Top 5 Most Reliable Free Font Sites

• Reliable, Sites
top-5-most-reliable-free-font-sites

It can be difficult and frustrating digging around the web to find the perfect font for a project — only to realize it comes with a formidable price tag or isn’t applicable for commercial use. To help save you some time down the line, we’re sharing our five favorite font sites you can comfortably use without having to worry about cost or usage limitations. In our humble opinion, these are the most reliable places to find free fonts. There are lots of really cool smaller sites that offer amazing and unique fonts, but these sites are the places that serve up lots of downloads — maybe think of them as commodity font sites. They work fast and don’t require you to jump through a lot of hoops to download fonts.

Once you download a few or a few dozen free fonts, our free online Pixlr Editor app for graphic designers lets you use fonts you’ve installed on your computer. Our Pixlr for Mac/PC app, which some people use to add text to photos, also lets you use fonts you’ve installed on your computer.

Font Squirrel

Font Squirrel is the number one best place to find quality, free, commercial use fonts. Unlike some of the other websites on this list, all of the fonts provided on this website are available for commercial use. So you don’t have to worry about adjusting your search options on their site in any shape or form. But, if you do want to expand your options, they offer a small but quality list of “Almost Free” fonts. Font Squirrel likely has the smallest library of fonts from this list, but the quality of the chosen fonts are undeniable. And they are unique. If you have a specific category you’d like to search, choose your options on the right-hand side. The download process is also the most straightforward. Simply click the download button next to the font you’ve chosen, unzip it, and double click the .otf or .ttf file to install. You can probably see why this is our go-to favorite font site. They make it easy for you to find and download fonts. No strings attached. And as if that wasn’t already great enough, this website also has a font identifier where you can upload an image of a font you have that you are trying to match. You can create an account and save favorites if you want.

What we like best: Well-designed site. The most useful features of any site or service. They even have full lists of glyphs and a way for you to enter text to see how it will look in a particular font face.

1001 fonts

1001 fonts has a very large collection of fonts. They also have a specific section of fonts that are for commercial use only. You can access the commercial fonts directly from this link. Don’t be fooled by the direct-marketing style name of the site or its appearance. It’s definitely not as pretty as Font Squirrel, but rest assured quality is still in there. They have a very large and impressive collection of commercial free fonts that are high quality and easy to install. Because of this site’s popularity and lite community features, there are comments on a majority of the fonts available so you can easily take a glance at what people are saying prior to downloading. If you want to look through fonts from the category options, remember to click “Only view fonts that are free for commercial use” before starting to look through the lists. The download process is also quite simple. Simple click download on the right end of the font you like, unzip it, and double click the .otf or .ttf file to install. One thing to note is that the character map on the font web pages do not always accurately represent the characters that come with the font. Some of them show the font as having very few characters but when installed have the full set. This site also has an account option if you plan on becoming a frequent user.

What we like best: Quantity. There are a lot of fonts on this site.

TheHungryJPEG

The fonts on the free section of TheHungryJPEG offers a lot of variety, styles and themes that suit a range of designs. Often times, these free fonts come with some clip art or graphics that are included in the downloadable packs. Most of these free fonts come with a commercial license, so rest assured that your designs will have the best typefaces, completely free of the legal hassles that come with font usages. Aside from fonts, you can download lots of graphic art, creative clip art and templates for free, which saves time whenever necessary. Check out their range of add ons like Lightroom presets, brushes and textures, and even original color palettes to add a splash of creativity into your projects. They release a new freebie weekly, and also update their free font bundles on the regular. TheHungryJPEG have an assortment of affordable font prices that you probably wouldn’t want to miss out on, especially during seasonal sales like Halloween or Christmas.

What we like best: Plenty of variety. The fonts available on TheHungryJPEG, whether purchasable or free, are always handpicked curations from independent designers and store-owners. You can’t go wrong here; there’s bound to be a typeface that appeals to you.

