Where To Find Typefaces: A Guide for Typography Students and Graphic Designers
“Where do I find good typefaces and how can I choose which ones to use?” This is a question I hear all the time not only from typography students but also professional graphic designers. The amount of fonts to choose from has exploded in the last few decades and it is more overwhelming than ever to sift through the options and find the perfect typeface for the job.
Keep in mind this is written from a perspective of choosing typefaces that are high enough quality for professional design work so when I refer to a typeface or font as “bad,” it means “not appropriate for professional design.”
You can either get typeface licenses from marketplaces that carry typefaces from multiple foundries or direct from the foundries and type designers. Not all marketplaces are the same – some are curated collections that have been vetted for quality while others are a free-for-all-upload-anything-you-want platform with little quality control. Keep in mind that marketplaces usually take a 50-70% cut from type designers so it’s not always the best option for supporting independent type designers financially, but you get a great benefit of being able to search through lots of options all in one place!
Top 5 Marketplaces
You can’t really go wrong with any of these, they are curated and feature quality typefaces appropriate for your professional graphic design work.
Adobe Fonts
Subscription
If you have one, it comes with your Adobe CC subscription and is a great curated collection of both classic and contemporary typefaces. You can’t really go wrong and you can probably find something to work for most projects but there is a whole world outside of this marketplace with some very fun things going on!
Fontshare
Free
A project from Indian Type Foundry, with very high quality typefaces at a surprising price: free. There is some overlap with Google Fonts but many typefaces in the catalog are fairly unknown at this point so you are more likely to find something unique and not overused here.
I Love Typography
Paid
A curated marketplace from a great selection of independent foundries. The foundries are paid a fair royalty rate and the robust CEDARs search is very detailed so if you know what you are looking for you can narrow down your choices pretty quickly (full disclosure, I offer my fonts on this platform).
Fontstand
Paid
Did you know you can rent fonts? If your project is short term you can rent the fonts monthly. The selection is top-notch and offers access to some usually very high-priced fonts by highly skilled type designers for a fraction of the cost.
League Of Movable Type
Free
A good but smaller selection of open-source fonts. They also have a weekly newsletter that is full of great content.
More Good Marketplace Options
Google Fonts
Free
The quality of fonts here has increased dramatically in recent years and most are actually pretty good quality. I put it in the middle list because it’s also the most popular open source font catalog so chances are, whatever you choose is likely overused.
You Work For Them
Paid
Medium market pricing and independent type designers are a-plenty in this marketplace. There are some great finds on here that are unique display type and the quality ranges from moderate to good. Many fonts come in only a few styles which may or may not be robust enough for your project.
Fontspring
Paid
Fontspring is in the process of merging with creative market and carries a semi-curated list of fonts. It takes a bit of sifting to make sure you are getting a quality font for the medium market pricing.
Velvetyne Type Foundry
Free
Open source foundry with some super interesting display styles. The fonts tend to be more expressive and experimental than other open source platforms.
Future Fonts
Paid
Most of the fonts on this site are still in progress but they offer a chance to buy into the font project in the early stages and be a part of its creation. Great if you are patient.
Type Network
Paid
Their pricing is geared more toward larger clients but the type quality is top notch!
Tunera Type
Free
A small collection of nice-looking free fonts. I’m sure their catalog will continue to grow.
A Few Other Marketplaces
I would probably only turn to these marketplaces if I couldn’t find what I was looking for at the top 10. They are priced on the lower end and there are some descent things but you really have to dig and assess carefully for quality.
FontBros
Design Cuts
Creative Market
Marketplaces I Do Not Recommend:
MyFonts has a huge catalogue with very limited quality control. That, paired with their poor royalty rates for type designers and foundries makes it a place to avoid if possible. There are a selection of great fonts on the platform but if you find something you like, you may want to search and see if the designer is offering it either directly, or on another platform.
Dafont and 1001 Fonts are collections of free fonts with no quality control that I am aware of and to be brutally honest, almost every font on it is complete junk (sorry 😓). There could be a few good options but you’ll have to search pretty hard to find them.
Creative Fabrica also has very little curation and you’ll need to sort through a lot of junk to find anything good.
Envato is similar to those above, you’ll have to put in a lot of effort to find something decent.
Independent Foundries
Familiarizing yourself with individual type foundries or type designers takes some time but once you find people who make fonts you like, it’s easy to sign up for their newsletters and keep updated on what they are working on.
Type Foundry Directory
This list is curated by a type designer and includes filters for things like whether the foundry offers education discounts or offers their fonts on Adobe Fonts.
Newsletters & Publications
Pimp My Type
Oliver is engaging and entertaining while also delivering solid content about elevating your typography. The YouTube and podcast series usually focuses on typography in digital design but the Font Friday series will introduce you to a new font weekly. I definitely recommend subscribing to the newsletter!
FreshFonts
This newsletter does just what it says, delivering freshly released fonts to your email inbox so you can try to keep track of all these new bangers.
Typodarium
Published annually, this little desktop tear-off calendar shows you a new font every day. It’s a pretty fun analog way to find some new fonts.
Fonts In Use
Does what it says – robust examples of fonts in use from old collected print materials to contemporary brands and websites. Filter by typeface to see how others are using it in their work.
Typewolf
Examples of popular fonts in use but usually more focused on contemporary web-focused examples. You can subscribe to their newsletter and get the latest featured in-use delivered to your inbox.
