TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Wed Nov 20 11:28:11 EST 2024

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1stopfonts

A font of the day place. An archive. A font search engine. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Agfa

Font search engine packaged so that one might think it is an independent effort. Not so: Agfa is swamping the net with URLs to capture font traffic. This site leads mainly to Agfa fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Alex Cuibari
[WhatFontIs]

[More]  ⦿

Alexander Neuber
[Free Fonts]

[More]  ⦿

Archive.org

Font-related search. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Christian Liljeberg
[Retroglobe Typeface Identification Guide]

[More]  ⦿

Columbia University

Search for type books in Columbia University's extensive type collection (which comes mainly from Bullen and ATF). [Google] [More]  ⦿

Creative Pro

Font search engine and font search links at Creative Pro. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Dasauge

Commercial font search engine. [Google] [More]  ⦿

David Johnson-Davies
[Identifont]

[More]  ⦿

Dogpile Open Directory

The main font link sites, with a search engine on top of them. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Download-Fonts

Agfa-Monotype-ITC font search engine. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Filesearching.com

FTP search of Russian sites. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Filetype search in Google

Example of a filitype search in Google: "filetype:ttf 3of9". [Google] [More]  ⦿

Filewatcher.com

Search files by filename. [Google] [More]  ⦿

findmyfont

Commercial software for Mac and Windows by Softonium Developments in Greece. Given an image of a font, or just letters of a font, this software locates the font on one's computer. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font Hit

Font search engine. Good for commercial searches, but awful for anything non-commercial. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font identification

To identify fonts, you can try a number of things: ask on the newsgroups like comp.fonts, ask the mail groups like Typophile, try a web-basec automated service like MyFonts or Identifont (which, if they work, guide you to a commercial product), or try special software like Font Matcher (for fonts already on your computer), or Font Assist. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font identification (Spanish)

Font identification jump page, in Spanish. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font Matcher

Free Windows software from 2000 that finds the best font match from your truetype collection (on your computer) for a given bitmap of a character (e.g., in BMP format). By Javier Guerrero García. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font Matcherator

Font matching service by Fontspring. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Font Moose

Font identification service in Montreal started in February 2015. Great performance for single character recognition. So-so performance for images. Drag-and-drop and/or smartphone picture service. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontAssist 3.0

Commercial PC program for identifying or finding a close match for scanned fonts. Free trial with 30runs. By Balarad Software (Ladislav Balara) in Presov, Slovakia. The font recognition program recognizes 5300+ Corel Draw, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Word and other trueType fonts based on font features and some key letters. Can also be used as a font installer and printer. Download site. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontBook online

Searching for a designer or a font? Look no further than the FontBook. It has over 25,000 fonts listed. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontFind

A font search engine, I guess, but all my searches led nowhere (I tried Waaiberg, Lillie and Bruno---at least two of these should have had had hits). [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontFinder

From Leksand, Sweden, Peter Reichel's font site. It advertises the following: Search the Font database by name/design, attribute/family, headline, text or pi-fonts. Create and customize (body and headline text) extensive type-charts (PDF created on the fly) for more than 1000 fonts, in your own language. Download free TT-fonts with extensive kerning tables. Problem is that on some Netscape browsers, nothing works. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontfinder
[Maximilian Bloch]

Font search engine by Bremen, Germany-based Maximilian Bloch. Behance link. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontID
[Stephen Coles]

Font identification service by Stephen Coles. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontIdentifier

Linotype's expert system (question-based) for identifying fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontpool font search

Search for a font at Fontpool. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontSearchEngine.Com

Font search engine under development. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Fontseek

Font search. The font data bank has over 55,000 fonts, which are mostly commercial. In fact, it looks like yet another Agfa/Monotype site. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FontSeek.com

Alexander Neuber's nice font search engine. It searches among commercial and free fonts. Bookmark it! Its font data bank contains more than 55,000 free and commercial fonts. The search results comes with a preview and download URL. [Google] [More]  ⦿

fonts.websearches.net

In my view, the best font search engine on the web. Try it out! [Google] [More]  ⦿

FORdesigners.com

Font search engine for a few big commercial houses. Of limited use. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Free Fonts
[Alexander Neuber]

Excellent free font search engine. Run by Alexander Neuber. More direct page. Handwriting archive. [Google] [More]  ⦿

FTP search for a font

This is one of the most useful services anywhere. Want lots of fonts fast? Search for fonts.zip, or ttf, or something similar. Once you get the idea, the world is at your feet. Mirror services: Sweden (ftp.sunet.se only) | Servers in Slovenia | Some FTP servers in Japan | Some FTP servers in Russia | ftp.riken.go.jp only | Belgium and worldwide | FTP searches in South Africa | FTP searches in Russia. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Google

Google font searching can be automated as in this example. If you look for Monotype Corsiva, say, then use the direct URL http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Monotype+Corsiva or http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Mtcorsva.ttf%22. Take a guess at what the filename could be. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Google Books

Google's book scanning project. Books available starting in August 2006 include Jan Middendorp's Dutch Type and hundreds of others. The pages come in low quality JPG format, about 90k per page. Furthermore, the right-click download function is disabled. The only way to get an entire book is to click on every page in the browser, and then check the cache on your computer, which should have each page in its JPG format---a painful process that will take a good hacker to automate. Text pages are sometimes in PNG format. Grabbing text for quotations, as one can do in PDF files for example, is impossible. So, in summary, Google Books is useful for advertising purposes, to make one buy the book. It is useless for those wishing to do some serious reading or those interested in the fine details of type specimen or other images. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Google Patent Search

