252 Responses to “30 Fonts To Last A Life Time”

1. Sumesh on Mar 3, 2008 said:

   Nice list, and dugg. But I’m disappointed that you don’t have links to the fonts.

   I’m not the typical Digg crowd, but those that are digg crowd-ish, will bury you for that Google AdSense unit. I have experience that suggests that you should remove them or else be buried (you won’t get much clicks from diggers, SU is better).

   Sumesh’s last blog post..How to access FTP servers without any software

2. inspirationbit on Mar 3, 2008 said:

   hehe… I’ve started writing a post on these 30 fonts last year, but somehow left it in my Drafts and never got back to it. I do like your approach and brief notes on when each of these types works the best.

   inspirationbit’s last blog post..A Bit Of Literature - Never

3. Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 3, 2008 said:

   Thanks Sumesh, I have added new links. The adsense ads are only there to cover my hosting costs but maybe that is why I have not been as successful on Digg as other social media sites.

   Vivien, well I ’spose slow and steady didn’t win the race this time

4. Digital Revolutions on Mar 3, 2008 said:

   Nice list. I’m not a big fan of the serif fonts, but the sans-serif are top notch

5. keetano on Mar 3, 2008 said:

   ha… most of them look the same. i not agreee with the list.

6. mike on Mar 3, 2008 said:

   cool, I always wondered the difference between sans-serif and serif I just never cared enough to actually look it up.

   thanks to your convenient wiki links, I learned today so thank you.

7. Ric on Mar 4, 2008 said:

   I take it you limit yourself to only one specific type of design then?

   Nowhere near enough diversity in this font list, although I will admit there are some absolute necessities in there.

   Ric.

8. Zachary Forrest on Mar 4, 2008 said:

   I’m going to have to disagree concerning Trajan. It’s used too much.

9. Eugene on Mar 4, 2008 said:

   This post sucks. Why?

   1) its called “30 Fonts That ALL Designers Must Own” but you could not find a preview for Bodoni (don’t you OWN the fonts?).

   2) Showing the name of the font in preview? Seriosly, how does the rest of the font look like? next time try with “The Quick Brown Fox…”

   3) Vag Rounded on instruction manuals?

   Burried

10. Vinay on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    I wish you included a link to download them! No wonder people come form Digg for it getting disappoint only seeing a review!

    Good Luck
    Vinay’s last blog post..Facebook Anthem - I’m Getting Bored of Facebook

11. Jeff Ledoux on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    I personally LOVE Comic Sans. Very versatile.

12. Bigalow on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    I have been looking for a font with an over sized period (.) Anyone know where to find one?

13. Adrian on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Great selection of fonts. And is interesting how you specify the way that these can and are used. A font that i really like that was not included in the sans-serif font is Interstate, a very clean and readable typeface that can be used in a number of ways. I am not sure if it a font a designer MUST own, but it is in my list of top sans serif font.

    Adrian’s last blog post..Inter Abroad

14. Andrew on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    These choices seem almost too obvious to me… but it’s a good list nonetheless.

15. miro on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Great lineup of fonts, I have a standard attitude towards fonts that cost hundreds of dollars, there are so many nice ones available for free, so I would never pay for a font, got to keep the cost down for the client.

    miro’s last blog post..The “Huge” Security Guide

16. Wisefool9 on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Well, I agree with many of the selections I disagree with a few as well. I know they’re culled from a book, so please don’t think I’m criticizing you, but the original authors.

    Courier? Seriously? I could go my entire life without using a monospaced font. If we want technical, typewriter-styled fonts there are quite a few others out there that are not kerned so horribly.

    I personally don’t see the need for Bell Centennial ever, since there are many quite good fonts out there that will suit its purpose.

    Meta…and don’t get me wrong I friggin LOVE meta, is quite trend laden, and isn’t a lifetime type of font like Garamon or Sabon. Meta’s was back ‘in’ last year, so expect it to be ‘out’ for 2008.

