the letter shapes are sold as dies, not as fonts. Alternate sales point, where the letter shapes are sold as dies, not as fonts.

I quote some typophile: there is no relationship between QuicKutz and Letraset. QK is a scrapbooking outfit. They are still in business, but I think they've been prohibited from selling fonts (although they might include fonts with some of their products). All the QK fonts were basically other people's fonts that they stole without permission. They gave the fonts new names, but did not seem to have the sense to remove the original font name and copyright info from inside the font file. If you open them with a font editor, it's there for all to see. For example:

  • QK Eliza = Goodfellow (1993, Dave Nalle/Scriptorium)
  • QK Empire = Rusticana (Adobe)
  • QK Frankie = Snoopy Snails (Nick Curtis)
  • QK Gidget = Threadfun Bold (Chris MacGregor)
  • QK Honey = Chauncy Fatty (Chank Diesel)
  • QK Indigo = Ondine (Brendel Informatik)
  • QK Katie = Fontdinerdotcom Sparkly (1998, Font Diner)
  • QK Maggie = Retrofit Bold (Joe Van derBos)
  • QK Marisa = Lucida Handwriting (Bigelow &Holmes)
  • QK Paige = P22 Garamouche (1995, P22)
  • QK Phoebe = Limehouse Script (Letraset)
  • QK Roxy = Showcard Modern (Jim Parkinson/Font Bureau)
  • QK Sonja = Rage Italic (Letraset)
  • QK Sophie = Chocolate Mint Surprise (1999, Blue Vinyl)
  • QK Star = Comic Strip Poster (Agfa MT)
  • QK Venus = Ravie (Font Bureau)
  • QK Zelda = Jokerman (Letraset)
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Scrap Village

10000+ font archive. To download all fonts at once, you will have to fork over 20 dollars. [Google] [More]  ⦿

scrapNfonts

Commercial scrapbooking fonts site. Complaints about its practices are coming in:

  • Teagan White: I recently received an email from someone who found a font for sale on a website that is not identical to, but clearly based off of, my freeware font Clementine Sketch. It just pisses me off that someone is profiting off of an ugly version of a font that I'm offering as freeware. (And then refusing to even admit that it's a knock off.)
  • Jos Buivenga: They also used a free weight of Museo as a base for font that they put up for sale there.
[Google] [More]  ⦿

Sean Cavanaugh
[FontSite]

[MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Search Free Fonts

Find over 10,000 free fonts and 12,000 commercial fonts. Catogorized alphabetically and stylistically. The commercial ones all get beamed back to Agfa. Their search engine could not find my own fonts. The "articles" are also sent back to Agfa/Monotype. A list of what can be had for free here. One suggestion: please leave out "Free" from the name "Search Free Fonts". Owner: 1101 W. Irving Park Rd. Suite 302 Bensenville, IL 60106. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Simon Mikkelsen
[Peter Willemoes]

Here is a Danish fugitive, selling 7000 fonts and many uitilities, mostly shareware, on a CD. I don't think he is apying the creators. His address: Peter Willemoes Vej 103 5220 Odense SŲ. [Google] [More]  ⦿

SnapFonts

Type distribution company that was founded in March 2003 by Jayne Moschella in New York City. Its (now defunct) URL was http://www.snapfonts.com. It was shut down after complaints from various sources after it renamed existing fonts. The typefaces sold by SnapFonts were made by a variety of designers (not named on the web page).

A list of (mostly fifties style) fonts that could be found on their site: Boltimore, Factor Max, Pop's Type, Retro Clips, Soho, ToyType, Cowboy Angels, Snappy, Lollipop, Suffragette, Brighton, Chelsea, Liverpool, Carnaby Street, Kings Road, Piccadilly, Mersey, Portobello, Regent Street, Manchester, Belair, Jaguar, Cruiser, Stingray, Pink Caddy, Mini, Woody, Riviera, Mustang, Metropolitan, Happy Motoring Clips, Abandonado, CheerDown, DevilInHerHeart, FeverInFeverOut, GenericGirl, Georgia, LaVidaLoca, LessThanZero, RideSallyRide, Seven, ShyFatBoy, SnapOMatic, Woof, YoursSincerely, Big Easy, Bourbon Street, Cajun, Crawfish, Creole, French Quarter, Gumbo, Remy, Zydeco, Clifton Chenier, Benjamin, Color of Money, Euro, Fifty Xu, Galileo, Hell Notes, JFK Font, Sri Lanka, Two Pounds, Yen, Incense&Peppermints, Jeepster, Maria, Prebby Enough, Rent, Survive, Then Year Lie, Thirteen, Time ot Season, Time's Changin', Book of Love, Betrayal, Honor, Judas Mon Coeur, Kiss, Lovers&Liars, PPSI, Tattooed Fingers, Three Cigarettes, True Love Ways.