DaFont

DaFont is a great website to get some free commercial use fonts, but you need to know how to properly navigate it. The site has been around for a long time, and its age and short-sighted site design really shows. Further, there are a lot of possible details to include with fonts, but this site doesn’t always include them. And the font you download might not have a comprehensive collection of glyphs. Then again, you’ll find all kinds of crazy dingbat and symbol font collections on here. If you’re going to search for free commercial use fonts on this site, it’s probably best to start with a category. Here are three steps to get you on the right path:

  • Search a category
  • Select more options (Note “More options” drop-down)
  • Check off both “free” and “public domain”

It’s very easy to download fonts from this site once you get the search functions right. Simply click download next to the font you’d like to use. Unzip and double click the .otf or .ttf file to install.

What we like best: Quirky. This is *the place* for oddball, niche fonts. Need some Elvish runes for your Middle Earth inspired party flyer? They’ve got you covered.

Font Space

Font Space is quite similar to DaFont. It has a great selection with tons of categories to choose from, and there are tons of user-submitted fonts, but its design is a little friendlier. Be aware that although Font Space has a big collection of unique fonts, the website does have a bit of a cluttered look with a few too many ads. If that’s just not your cup of tea, the other sites on the list should provide more than enough options. To ensure you’re only looking through free commercial use fonts, follow the steps below:

  • Pick a category
  • Check off “only show commercial use fonts”
  • Click apply

Simply select the font you’d like to use and click download. Same as the other sites: unzip and double click the .otf or .ttf file to install.

What we like best: Independent. People who submit fonts on this site seem to be talented solo designers — the kind of people you see on Creative Market. If you are particular about licensing, this site is incredibly explicit about your many options.

The five websites listed are in ascending order: From best to less best based on ease of use and quality of fonts they’ve curated. The first three on the list are the best of the best when it comes to free commercial use fonts, but it never hurts to have more options!

10 Best Sites For Vector Illustrations

• Sites, Vector
10-best-sites-for-vector-illustrations

Jelisaveta Sapardic

Versatility and possibility of resizing without any loss of quality are just some of the reasons why vector illustrations are currently so popular. Aside from being easy to modify, they are also great for printing and high resolution display. As such, these images can serve a great purpose for multiple online projects. People use them if they want to give a fresh feel to their landing page, they put them on banners, implement them in web design, advertisement, and the list goes on and on. To put it short, vector illustrations are extremely useful graphic elements, and designers simply adore them.

If you are one of those people who could use help of these convenient designer graphics, then you came to the right article. There are plenty of free quality resources of vector illustrations on the web that we’ve investigated and discovered for your benefit. Here is a list of best free vector illustration websites that will provide you with all that you need for your project!

freepik

It is safe to say that Freepik is one of the best places on the web for finding various quality pieces of simple or complex vector art. On Freepik, dozens of new vector graphics are being added every day to an already existing number of million-plus illustrations. Multiple categories are at your disposal, such as animals, nature, business, even holiday-themed designs. There is a possibility of downloading files in AI or EPS format. You are free to use these images for both personal and commercial projects, as well as to modify them. Try out some of Freepik vector designs for your website or presentation template, or as a part of your design.

There are certain license conditions that you are required to follow. If you print any of the images, the print must contain author name. Moreover, if you use images on your website, a link to the source must be included, which you will find right next to the download button. Keep in mind that under no conditions are you allowed to sublicense, sell, distribute or include Freepik contents in an online or offline file or database. There are a few other license conditions that you should make sure to inform yourself about. If you want to have certain benefits while using Freepik’s illustrations, such as unlimited downloads, daily content updates, access to over 2 million premium resources and use of images with no attribution required, you can acquire a premium license.

vecteezy

This platform prides itself in being one of the biggest vector graphics communities on the web. What Vecteezy offers is an impressive collection of over 100.000 high-quality vector images for both free and commercial use, and their only condition is to credit the author by providing the source link. However, if you want, you can also go for paid premium membership and avoid author attribution altogether.