    And I’d completely disagree with them regarding Times. Nobody ‘needs’ Times New Roman, but it’s ubiquity simply means we’ll never get rid of it. For you aspiring typographers out there, anything where Times will suit, try Minion or Garamond instead.

    I’m surprised that there isn’t a single ‘web friendly’ font like Georgia or Verdana in the list. These fonts are important because they are designed better for on-screen reading compared to others (turn of anti-alising on your system and look at these fonts…they’re still legible at nearly every size, now look at Garamond without it…yuck.) which is critical today, and will definitely be needed for a lifetime.

17. Ryo on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Really nice article. Don’t worry about the adsense words. That won’t prevent you from getting popular on Digg…it’s mostly hit or miss. Adsense ads are the least obtrusive. For everything else, most digg users us adblock.

    Nice work and congrats on making it to the front page.

18. Jamie on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Nice list but some of these are incredibly expensive, $695.00 for the Akzidenz-Grotesk BE Collection? Not all designers can afford all of these so I don’t particularly agree with the ‘must own’ part but I must admit I sure want them!

19. ben Whitehouse on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Nice list. 3 favorite or missing fonts would be; Clearview, Garamond 3 which is a better cut that Adobe Garamond, and the incomparable Scala Sans.

20. ed on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    no script font?

21. John Van Herck on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    I would have liked to see information on the licenses covering usages of such fonts. None seem to be free.

22. Daniel on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    nice fonts selected! A personal one I would add is FF Meta Serif. A new font, however fantastically designed.

23. jive on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    It would be nice if the Serif fonts listed if they have small caps for numbers. (Georgia has small caps for numbers).

    jive’s last blog post..Royalty Free Sounds

24. Joe on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    It seems like most of the serifs were found in an Adobe font list. I like the list of sans much better, they can be much more useful/fun.

25. Yonah on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Best fonts? Why? By who’s metric? What justifies these as the “BEST”? Simply your say so?

26. whatthecrap? on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    WHAT?!?! Papyrus isn’t #1???
    What a crock…

    

27. Ryan on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    For Serif faces, I think ITC New Baskerville is one of the best transitional/modern serifs and needs to be part of every designer’s repetoire, and for slabs/Egyptians Rockwell deserves the spot more than the mono-spaced typewriter font Courier. It’s hard to quibble over the sans list. Maybe Thesis Sans deserves a look, and Gotham is a nice face, but with any list you can always find others to include.

28. Regan on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Another tough day for your server huh Jacob?
    
    Regan’s last blog post..5 easy website improvements for small business owners

29. Rick on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    I believe that the Gill Sans family has over-sized periods. Gill Sans Extra Bold for sure. My favorite font, hands down.

30. Liza Kelley on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    What about Goudy Old Style??? If Caslon and Bembo are on here, Goudy Old Style’s gotta be.. it’s a classic!

31. Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Thank you all for your comments!

    Digital Revolutions, What your preferred serif fonts?

    Keetano, What would your list include?

    Mike, Your welcome and judging by my stats, a lot of other people were in your position too.

    Ric, Thanks for your comments, the fonts are there to last a lifetime!

    Zachary, thanks for the movie link, twas great!

    Eugene, If we all had the money we would own the fonts or at least some of them.

    Vinay, I do not codone piracy.

    Jeff, Comic Sans Mmmm.

    Bigalow, oversized period eh?

    Adrian, interstate, nice choice… I don’t agree that this is a MUST own list but it sure is a good start and attention getter.

    Andrew, I got the list from a book.

    Miro, Depends on the quality of the client.

    Wisefool9, thanks for your long comment. I acan see where you are coming from on some of the things you brought up. Thanks!

    Ryo, Thanks… yeah I use adblock too, never see Google ads anyway. But it does cover server costs.

    Jamie, I agree with you there especially as a student. Maybe I should have changed the title.

    Ben Whitehouse, Thanks for your font suggestions.

