Alliedassault

I downloaded over 3 thousand fonts the other day... I'll probably search through each one looking for good ones to put in my fonts folder.

I'm going to quote what someone told me when I was looking for a whole mess of fonts.

[quote:ba7d0]hmmm... I'm going to say this at the risk of sounding like a jerk or a snob, but it's not meant that way...

If you don't know what fonts you want, but just that you want lots of them, chances are pretty good that you don't really know anything about typography

Now that the uncomfortable part is out of the way, let me explain myself. Type should be chosen carefully for a given project, since it reflects heavily on the message it spells out. Simply having thousands of fonts won't make the choice any easier, because you probably will get tired of looking after a while.

Font creation is really a lot tougher than people think. Certain constraints have to be considered, uses, legibility at different sizes and colour combinations, etc. Choosing type takes in many of the same problems. Many fonts have very subtle differences that may just skate by you, but the overal effect can be greatly changed, especially in extended text.

You can certainly buy a font library, or download everything you find, but what's really the point? Do you know how each one differs? Do you have projects in mind? Can you tell Bitstream Charter from ITC Cheltenham from Kuenstler 480? Can you recognize Papyrus when you see it in print? If so, then I stand corrected, and you should go get every free font you can find. Otherwise, do some reading to know what to look for.

I don't mean to sound preachy here, but as a designer your goal is to communicate. The better your command over your tools, the better you will communicate. Learn something more about fonts than how many you have on your HD![/quote:ba7d0]

That was lokki from photoshoptechniques.com's forums.