Vecteezy also allows users to interact with each other and get inspired by leaving comments and suggestions on vector designs. In addition, Vecteezy’s vector editor gives you ability to edit files before downloading any of the images. Therefore, you have full freedom to customize vector illustrations in any way you like by changing colors, fonts, sizes and more.

vectorstock

VectorStock is packed with over 200.000 vector images for any creative use, with thousands of new illustrations added daily. There are plenty of specific categories to choose from sorted in a practical manner for your convenience. In this way you can easily find free patterns, backgrounds, icons and emblems, textures, logos, and so much more. Available formats for downloading include Ai, EPS, PDF and JPG files.

What’s more, if you like certain characteristics on an image, such as its overall concept, color combination or a pattern, but that specific image just doesn’t cut it for you, there is an option below the image that lets you view similar illustrations. All in all, this platform makes sure to ease your process of searching for suitable vectors from start to finish.

As for premium usage, there is a standard and expanded license option. First one implies that you can use images for print, advertising and design, while the second gives you option of resale and reproduction.

Vector4free

On this platform you can find stunning vector designs for any intended project. Various artists have put their creative effort into making vector images on Vector4free. Even though this collection isn’t really the biggest out there, the quality of the images and plenty of tags for easier find more than make up for it. Downloadable formats include Adobe Illustrator AI, EPS, PDF, SVG and Corel Draw CDR files. When it comes to personal use, all vector illustrations are free. For commercial use, just make sure to always read their terms.

unDraw

If you want to incorporate creative elements to your landing page, or you need to add one final touch to your banner or website, unDraw has it all! This platform features a collection of gorgeous svg images that get updated on the regular.

One interesting thing that you can find while on unDraw site is an option of customizing main color of the images by using on-the-fly generator before downloading. Thanks to this, every image that piques your interest will be able to match vision that you have for your brand! All illustrations on unDraw are completely free, no attribution required.

Free Vector

You no longer have to waste hours hunting for vector illustrations on the internet. On Free Vector, you have thousands of high-quality vector illustrations to pick from. All illustrations are made by creatively driven designers from all over the globe.

To find what you’re looking for, you simply need to type in your keywords and click on search, or browse through popular categories. The best thing is that you can do whatever you deem fit to vector illustrations from Free Vector. So feel free to modify or combine different elements in order to make them truly yours!

With attribution, you are allowed to use art from Free Vector for personal use, while commercial use requires payment.

Brands of the World

We present you Brands of the World, a place with possibly the largest collection of free vector logos. Here you will find all that you require to showcase your brand or company in the best light. If you have designs of your own, then share them with the world by uploading them to Brands of the World. You can also exchange ratings and critique with other fellow creators. For your convenience, different vector logos are accessible by countries, history, categories, or you can simply find what you need in alphabetical order.

Pimp-My-Drawing

Started by architecture graduates, Pimp My Drawing is a free library of high quality vector models, such as people, trees and cars. It offers vector designs in AI and DWG formats. One interesting thing that you can find on this platform is that all models contain some sort of original description. Many of these are really witty and will entertain you while you look for your ideal vector illustration. Also, we have to emphasize that all these models are completely free to use.

Stockio

Looking for top quality vectors that you can edit and adjust for your personal use? You will be able to find them at Stockio. With attribution to Stockio.com, you can download vector art for free, whether you plan to use it for personal or commercial purposes. Furthermore, Stockio keeps track of all the files that you downloaded. In this way, you will be able to have your own personalized portfolio.

Free Design File

Over 160.000 free vector graphics await you at Free Design File. Find illustrations for your blog, portfolio, landing page or design project by browsing through alphabetically ordered categories or by typing specific words in the search bar. In short, Free Design File has an immense amount of resources for personal and commercial use.

Free downloads File

This is a place with a vast collection of free vectors from all over the web. Among thousands of free graphics, you will surely find a perfect match for any project you’re involved with. You will be happy to know that any illustration of your choice is totally free to use. However, attribution to 1001FreeDownloads is a must.

Pixabay

This is another great place that contains massive numbers of free vectors for you to freely download and use. One great thing about Pixabay is that it also has collections of illustrations from other free places on the web. Thus, you have plenty more options to choose from. Oh and by the way, all graphics from Pixabay are completely free to use for any purpose, be it commercial or personal, even for printing. Plus, attribution is not something that is mandatory.