    Ed, Nope no scripts here.

    John, Licenses are found on the linked pages.

    Daniel, Thanks for your contribution,

    Jive, Well every font is unique!

    Joe, Each to their own.

    Yonah, SEO that is all.

    Ryan, Thanks for your contribution… not so sure about Rockwell. Gotham is nice though

    Regan, Tell me about it! 40,000 visitors in 10 hours! Solid Internet (my hosts) got it sorted out pretty quick though.

    Rick, Why is it your favourite font?

    Liza, I would have to ask the authors who compiled the list why it was not included. Must have been hard to narrow it down to just 30 out of the thousands of fonts available today.

    Thanks again everyone for the comments and to the other 350+ who commented on Digg.

32. Jack Yan on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Jacob, I was a little surprised that your commenters did not pick up one error: your Lucida sample is not set in Lucida, but in Excelsior. Not that I mind: I am not a huge fan of some of the Lucida subfamilies.

    On your choices themselves, this collection is not a bad mixture. These families are good workhorses.

    Favourites for me would be Jean-François Porchez’s Sabon Next (published by Linotype), Plantin and Century Old Style. For egyptians, Century Expanded remains one of my favourites.

    Sans serifs: we have an internal Swiss typeface which we tend to use instead of Helvetica, but since it’s not publicly available we can’t realistically count it.

33. Chad | ProFreelancing on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Hey Jacob - cool list. I don’t do a lot of design, but I dabble here and there. Not big on a few of the fonts, but will try using most of the others a bit more. Thanks!

    Chad | ProFreelancing’s last blog post..Building Credibility as a Freelancer

34. christian on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Aquí podréis hallar otra recopilación http://del.icio.us/yadgana/fonts

    Bye

35. Josh on Mar 4, 2008 said:

    Good selection of fonts..

36. Rachel M on Mar 5, 2008 said:

    I agree Digital Revolutions. These sans serif fonts are great however I feel that there are some great Serif Fonts that are missing out, in particular Adobe Jensen / Janson

37. Luke Edwards on Mar 5, 2008 said:

    cool, sans serif is my most favourite font, it’s much better than times new roman or arial!! haha.

    i’ve learnt a lot, it’s got me to my special place once more

    thanks!

38. sesebian on Mar 5, 2008 said:

    Thanks (:

39. Lukas on Mar 5, 2008 said:

    Awesome List!
    Thank you very much for these. You got my bookmark!
    These fonts will be very handy for our web developers.
    We use Myriad a lot, and this will give us a good page to see more options.

40. katibob on Mar 5, 2008 said:

    I really enjoyed your list, thanks. I do have to admit though, I hate Courier and don’t feel that it deserves a place on this list. But everyone has their own opinions, right :). I really enjoyed the serif fonts. It’s somtimes so hard to find a nice serif that isn’t Times…

41. Felicity on Mar 5, 2008 said:

    The title of this page (in my browser) is “30 Best Fonts, Downloadable Fonts, Free Fonts, Cool Fonts for Designers,” yet as far as I can tell, all the links go to ITC, who charge for their fonts.

    Also, I don’t like most of those fonts. The only ones on that list that I like are Courier, Times, Trajan, and Helvetica. I could not disagree more with Wisefool9, who said that there is no need for Times; if I were the client, I would certainly not let the designer use Minion or Garamond in place of Times. ITC Garamond might be OK because its x-height is more than half its cap-height; regular Garamond is too distorted for me.