Comments on Typographica: "Are these meant to be original fonts? On this page alone I can see Benguiat Frisky renamed "Metropolitan", House Industries' "Strike!" cunningly disguised as "Woody", and "ITC Anna" masquerading as "Cruiser". Amongst others. (Say, isn't that Brush Script?) Following a couple of links, I see that I can purchase all of these fonts, despite the egregious flouting of copyright laws. [...] They seem to have a good grasp of the import, transformation and weight-change functions in Fontographer (and little else). [...] This Snapfonts thing contains a boatload of crude knockoffs of commercial fonts-Murray Hill, Coronet, TF Avian, and others." So far for Typographica. I only disagree with the Murray Hill comment by John Butler: Elsner&Flake, ICG, Bitstream and others have versions of Murray Hill--can John Butler give us a list of the knockoffs among these, and devote equal time to all knockoffs? [Google] [More]  ⦿

So Sick Studio
[Oleh Tiurkin]

Oleh Tiurkin (So Sick Studio, Mariupol, Ukraine) is selling typefaces made by others such as Spiffy McGee (by Missy Meyer) and Summer Hearets (by Pixel Surplus). Strange. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sostars

This free font archive statesthe opposite of what is intended: Our goal is to provide our visitors with the most popular downloadable fonts and useful font tools for both PC and Mac. In reality, just about everything one clicks on innocently carries an ad, and the page is loaded with more ads, such as the uniquitous fonts.com ad. There is absolutely no background info on any font. A parasitic site. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Stoon

"Designer" of the primitive handcrafted typefaces Akbar (2016), Vladimir Script (2016, calligraphic style) and Aleia (2016), VTC Tribal (2016), and the Arabic emulation typeface Alpha Kufi (2016). He also designed the grungy Aardvark Cafe (2016) and the wonderful connected script typeface The Loyalist (2016).

Now a warning. On some blog, a member wrote this: I don't know about this guy Dean. He seems to be selling other people's free fonts. This one is by Agung Yuwanda. I see he also has a free Wolfbain X font on his page, a Harold Lohner, and a URW/LT font (Vladimir Script), among others, and hasn't even bothered to strip the copyright. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Summit Type (or: macware Inc, or: Summitsoft Corporation)
[Jason Hogrefe]

Summit Type is located in Omaha, NE. At Dafont, the company is associated with Jason Hogrefe. Another name of the company is 128Bit Technologies. Their fonts include Calligri (2009, calligraphic), and Merilee (2009, neat handprinting). At Dafont, there are free fonts such as Alido (2009), Dunkirk (2010, a comic book style face) and Loopi (2009, a connected script). Other fonts include Whirly (2008 curly), Venezio (2008), Regala (2008), Opal (2008), Olcen (2008), Idion (2008), Gamadyne (2008), Ferris (2008), Dickens Carol (2008), Bristle (2008, brush), Banks Script (2008), Arias (2008), and Ardor (2008). The unknown designer might be Hogrefe himself--I doubt it though. Upon closer scrutiny, we discover that the company is basically a vendor. About 4000 Fonts (40 USD), they write All of the fonts in 4000 Fonts are new from our SummitType foundry and have never been available before now. They also sell Wedding Fonts and Holiday Fonts. The company is also known as Summitsoft Corp.

Further investigation reveals that this is the old Macxware company about which I have been writing for almost ten years. From another place on my web site, I quote [note that this was written ca. 2004]: A CD with 1000 truetype fonts for Mac OS/X sold for 30USD and advertised by Creative Pro. This PDF file shows that most fonts are by Ray Larabie, Aenigma and other shareware foundries. I wonder if Ray and Aenigma know about this. For an extra 30USD, you can get an additional 750 fonts on the MoreMacFonts CD. That second CD, whose fonts can be viewed here consists of nothing but renamed stuff from elsewhere.

The dubious company, called macXware, is run by Ishan Amin out of Omaha, NE. People on Typophile complained that most are freeware/shareware fonts by people such as Ray Larabie, Tom Murphy and Brian Kent (Aenigma). Amin said he obtained permissions. I do not believe that. And a big booh to Creative Pro. On September 4, 2004, 5 months after my original complaint, Creative Pro was still at it advertising this work. Typophile thread. Finally, on September 21, 2004, macXware withdrew its font collections from the market. Well, it seems they have been resurrected as Summit Type and convinced MyFonts to accept their business.

The continuing saga in 2011. MacUpdate bundles free fonts with their software---see here and here. The fonts were made by SummitType---this PDF shows all the fonts. The FontPack Pro 2015 edition contains 7640 fonts. See also here, 4000 Fonts (Amazon), here, and here. Again, nothing but renamed fonts---Mistral is Mystic, Vogue is Vogel, and so forth.

Compilation of all font names in the Master Pro collection. List of the 1577 names in the Premium Fonts collection of 128bit Technologies. [Google] [MyFonts] [More]  ⦿

Totally Fonts!

From Raymark Enterprises in the state of Washington, a 20USD 500 font CD that I do not recommend: it consists largely of freeware and shareware fonts collected off the net. Anyone with a browser can pick more fonts from net archives for free. One more parasite. List of links. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ufonts
[Martin Williams]

Archive with about 130,000 truetype fonts. Another major parasite: each click gets a hit to commercial sites like Party Poker. Downloads are painful and are clearly a side show. To be avoided. Anyway, it upset me so much that I did a little digging: the company is CyberAxe, 5 Jupiter House, Reading, Berks RG7 8NN, UK, Tel No. +0.07092217845. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Ugnius Kiguolis
[2-free.net]

[More]  ⦿

Ultimate Font Download
[Jason Nolan]

This is as much an ultimate font download as my uncle's manure pool. $19.95 gets you 10,000 fonts now. The owner, Jason Nolan, claims: I have received the permission from all the font creators to include their work in my download. Hmmmm... right. Jason Nolans is located in Columbus, Ohio, and Dublin, Ireland, which is asking 12 US dollars for a download of 4000 mostly shareware and freeware fonts. Located in 1785 O'Brien Rd, Columbus, OH 43228. [Google] [More]  ⦿

WindowFonts.com

Large font archive, over 30,000 strong. Lots of ads and popping windows. [Google] [More]  ⦿