Today, wherever you go, you will inevitably run into vector graphics. Logos, infographics, fonts, patterns – these are just a few of the many choices that incorporate vectors into web design. A great indicator of how valuable vector illustrations can be is the fact that some of the current WordPress themes are designed entirely with vector graphics, such as Foton.

No matter what vector illustrations you end up picking and how you decide to use them, hopefully we have sped up your search process with this list, if only a little bit. Good luck with your designing!

We hope that you found this article to be helpful. If you liked it, please feel free to check out some of these articles as well!

I Visited 49 Sites. Hundreds of Trackers Followed Me

• Sites, Visited
i-visited-49-sites.-hundreds-of-trackers-followed-me

Earlier this year, an editor working on The Times’s Privacy Project asked me whether I’d be interested in having all my digital activity tracked, examined in meticulous detail and then published — you know, for journalism. “Hahaha,” I said, and then I think I made an “at least buy me dinner first” joke, but it turned out he was serious. What could I say? I’m new here, I like to help, and, conveniently, I have nothing whatsoever at all to hide.

Like a colonoscopy, the project involved some special prep. I had to install a version of the Firefox web browser that was created by privacy researchers to monitor how websites track users’ data. For several days this spring, I lived my life through this Invasive Firefox, which logged every site I visited, all the advertising tracking servers that were watching my surfing and all the data they obtained. Then I uploaded the data to my colleagues at The Times, who reconstructed my web sessions into the gloriously invasive picture of my digital life you see here. (The project brought us all very close; among other things, they could see my physical location and my passwords, which I’ve since changed.)

What did we find? The big story is as you’d expect: that everything you do online is logged in obscene detail, that you have no privacy. And yet, even expecting this, I was bowled over by the scale and detail of the tracking; even for short stints on the web, when I logged into Invasive Firefox just to check facts and catch up on the news, the amount of information collected about my endeavors was staggering.

Tracking Resources

Each dot represents one tracking resource (like a script, tracking pixel or image), which would be blocked by an ad-blocker

Amazon

Facebook

Google

Collects my latitude and longitude

Trackers sharing unique ID

Start of the day

11:56AM

Google.com/search

11:56AM

News.google.com

11:58AM

News.google.com

12:24PM

Google.com/search

12:24PM

12:24PM

Go.peteforamerica.com

Google.com/search

11:58AM

12:23PM

Huffpost.com

Washingtonpost.com

11:58AM

News.google.com

12:24PM

Peteforamerica.com

11:58AM

12:24PM

Freebeacon.com

Peteforamerica.com

12:23PM

12:27PM

Medium.com

Google.com/search

Twitter tracking script

11:59AM

12:23PM

12:37PM

Google.com/search

Google.com/search

Google.com/search

12:37PM

Google.com/search

12:22PM

Vanityfair.com

12:37PM

Youtube.com

12:51PM

12:22PM

Google.com/search

Google.com/search

12:22PM

Google.com/search

12:51PM

12:07PM

Nytimes.com

Google.com/search

11:59AM

Washingtonpost.com

12:52PM

My unique identifier

shared across sites

Nytimes.com

03:15PM

12:52PM

Medium.com

Nytimes.com

01:36PM

Stratechery.com

03:15PM

Medium.com

12:53PM

01:35PM

Washingtonpost.com

Techmeme.com

01:00PM

Google.com/search

03:16PM

Elizabethwarren.com

01:13PM

Google.com/search

01:01PM

Huffpost.com

01:13PM

03:16PM

Google.com/search

Elizabethwarren.com

01:12PM

Google.com/search

End of the day

01:04PM

Google.com/search

03:17PM

Elizabethwarren.com

Tracker with browser details

01:11PM

Time.com

01:11PM

01:04PM

Google.com/search

Washingtonpost.com

01:06PM

01:06PM

Medium.com

Google.com/search

Tracking Resources

Amazon

Facebook

Google

Collects my location

Trackers sharing unique ID

Each dot represents one tracking resource (like a script, tracking pixel or image), which would be blocked by an ad-blocker