Google patent search turns up about 8800 font patents filed with the US Patent Office in the 19th and 20th centuries. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Google Patent Search pre 1900

Google patent search turns up about 800 font patents filed with the US Patent Office in the 19th century. One can download PDFs of all filed designs. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Harvard Hollis catalog

Search for type specimen and type books at Harvard. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hotbot: recent truetype additions

Search Hotbot for recent pages with TrueType fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Hotbot: recent type 1 additions

Search Hotbot for recent pages with type 1 fonts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Identifont
[David Johnson-Davies]

Font identifier based on answering questions. A great initiative of David Johnson-Davies [Human-Computer Interface, Cambridge, UK], it currently contains information about most major type libraries, including Adobe, Agfa-Monotype, Bitstream, Elsner+Flake, Font Bureau, FontFont, ITC, Linotype, P22, and URW++, and is undergoing continuous development. Interview. Free fonts listing. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Identifying and getting a hold of fonts

Interesting discussion on how to find and get fonts for free, with tons of practical tips. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Kevin C. Woodward
[The Font Pool]

[More]  ⦿

Laurence Penney
[WhatTheFont]

[More]  ⦿

Letrag

Font news in English, Spanish and Galego. Lots of updates! Goodies on type classification, font search, a type glossary, font identification, type articles, and related information. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Maximilian Bloch
[Fontfinder]

[More]  ⦿

Musée de l'imprimerie et de la communication graphique: Search engine

Search for the history of a French font at the Musé de l'imprimerie et de la communication graphique in Lyon. [Google] [More]  ⦿

OnTheWeb

Find a commercial font through this site. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Retroglobe Typeface Identification Guide
[Christian Liljeberg]

Dead link. Christian Liljeberg's on-line typeface identification guide: "It is a step-by-step guide to help identify around 700 different typefaces. The Guide is based on the Rookledge's International Typefinder (ISBN 1559210524 or 187075803X) by Christopher Perfect and Gordon Rookledge and David A. Mundie has converted it to HTML." Christian was born in Gotheborg, Sweden, in 1978. Typeface classification very similar in concept to David Mundie's "Field Guide to the Faces". [Google] [More]  ⦿

Sans Serif Font Identification

Sans serif font identification based on the letter G. [Google] [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]  ⦿

SSi Font Database

Font database that is not too shabby. It will locate many commercial fonts, and mention the SSi equivalent. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Stephen Coles
[FontID]

[More]  ⦿

The Font Pool
[Kevin C. Woodward]

Site affiliated with MyFonts with links to over 27,000 fonts, organized and categorized by Kevin C. Woodward. Font categories. Foundries. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Type Navigator

Fontshop's on-line search engine makes locating a font in the Fontshop library simple. Completely visual and mouse-driven, this is a step forward. A test for modern correctly showed that Fontshop offers these modern typefaces: FF Acanthus (Kobayashi), FF Bodoni Classic (Wiescher), FF Cellini (Boton) and FF Danubia (Solt-Bittner). The software was developed by Hansjörg and Robert Stulle. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Typedia

Typedia is a community website to classify typefaces and educate people about them. Think of it like a mix between IMDb and Wikipedia, but just for type. Anyone can join, add, and edit pages for typefaces or for the people behind the type. Site created and run by Jason Santa Maria, Mark Simonson, Liz Danzico, Dan Mall, Mark Huot, Brian Warren, Ethan Marcotte, Stephen Coles, Ryan Masuga, Aaron Gustafson, Garrett Murray, and John Langdon. Blog. News. [Google] [More]  ⦿

Typografie.info

Font search engine. Not bad! [Google] [More]  ⦿

Typophile Channel for Sherlock

For Mac people: Sherlock channels at typophile that search many sites, all dot coms, including Adobe Type Library, Amazon.com Graphic Design Books, Creative Pro, Emigre, Font Bureau, FontFont Online Shop, Fontzone, Hoefler Type Foundry, Letterror, Lines&Splines, MyFonts.com, Oak Knoll Books&Press, Parkinson Type Design, Porchez Typofonderie, Text Matters, Typereview.com, Typeright, Typographer.com, Typophile Forums, Yahoo Design Arts. [Google] [More]  ⦿

WhatFontIs
[Alex Cuibari]

On-line font identification tool by Alex Cuibari. Enter an image and get a list of possible matching font names. Their data base is over 300,000 strong. I think that the business model is to provide links to commercial vendors such as MyFonts, although free fonts are also in their list of typefaces. There is also a pretty good (but still limited) font search engine. For example, it did not locate most of the fonts I made, even though they have been on public sites for about ten years. I also do not like sites with huge "small print" and "legal warnings" sections---what are they afraid of? [Google] [More]  ⦿

WhatTheFont
[Laurence Penney]

Send scanned images to the site for automatic recognition. A part of MyFonts.com. It did not work on the gif files I sent, but others report some luck. It will never recognize a non-commercial font or report all equivalent names of a font, so there is a built-in bias. [Google] [More]  ⦿