    Fonts that should be included? Let me check my font folder…A.C.M.E. Explosive is the only decent free comic book font; for money, Whizbang or Comicraft’s Gibbons. Everyone should have a good Souvenir, a good Benguiat, and a good Cooper Black for their retro needs. At least one decent calligraphy font is necessary; the best is RSLaserLondon, an outline version of the old London from the 1980s Macintosh “city fonts.” For simulating computer text, real, actual computer fonts are necessary, like OCR A Extended, November, PC Senior, and one of the many old-style video game fonts like Joystick/Emulator/Arcade. For typewriter fonts, VTCorona and American Typewriter. And here’s one that just recently came up in a project: ModeSeven. A friend of mine needed a font to make a video he was editing look like someone was changing channels on a TV, and he turned to me for advice. I used to have the right font, but after racking my brains I couldn’t think of its name, so I asked the LiveJournal community “fontaddicts,” and someone gave me the name. See the result here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvn6kvVLbjc

    (Edited to turn notification of followup comments on and replace HTML directed quotes with copied-and-pasted directed quotes. If post appears twice, please delete first version.)

42. Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 5, 2008 said:

    Jack Yuan, good pointing out, I will have to fix that up. Please note I did not make the choices it was the authors of the book from where I got the source.

    Chad, your welcome.

    Christian, Thanks for the link up

    Josh, Thanks.

    Rachael, Everyone is entitled to their own opinion

    Luke, just for clarification ’sans-serif’ is not a font, it is a decription of how to classify a typeface.

    Sesebian, Your welcome

    Lukas, Your welcome, may your web developers have success.

    Katibob, it seems by looking at who has clicked which fonts the serif fonts were more popular.

    Felicity, yes the title is that, more for SEO purposes however some of the fonts are free but make sure you check on the licensing. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Thanks for your contribution with the other font styles, conv, some great ones in there. I think you chose the right font for the tv channel. You sound like a font addict yourself Hope you stick around, I value your contribution!

43. Joris on Mar 5, 2008 said:

    Good stuff

44. Ian Iorio on Mar 5, 2008 said:

    OH! And you totally forgot Century Gothic, maybe as a replacement for Din.

45. Aditya Mukherjee on Mar 5, 2008 said:

    I’ll make two quick points here. First, I found this page through etc. (http://www.fortysomething.ca/mt/etc/archives/007242.php), and not Digg. I seriously believe no self-respecting blogger should ‘try’ to land on Digg. That’s the same way Dvorak writes technically and logically incorrect articles to ruffle up feathers, but get tremendous page views for PC World. If your posts are good, people will come, and this is the second time I’ve bumped through here … so yes, your posts are good.

    That cleared up, I would really suggest picking fonts (even though I know you didn’t pick these) which look good anti-aliased as well as aliased. The reason for that is different OSs handle aliasing in different ways. XP is terrible as kerning with anti-aliased turned on, while Vista is slightly better. You can’t turn it off in OS X at all. ‘Verdana’, ‘Georgia’ are industry standards and hence favourites of web designers. Microsoft added ‘Cambria’ which is also a font I love. I believe ‘Consolas’ (a rather inferior but manageable port of ‘Monaco’ of OS X) is the future of monospace fonts because it actually looks beautiful (something monospace fonts usually don’t).

    All that said, I loved ‘Clarendon’, ‘Stempel Schneidler’ and who doesn’t love ‘Helvetica’
    Aditya Mukherjee’s last blog post..Geek movies for ‘08

46. PJ on Mar 6, 2008 said:

    Nice collection there, as a writer I have a great familiarity with Courier (especially Dark Courier). On the whole though, I definitely prefer the sans-serif fonts.

    PJ’s last blog post..Bernadot Studios

47. Fred Winetown on Mar 6, 2008 said:

    Hey man, this is a great mix of goodie good fonts.

    You might wanna add Kozuka which is a superb font imo. URW Gothic(the whole set) is also very nice.

    Keep it up!

48. kristarela on Mar 6, 2008 said:

    Good post. I like how you’ve illustrated each font - it makes it easy to see the differences between the fonts.

49. Johan on Mar 10, 2008 said:

    Thanks for the tips!

    It helped me alot.

50. Kris Holmes on Mar 11, 2008 said:

    I’m very flattered that you have included my design, Lucida, in your list! Thank you! One problem: the font that you show in the image is not Lucida.

