Good point!
Fred Weiss said:
I don't care much for the free download sites if that's what you're asking. The names are different which causes problems in responding to font requests. Those that you will find that are actually original creations will almost always lack the skill and experience provided by the professional font designer.
Although I completely agree with Fred and feel that for the most part the free fonts are a complete waste of time, there are a select few that do get some use around my little shop on a regular basis. The thing to remember is that a good portion of these "free" fonts are actually shareware and using them for commercial purposes is actually illegal unless you purchase them.
Some things to do if you insist on using these fonts:
1. Inspect the character map to see if the fonts have all of the characters you will need. A lot of these fonts have only the characters needed to complete the author's name or the name of the movie or product they are named after. If the font is a copy of a movie title or product name, there's a good chance it's not "completely legitimate"
2. Convert the font to curves and examine the nodes or control points, a lot of free fonts are poorly designed and are not acceptable for use in vinyl.
3. Be careful where you download your fonts from, use a reputable download site. Downloading fonts from illegal sites is just asking for a virus or hacker to come into your system.
4. Get a good font management program to help keep track of the downloaded fonts. There's nothing worse than loading a font with the same filename as a system font, nightmare, nightmare, nightmare.
5. Don't go overboard. Although having a gazillion fonts is a mark of prowess for some, it's more of a PITA to look through all those fonts than it's worth.
6. Try to remember the name of the creator of fonts you like, there's a pretty good chance they have designed
several of the fonts you like. This makes it a lot easier to search for more fonts without wasting a lot of time.
Fred Weiss said:
3. When you get call for a font you don't have, buy it from a legitimate source like myFonts.com, Fonts.com, International Typeface Corp. or Adobe and add the cost into the job. You'll have an ever growing library of quality fonts with this approach and an ever growing quality conscious customer base to go along with it.
This makes the most sense of all!