So you want a new font for your PC or Mac.....

First step first, find your new font!! There are many free font sites out there that will give you a free download of their variety of font styles. A good starting point might be DaFont. They have font categories which will help narrow your search down. Are you looking for a new "sci-fi" font or maybe a "handwritting" font? One of my favorites there has been Starcraft

Another good starting point might be fonts.com or possibly 1001freefonts.com Most font sites offer free fonts alongside paid for fonts. Generally speaking, paid for fonts are good for "commercial" use. So another step is figuring out how you're going to use it and "can it be used that way". Most free fonts are totally free and can be used any way possible without any limitations. Reading the respective site's End User Agreement or Terms Of Service will tell you most of this.

It's great that people spend the time creating new and exiting fonts for us. Some will gladly give this away free while others are looking for compensation for their time and creativity. The abovesites will provide you a glimpse of both. A google search for "free fonts" also leads you to alot more sites. With "free font downloads" you are looking at roughly 53 million sites related to that search :D

I use a PC (Windows Vista Home Edition) so will briefly describe how to install your new font. In most cases the fonts you download online will be in a zip file archive. You will first have to locate this zip file, open it with a relative program (in most cases WinZip), and unzip it to a directory of your choice.

Next, You can go to Start -> Control Panel -> Fonts. This will open up the fonts folder. For Windows Vista users, you can right click in a blank area next to the already installed fonts and choose "Install New Font". For users using previous Windows versions, you should be able to locate this under the "Files" menu.

A screen is presented in which you have to locate the folder in which you unzipped your font style to. Locate this folder, highlight your new font and click install. You've now gotten a new font family onto your PC! You should now be able to use it in all your Windows applications including Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Works etc.. etc..