51. Dave on Mar 14, 2008 said:

    Here’s a site that allows you to choose from many different fonts to generate graphics. Good for trying out different fonts with different effects…http://www.smashupgrahpics.com

52. Lee on Mar 18, 2008 said:

    Interesting list. Have you ever created your own font?

    My favorite is Bookman Old Style. Have you ever seen one similar to “Decorative Penmanship” (Cocoa Cola)?

53. Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 18, 2008 said:

    Hi Lee, not yet but I look forward to it… I am currently studying typography so will get around to it! Ah bookman old style, I was just working with that today in typography class. No I haven’t seen something similar… have you?

54. Cale on Mar 22, 2008 said:

    It seems kind of pointless to say, “30 typefaces that all designers MUST own,” and then only include system fonts. Should have been called “30 typefaces all typesetters should own.” I don’t think Myriad or Courier should be on this list.

55. Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 22, 2008 said:

    Cale,
    Each is entitled to their own opinion The majority of that list is not system fonts and if they are I would like to know what system Mryriad is a great font I believe… each font has its own purpose.

56. Cale on Mar 22, 2008 said:

    I do agree that everyone is entitled to there own opinion. I also believe that this list could have been better. Some of the fonts are so similar to one another, that I couldn’t really see a “must have” reason to purchase these fonts. If a font family runs you (generously) $100 per. you would be looking at a $3,000 purchase. If this guide is for entry level designers or non-designers, I would hate to send them in the wrong direction for such a large amount of money. All and all you could just change the title to “30 Tried and True Fonts.”

57. Nick on Mar 26, 2008 said:

    Great article here. Some good advice on which fonts to use for which styles of writing. I’m starting up a blog either today or tomorrow, this is going to be very useful. Awesome!

58. Alexander on Mar 26, 2008 said:

    Helvetica should not be on the list.

59. kristarella on Mar 26, 2008 said:

    Ha! The typeface so revered they made a movie about it shouldn’t be on the list?
    Care to give a reason?

    kristarella’s last blog post..Top GIMP tutorial sites

60. Kristine on Mar 30, 2008 said:

    Any suggestions on where to find how to purchase newer fonts for little or no fee? My budget is like….0.

61. Alexander on Mar 30, 2008 said:

    kristarella: Because it’s too common - it’s used too much. Helvetica is about as exciting as gray asphalt, with the glow of a cheep convenience store. It should be banned, just like the incredibly ugly looking Comic Sans MS.

62. Felicity on Mar 30, 2008 said:

    The reason fonts like Helvetica and Times get used so much is because they’re so perfect. There’s nothing wrong with using a font that’s been used a million times before if it’s the perfect font. There /is/ something wrong with using a funny-looking font just because it’s new or rarely used.

    Comic Sans gets a bad rap, but it’s just used in the wrong places. Used correctly it’s a beautiful font.

63. kristarella on Mar 30, 2008 said:

    Kristine - dafont.com or Divide by zero are alright for free font, but remember that most of them have limited weights and styles (maybe no bold or italic) they might have characters missing (very unlikely to have a full character set with degree symbols and all that) and the creators probably didn’t spend hours checking all the kerning possibilities. Typefaces are expensive because they’re damn hard to make. That said, I’ve got a fair few of the free ones, they’re good for the occasional novelty.

    Alexander - you’re entitled to those feelings and thanks for sharing. I’m inclined to agree with Felicity that it’s a well done typeface that deserves to be used… not sure about the merits of Comic Sans though. It has been used and abused and I cringe when I see it.

    kristarella’s last blog post..Top GIMP tutorial sites

64. Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 30, 2008 said:

    Cale that is very true however do you see someone actually going out and buying every one of these fonts?

    Nick - Glad to be of help.

    Alexander - So do you believe it shouldn’t be on the list as it its too boring even though it is the most popular typeface ever to be made? Felicity had it summed up quite well. Thanks Felicity to getting here before me

    Kristine - Kristarella summed it up very well. Thanks for that Kristarella.