Start of the day

11:56AM

Google.com/search

11:56AM

News.google.com

11:58AM

News.google.com

11:58AM

Huffpost.com

Tracker with location

11:58AM

News.google.com

11:58AM

Freebeacon.com

Twitter tracking script

11:59AM

11:59AM

Washingtonpost.com

12:07PM

Google.com/search

12:22PM

My unique identifier shared across sites

12:22PM

12:22PM

Vanityfair.com

12:23PM

Google.com/search

12:23PM

Medium.com

12:23PM

Washingtonpost.com

12:24PM

Google.com/search

12:24PM

Google.com/search

12:24PM

Go.peteforamerica.com

12:24PM

Peteforamerica.com

12:24PM

Peteforamerica.com

12:27PM

12:37PM

Google.com/search

12:37PM

12:37PM

Youtube.com

12:51PM

Google.com/search

12:51PM

Nytimes.com

12:52PM

Nytimes.com

12:52PM

Nytimes.com

12:53PM

Washingtonpost.com

01:00PM

Google.com/search

01:01PM

Huffpost.com

01:04PM

Google.com/search

01:04PM

Washingtonpost.com

Tracker with browser details

01:06PM

Google.com/search

01:06PM

Medium.com

01:11PM

Google.com/search

01:11PM

Time.com

01:12PM

Google.com/search

01:13PM

01:13PM

01:35PM

Techmeme.com

01:36PM

Stratechery.com

03:15PM

Medium.com

03:15PM

Medium.com

03:16PM

Elizabethwarren.com

03:16PM

Elizabethwarren.com

End of the day

03:17PM

Elizabethwarren.com

Tracking Resources

Amazon

Facebook

Google

Collects my latitude and longitude

Trackers sharing unique ID

Start of the day

11:56AM

Google.com/search

11:56AM

News.google.com

11:58AM

Tracker with location

News.google.com

Each dot represents one tracking resource (like a script, tracking pixel or image), which would be blocked by an ad-blocker

11:58AM

News.google.com

11:58AM

Huffpost.com

12:22PM

Vanityfair.com

11:58AM

Freebeacon.com

12:23PM

Google.com/search

Twitter tracking script

12:23PM

Medium.com

11:59AM

12:22PM

Google.com/search

12:22PM

12:23PM

12:07PM

Washingtonpost.com

11:59AM

12:24PM

Washingtonpost.com

Google.com/search

12:24PM

Google.com/search

12:24PM

Go.peteforamerica.com

12:24PM

Peteforamerica.com

12:27PM

12:24PM

Peteforamerica.com

12:37PM

Google.com/search

My unique identifier shared across sites

12:37PM

01:01PM

Huffpost.com

12:37PM

Youtube.com

01:00PM

Google.com/search

12:51PM

12:53PM

Google.com/search

Washingtonpost.com

12:51PM

01:04PM

Nytimes.com

Google.com/search

12:52PM

Nytimes.com

01:04PM

Washingtonpost.com

12:52PM

Nytimes.com

Tracker with browser details

01:06PM

Google.com/search

01:06PM

Medium.com

01:11PM

Google.com/search

01:12PM

01:13PM

Google.com/search

01:11PM

Time.com

01:13PM

01:35PM

Techmeme.com

End of the day

01:36PM

Stratechery.com

03:17PM

Elizabethwarren.com

03:15PM

Medium.com

03:16PM

Elizabethwarren.com

03:15PM

Medium.com

03:16PM

Elizabethwarren.com

The session documented here took place on a weekday in June. At the time, I was writing a column about Elizabeth Warren’s policy-heavy political strategy, which involved a lot of Google searches, a lot of YouTube videos, and lots of visits to news sites and sites of the candidates themselves. As soon as I logged on that day, I was swarmed — ad trackers surrounded me, and, identifying me by a 19-digit number I think of as a prisoner tag, they followed me from page to page as I traipsed across the web.

