M A G N A N I M I T Y

Fancy Free Fonts I Love and How to Install/Organize Fonts

January 2, 2011 at 2:26 pm 14 comments

I LOVE LETTERS!

Here is a list of a few fancy modern fonts. (If you see one you like and want, simply search for them by name and download them free.)   Below the list is a picture of what each one looks like by it’s name.

BY NAME:

Amazone BT (TT1040M_.TTF)

BahiaScriptSSK  (TTF)

Beautiful Caps ES  Swash Capitals

Belphebe

Blackadder ITC

Champignon

Civilian

Exmouth

French Script

Garamond Italic

Gayane StO Regular (first letter text)

HenryMorganHand

Hurricane (SupaDupaSerif)

Leafy glade (first letter text)

Leafyshade (first letter text)

Monotype Corsiva

Mutlu Ornamental

One Fell Swoop

Orphiel Demo

Here are a few I’m enjoying for use in my daughter’s scrapbook:

Feel free to right click|save to disk|print if the .jpg is something you can use for your own scrapbook.

HOW TO INSTALL THE FONTS ON YOUR COMPUTER:

The short explanation:

1.  Download the font.   It will be zipped.  Right click and extract it.  Open the zipped .tff file.

2.  Drag the .tff file into your Windows Fonts folder

It is now installed and ready for use.  Do not delete system fonts from your computer.

Suggestions:

• download all fonts to a file you name and can relocate easily later.  I use “My Downloaded Fonts” .
• unzip all your fonts at once.  I use a free program you can download like “UnZipThemAll” to unzip a bunch of files at one time, pronto.  Highly recommend it.
• leave your virus scanner enabled.  It should scan any downloaded files.  I use avast! free virus protection, home edition.
• some people choose to leave all “downloaded fonts” in a folder separate from their main system fonts to avoid confusing when thinning down later. A program I discussed earlier, AMP or Nexus will run UNinstalled fonts.  This keeps the Windows and other programs from getting too bogged down by running too many fonts.
• when downloading or installing, you do not “need” every version of every font:  for example, if  the program you are using converts the primary font to bold and italic for you, you don’t have to also install a font with four versions which include bold and italic.  This means that when you are using Word or Photoshop,  you won’t have to scroll passed four versions of the same font name to view the next font on the list.

Font Management Programs:

I have about 900 fonts.  I have used “The Font Thing” for many years to help give me a better visual of the exact text I want to see.  It works well.  Using that program, I have also sorted fonts by category to quickly find fonts needed.   Recently, I’ve transitioned to Windows 7, and this program doesn’t install easily on Windows 7 without a workaround (install program every time you want to use it, and no updating of this program).

Curious about other options, I’ve recently reviewed new Free Font Programs.  After a couple weeks of using several font programs, (AMP and Nexus), I think Nexus is my next font program manager.  Both are good, but Nexus seems to keep everything on horizontal text lines, which my mind seems to prefer.  AMP is good as well, but switches to a grid of boxes of fonts for some views.  It’s worth a try as well.

Here is the list of categories I have developed to sort my fonts.  I sort by file type, but also by what will cut well on my Cricut machine.  You should develop categories that make sense to you for your uses.

The categories I use are Cartoon (images of superman, etc.), Christmas, clear cut calligraphy (images that would cut clearly on a Cricut), Clear Cut Fonts (fonts that would cut well on a Cricut), Color & Print (for card-making, not cutting), Dingbat Clear Cut, Fancy Calligraphic, Fine Line Clear (clear, but needs to be made thicker in the cut program to cut well), Frames, Handwritten, Image Letters (letters that have other images on them), Labels, Tags, & Boxes, Music, and Ornamentals (generally not good for cutting).

“Sure Cuts a Lot” Font Cutting Program for Cricut:

I mentioned cutting fonts.  If you would like software that allows your Crucit to cut out of cardstock any font on your computer, try SCAL (Sure Cuts a Lot) for free trial.   Is great for sign-makers, teachers, scrapbookers, or automobiles decal makers.  You can even cut vinyl for windows and autos.

It’s currently on sale ($59.95 Limited Special Offer). Here’s a Baby Album Using Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot where I downloaded elements off the internet for cutting, and here’s some projects where I used a lot of free fonts.  I prefer this to buying a cartridge for even $15.  Most often, the cartridges are $30-$60 per font.  I love this program and use it daily.  Updates are free, and the support community is great!  Click here to see some of my current projects using SCAL.

I plan to update this list within the week with even  more beautiful fonts I’m finding, so be sure to check back or subscribe by RSS feed so you don’t miss them.

Favorite Font Sites:

Entry filed under: Cricut, Font, fonts, SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot), Scrapbooking, Sure Cuts a Lot. Tags: fonts, free fonts, install fonts, Scrapbooking.