65. petnos on Apr 2, 2008 said:

    great list. i didn’t know most of them before.

66. Phil on Apr 2, 2008 said:

    Great post, thank you for taking the time to assemble it.

    I guess your first commenter “Sumesh” was wrong, 3006 Diggs, way to go!

67. Wh33zy on Apr 3, 2008 said:

    This is a great site, I work for an IT Help Desk. This was a huge help when suggesting fonts to users. You get dugg for this article, but I dont mean to nit pick, there are a few spelling errors throughout the article. Nothing to big its just because of my teachers when I was in school. Making us spell check everything we ever did on the computer. Like i said digg worthy article. Nice work.

68. Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Apr 4, 2008 said:

    Hi Wh33zy,
    No worries at all. I have fixed up all 3 (hopefully) spelling mistakes. I guess my spell checker wasn’t on that day! You may also want to check your grammar in your comment above. Hint: Apostrophe.

    So why do you need to suggest fonts to users in your job? Sounds like an interesting job description.

69. Babs on Nov 6, 2008 said:

    I’ve been fond of Didot since I was forced to use it as my only font in a class 3 years ago.

70. Gazikent on Nov 12, 2008 said:

    Good post. I like how you’ve illustrated each font - it makes it easy to see the differences between the fonts

71. Hilaire on Nov 12, 2008 said:

    I won’t be using these fonts.

72. 2009 Yerel Seçimleri on Nov 18, 2008 said:

    Great article here.

73. Teknoloji on Nov 18, 2008 said:

    Helvetica should not be on the list.

74. rolando jose on Dec 4, 2008 said:

    Great post and articles. This is the first time I read this website and I must admit I have been a sucker once when I was just starting in design. I personally love bank gothic and buena park fonts. Akzidenz and Perpetua are new to me. Thanks for the additional knowledge Mr. Jacob Cass

    -Roland

75. Vin Gerard on Dec 12, 2008 said:

    Surprised not to see Felix on this list. I use it in almost everything I do these days.

76. Devin M on Dec 21, 2008 said:

    To the person (people) criticizing Courier:

    You will never be able to appreciate the beauty of courier until you regularly use it. I only had to use courier because… a class in college mandated the font for all papers. At first I was thinking one thing: More space, less words.

    Now that the semester is over, I’ve really, really come to love the font. It’s an awkward member in the Typography family, like that quiet-kind cousin you have that’s always studying art somewhere in Russia or something… but you (should) still love it.

    Really though… Courier is awesome. There have been points in my designing where only Courier has done the job because you feel you need something you’d never otherwise consider.

77. Ella Ku on Jan 2, 2009 said:

    i like the list.
    but it seems a bit too dull. They all look the same except the shapes and stuff.
    Maybe you whould make the list of the best creative fonts and the prettiest.

78. Hafyzza on Jan 5, 2009 said:

    hey! i like your website! it’s so cool … and your post about the 30 best fonts would definitely help me a lot in my typography class.

79. Dmitry on Jan 9, 2009 said:

    Thanks for fonts! Great post!

80. keenan on Jan 10, 2009 said:

    Great list, but what about Janson and Baskerville?

81. vengeful poet on Jan 21, 2009 said:

    Minion, aside from having what I consider to be the best name ever, is glorious for print.

82. DesignM on Jan 24, 2009 said:

    Typical traditional list. Timeless. Dull also. Typical hollistic typographer’s view on fonts. What customer cares about the tiny differences within these fonts? The list could easily be reduced to 10. And then add some fonts which compete because of their strong distinguished character or based on their application environment (newspaper/web). Come on guys, wake up. It’s 2009!

83. Bagus A.W aka AnakNakalKelasBawah on Jan 25, 2009 said:

    How about Century Gothic? i like it. maybe this could be better if you listing the free fonts too.