Looking at this picture of just a few hours online, what stands out to me now is how ordinary a scene it depicts: I didn’t have to visit any shady sites or make any untoward searches — I just had to venture somewhere, anywhere, and I was watched. This is happening every day, all the time, and the only reason we’re O.K. with it is that it’s happening behind the scenes, in the comfortable shadows. If we all had pictures like this, we might revolt.

Trackers sharing unique ID

Approximate

location tracker

11:58AM

Huffpost.com

Where I live

This tracker for Advertising.com received my almost exact location as latitude and longitude — about a quarter mile off from my actual location. Several other trackers gathered information about where I was, including my city, state, country and zip code. They base this off my IP address, so I had no chance to opt-out. They use the data to conduct targeted advertising but can also use it to track where I’m moving and build a more detailed picture of my interests and activities.

Widgets or trackers?

Tracking scripts like this one for Twitter allow websites to add useful features like share buttons. But the scripts often double as trackers meant to record site visits and build profiles about users. In this case, Twitter can use the information about this page to suggest new followers or sell more targeted advertising on its platform.

12:22PM

11:58AM

11:58AM

11:59AM

Vanityfair.com

Huffpost.com

Freebeacon.com

Washingtonpost.com

My unique identifier

shared across sites

01:01PM

12:53PM

12:52PM

12:23PM

Huffpost.com

Washingtonpost.com

Nytimes.com

Washingtonpost.com

11:58AM

Huffpost.com

11:58AM

Freebeacon.com

11:59AM

Washingtonpost.com

12:22PM

Vanityfair.com

12:23PM

Washingtonpost.com

12:52PM

Nytimes.com

12:53PM

Washingtonpost.com

My unique identifier

shared across sites

01:01PM

Huffpost.com

My unique identifier: 5535203407606041218

The internet wasn’t built to track people across websites. But that didn’t stop advertisers. They developed technology to share identifiers among websites. This line connects all trackers that were sharing one of my unique IDs, created by the advertising company AppNexus as I browsed the internet and then stored on my browser for others to use. I had about a dozen IDs shared among sites I visited, but this one was present on eight different pages, shared with nearly a dozen trackers and advertisers including Amazon, Yahoo, Google and lesser-known companies like SpotX and Quantcast.

Tracker with browser details

01:11PM

Time.com

Fingerprinting

Even when companies don’t have an ID to track me, they can use signals from my computer to guess who I am across sites. That’s partly why trackers like this one received more information about my computer than you could imagine being useful, like my precise screen size. Other trackers received my screen resolution, browser information, operating system details, and more.

12:24PM

12:24PM

12:24PM

Peteforamerica.com

03:16PM

03:16PM

03:17PM

Elizabethwarren.com

Election tracking

Websites for Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg were also participating in aggressive online tracking. Their sites sent data to Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon and about a dozen other third-party trackers. Warren’s site also sent my latitude and longitude to Heap Analytics along with a field indicating whether I was living in an early-primary state (I wasn’t).

News sites were the worst

Among all the sites I visited, news sites, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, had the most tracking resources. This is partly because the sites serve more ads, which load more resources and additional trackers. But news sites often engage in more tracking than other industries, according to a study from Princeton.

Google, Google, everywhere

Google’s own domains don’t contain that many trackers. The same is true for Facebook. But that’s because they place most of their trackers on other websites. Google was present on every site I visited, collecting information on where I live, the device I used and everything I looked at.

Additional reporting and design by Stuart A. Thompson, Jessia Ma and Aaron Krolik. Illustration by Jessia Ma.

Like other media companies, The Times collects data on its visitors when they read stories like this one. For more detail please see our privacy policy and our publisher’s description of The Times’s practices and continued steps to increase transparency and protections.

Follow @privacyproject on Twitter and The New York Times Opinion Section on Facebook and Instagram.

Farhad Manjoo became an opinion columnist for The Times in 2018. Before that, they wrote the State of the Art column. They are the author of “True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society.” @fmanjoo • Facebook

Nadieh Bremer is an award-winning data visualization designer working under the name Visual Cinnamon.