How to Find and Install Additional Fronts on your Computer
As a graphic designer, I can assure you of the merit of downloading and installing additional fonts onto your computer. There are many designs available for free download, if only you search, and can be used to add a touch of flair to your documents or to create wicked graphics. The creative possibilities of fonts are limited only by your imagination.
It helps if you have an idea of what you're looking for when you search for free downloadable fonts, as you get inundated with alot of information and it is hard to resist the urge to download almost everything you come across. However, feel free to do this since fonts take up very little space on your computer and are extremely easy to install on Windows.
In my opinion, the best place to download fonts is 1001freefonts.com. There are far more than 1001 fonts on this website, so you will have plenty of options to choose from, and alot of fun too! From this site, you are able to download fonts for the Windows and Mac platforms, however here I will be dealing with Windows since I do not use Mac. You can search fonts by alphabetical order or by category (Gothic, Elegant, etc.). Once you have found a font you would like to download, simply click the icon of your platform beside the font example and save it to your computer.
Font files are usually packaged and downloaded in a zipped or compressed folder. You will need to unzip these files in order to install and use them. Good programs for unzipping or decompressing folders are WinZip or IzArc, both of which are available for free download.
Once your font files have been extracted to a certain location on your computer, open up the Control Panel. Here you will see an icon for Fonts, and opening this will display a list of all the currently installed fonts on your computer. Access the File menu and select Install New Fonts. Within the window that pops up you will need to navigate to the directory to which you extracted the font file earlier. While you won't be able to see which files are in the folder, simply selecting the folder will enable you to install all the fonts contained within that folder. Press Install and you're finished.
This process will certainly differ between platforms and possibly in different versions of the Windows operating system.
Once installed, you can access your fonts like any other font, that is, through the font options of most programs. Finding and downloading the fonts is the most time-consuming part of this process, but once completed you can have almost infinite fun playing around with the effects your brand new fonts will create.
Please remember that most free downloadable fonts are freeware or shareware and may not be distributed in anything but its original packaging. When uploading to the internet something created using these free fonts, it is best to give credit to the font creator.