84. Oscar on Jan 28, 2009 said:

    to all those who “like” Comic Sans, I hope you are not graphic designers!!!! LOL

85. Darshana on Feb 9, 2009 said:

    I generally use Trebuchet MS or Lucida. The information above helped though….. I liked many of your logo designs as wel, not to forget the lovely 3D bottles

    My favourite fonts are again Trebuchet MS and Zapfino!!! I am not fond of typography though…..

    Your website is cool, feels good to see all the fresh colours.

    Well-made website!!!!

86. Matthew Leak on Feb 20, 2009 said:

    Excellent list Jacob, I can safely say that I own all of those fonts.

    Personally, I think Swiss T71 should be on the list of San-Serif fonts. I use it quite alot, especially for contact details on business cards.

87. josh on Feb 21, 2009 said:

    Courier? What? Lubalin Graph is a perfectly weighted slab serif that can be used for body or display copy. Rockwell is much better, too.

    Univers & frutiger a re a little redundant as well. Same with the Bells. For serifs, I think you could limit it to Helvetica, Futura, Avenir, VAG, Century Gotic (not even mentioned?) and maybe Rotis Sans or Avenir. Also - Garamond is way better (imo) then Clarendon. I feel like the x-height on Clarendon moves the balance up to much - it feels awkward.

88. Pali Madra on Feb 28, 2009 said:

    This is a great list specially for web designers when they are designing the graphics for the websites they are developing. Thanks.

    I might sound like a n00b, but these are not web safe fonts and hence are not recommended for use for showing text on HTML pages. Correct me if I’m wrong.

    I would love to have a list of web safe fonts or nearly web safe fonts that are recommended for use. Do you have any suggestions?

    Thanks in advance

89. Brian Parks on Mar 12, 2009 said:

    Boo on the Times New Roman. There are a multitude of better serif fonts you could be using over that.

    It’s not that it’s bad. It’s that it’s default.

90. Aliyah on Mar 13, 2009 said:

    Thank you very much, I wasn’t familiar with some of these.
    Also I must say, you’re very patient with the complete strangers that spend their time making crass comments on the internet

91. Anonymous on Mar 21, 2009 said:

    Your sample labeled “Univers” is actually “Anivers”, a completely different font.

92. Marcus on Mar 22, 2009 said:

    http://ghostedart.deviantart.com/journal/23823259/
    These are the top fonts according to the deviantart community.

93. weenuh on Mar 27, 2009 said:

    i’m sure you know of it, but if not…. i definitely recommend Gotham (sans serif).

94. Kári Emil (@vegfarandi) on Apr 13, 2009 said:

    I don’t think anyone needs that many. I usually only use the type families Garamond, Caslon, Didot, Bodoni, Courier, Helvetica, Univers, Trade Gothic and Gill Sans. If I could only pick one to use for the rest of my life it would be Garamond.

95. Kári Emil (@vegfarandi) on Apr 13, 2009 said:

    Oh and I forget, I do use Futura from time to time also.

96. Valentine's Gift on Apr 16, 2009 said:

    I agree! these are perfect list! Font should be readable and just simple its up only up to you as designer on how you can make eye catching design using theses fonts. Thank you! Nice article.

97. Videolu Dersler (@bymadak) on Apr 25, 2009 said:

    Great article here.

98. greenville web design on Apr 29, 2009 said:

    This is a great list.

    I have been looking for something like this. Now instead of scrolling through all of my fonts I can go directly to them.

    Great stuff

99. Delia Marsono on May 22, 2009 said:

    Love Love Love (x10) your blog. A breath of fresh air. I think EVERY designer should join your BLOG…..will spread the word to all of my design students….keep up with what you are doing..

100. accounting homework on Jun 8, 2009 said:

     Awesome post, I used most of these fonts weekly!

101. Film Institute on Jun 12, 2009 said:

     Very nice collection! Thanks a lot !

102. Accounting Homework on Jun 22, 2009 said:

     Hi,
     Thanks your article usefull for me .Best wishes wish you your article will be good in future.

