What fonts do you use?

[Rodi]

I always wonder what fonts people use, from home users to car companies and every other type of business in between.

I am a graphic artist with a strong typography background (I worked at a typesetting business for 12 years). We had Linotype fonts (4 different libraries), Berthold Fonts, Varitype fonts, Film-o-fonts and some digital fonts.

Now being free from hardware to buying any fonts, I actually have a larger library than ever. My favorites are URW, they are not really cutting edge, but they are clean and varied. I have bought 2nd hand Typeworks 1 Mac & Typeworks 2 P.C. (thanks Fred, 500 fonts each with 5 variants outline, inline, relief, shadow, rounded), 2450 fonts that came with Canvas (bad program, beautiful fonts PC & Mac), 500 fonts that came with freehand 8 (great fonts, even better program) and 1200 fonts that came with 750,000 Nova Development clipart (mostly lousy clipart, great fonts). From Adobe I have PC and Mac fonts from Illustrator/pagemaker. I also have Softmaker Truetype fonts 10,000 (mixed bag, some lousy, some great Trutype now works for PC and Mac OSX). I also have the Bitstream 500 fonts.
I have organized fonts for many organizations (printshops, ad agencies, marketing companies) and keep fonts organized by foundry and in alphabetical order (down to the nitty gritty. I have personally witnessed people who have had Zero fonts in their system folder and 3000 fonts in their system folder. I think people misunderstand fonts and file formats more than anything, especially people who should know more!

 

[Joseph Dunkle]

I didn't know there was anything except Arial.

 

[Just Another Sign Guy]

i have found that most of the fonts that are available are really not cut out for most sign work...from the thousands upon thousands of fonts that i have i use about 40 regularly. i think you will find that alot of us use letterhead fonts, signdna, signfonts, house industries...at least i do.

 

[Pro Image]

I would add to your collection Steve C. fonts for signmakers.........

He is a merchant member here...........

www.signfonts.com

Also check out www.letterhead.com fonts..................

 

[Rodi]

i have found that most of the fonts that are available are really not cut out for most sign work...from the thousands upon thousands of fonts that i have i use about 40 regularly. i think you will find that alot of us use letterhead fonts, signdna, signfonts, house industries...at least i do.

I don't mean to be ignorant, but why would most fonts not be cut out for sign work, I mean, what am I not understanding?

 

[Replicator]

Great fonts have : Clean Lines, Fewer Nodes, Better Quality !

Most generic fonts are not superior quality for vinyl cutting and sign production !

 

[bob]

I don't mean to be ignorant, but why would most fonts not be cut out for sign work, I mean, what am I not understanding?

You're not understanding signs vs magazine ads, high school newsletters, and other assorted printed work. There's a big difference. A huge difference.

I must have upwards of 2500 font files of which 2450 of them are unused for anything but matching some previous work by someone else. Of the 50 that I might from time to time use, 35 of those are used so seldom they might as well not be there.

Sign writing is it's own art and should not to be confused with typesetting for other purposes. That's why sign folk create crappy business cards, etc. and printers make equally crappy sign writers.

 

[Service Sign Co]

I've been scaning hand lettered fonts with brushes & speedball pens, mostly casual stuff for a more personal look(got the idea from jdb) until you can afford to buy the letterhead fonts make you own

 

[Ken]

I started a thread on this a while back..."Your top ten fonts"..search that.
Ken

 

[KR3signguy]

Just don't use Comic Sans for anything!

 

[jenhuedepohl]

For my "real" job in the newspaper business we pretty much stick with Adobe fonts. We just switched to all OpenType format when we got all new Mac Pros with the Intel chips. When we're dealing with short deadline and lots of different people turning out content we have better luck sticking with a small library of fonts from he same foundry. Adobe fonts seem to be the most reliable with all of our Adobe software and have definitely been preferred by our cranky level 2 postscript RIP.

I will admit that I cheat a bit and install "illegal" fonts on my system for non-newspaper related projects for customers. I generally change them all to outlines before risking them in our cranky RIP though.