Font

Overview Fonts are an important part of document formatting. They bring your documents to life by giving your text a uniform look, size, and color. Some fonts are designed to be easy to read, whereas others are created to add pizzazz to headlines and titles. Other fonts are designed specifically for Internet use. Choosing an appropriate font--for print quality, readability, and compatibility with other computers--affects the readability of your document. A large amount of information about fonts, specific uses, and any compatibility issues is available online. You can also download fonts for your own use from the Internet.

General Information A variety of information about fonts is available online, including different font types, how to install them, and how to use them for maximum effectiveness. Visit fairbanks-alaska.com/fonts.htm to read about the evolution of fonts on the Internet, as well as fonts found on PCs and Macs. Another good source for basic font information can be found at this Web page. At this page, you can learn how to install fonts on your PC. Visit www.gp.k12.mi.us/technology/Fonts to view a table containing numerous different font types. Another comprehensive source for viewing the different fonts available can be found at webdesign.about.com/cs/fonts1. Here you can also find an informative article about using fonts in Web design. 

Font Resources The Internet is a great source of free fonts. For example, at www.acidfonts.com/index1.html, you can freely download many distinctive fonts, including fonts from famous movies and television shows. This site provides fonts for Macs and PCs, a FAQ page, and links to other font pages. Visit the Web site www.sil.org/computing/fonts for both commercially available fonts and for those available free of charge. Fonts on this site are for Macs, PCs, and even DOS computers. There are also fonts available designed for foreign languages. For possibly the largest free font index on the Internet (over 1000!), visit www.1001freefonts.com. If you want to learn about TrueType--a common, scalable font technology built into both Windows and Mac operating systems--visit the TrueType site (www.truetype.demon.co.uk). Here you can read about the history of TrueType and find useful hints, tips, and tools.  

Additional Links Are you interested in downloading some really funky fonts? If so, visit www.astigmatic.com. Here you can access some of the strangest and scariest fonts online. For other strange fonts, including 3-D characters, go to www.fontsnthings.com.