     Thanking you

103. Bittenbydesign (@bittenbydesign) on Jul 1, 2009 said:

     What about Optima? A lot of Public Service departments are switching to that from Helvetica…

104. Paul (@BlueprintDesign) on Jul 5, 2009 said:

     Good job Jacob, it’s always refreshing to see comparative analysis of quality fonts.

     To those bemoaning the lack of variety and creativity, I suspect you are looking for fonts that shout louder than the content they are supposed to subtly command.

105. Paul (@BlueprintDesign) on Jul 5, 2009 said:

     @Pali Madra

     If you are concerned how these fonts are going to look on the web, simply look at this page on the web and then you will see how they look on the web. Well actually it’s not that simple. Because people have various resolution screens, it’s good to check how your page looks with various resolutions. And working in ‘ems’ is practical here.

106. Ravage (@ravage) on Jul 5, 2009 said:

     A ‘designer’ that clicks links like ‘What does sans-serif mean?’ or ‘What does serif mean?’ should go back to school :p I mean what self respecting designer doesn’t know those terms?

     Great list btw!

107. Henning on Jul 15, 2009 said:

     You rendered Univers with the font Trade Gothic. The actual Univers is closer to Helvetica, but with a more harmonic letter design.

108. vangelique on Jul 24, 2009 said:

     hi, just thought i’d pass along that i found all the fonts listed on the top-30 countdown above for free on: http://www.fontyukle.com/en/

     not sure how they get away with offering them free, but they do and the fonts seem to be authentic (i.e. not some crummy auto-trace knock-off of the original font).

109. Daniel Pipitone (@danielpipitone) on Aug 7, 2009 said:

     Great collection here. Some of the classics for sure. Glad to see Frutiger and DIN on here. Often overlooked and SO crucial.

     Cheers.

110. Tech Artist on Aug 18, 2009 said:

     This is an excellent list and stuff… Thanks for shared with us.

111. Car Games 1 on Aug 25, 2009 said:

     Thank you very much, I wasn’t familiar with some of these.
     Also I must say, you’re very patient with the complete strangers that spend their time making crass comments on the internet

112. Dick Commer (@ctadguy4) on Aug 26, 2009 said:

     What type faces in your collection are free? I had them all until my computer “whiz” whizzed them out. Whatever you can spare, would be greatly appreciated. Thanx. Dick Commer

113. Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Aug 26, 2009 said:

     Hello Dick,
     Only the typefaces that are included with software (such as your Operating System) are going to be free and they will still have a license. The rest are available for purchase online.

114. haberler on Aug 27, 2009 said:

     Franklin is the best!!!

115. Jupiter (@naveenkrishna) on Aug 31, 2009 said:

     Great fonts. i may use in my sites.

116. excel help on Sep 2, 2009 said:

     Just what I’ve been looking for! Thanks for this great list of fonts. I’m always looking for new sites to find free fonts and I will have to bookmark this because I will come back to visit each site.

117. MWD on Sep 23, 2009 said:

     I am sooo loving this! Thanks!!

118. Mahima Pushkarna (@mahimapushkarna) on Oct 11, 2009 said:

     My favorite three fonts would be;
     San-serif: Din
     Serif: Calisto
     Semi-Serif: Rotis Semi Serif

119. subbu (@cprmncgmail.com) on Oct 15, 2009 said:

     WOW this is a great collection of 30 excellent fonts, many of which I never would have thought of! Very

     much appreciated.

120. rotonics on Oct 15, 2009 said:

     That’s one very comprehensive list of 30 fonts. Gives some really good food for thought (and action).

121. Jason (@tweekskratch) on Nov 11, 2009 said:

     this is awesome! I was just wondering about some of these earlier this week. Perfect!

122. iwanttobelieve on Nov 18, 2009 said:

     Could you please recommend some fonts for use in video clips?

     Thanks!

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