Commentary

My Favorite Font Sources: A Shortlist of Trusted Foundries and Retailers

Stephen Coles on December 30, 2011

Most fonts are licensed when needed, selected specifically for the job at hand. But when my (less font-addicted) friends are seeking versatile, workhorse typefaces for future use, I send them this list.

Commercial Type
Dutch Type Library
Enschedé
FontFont
Font Bureau
Hoefler & Frere-Jones
House Industries
Lineto
OurType
Process
Typotheque
Village
MyFonts — As a retailer with a very liberal acceptance policy the quality of type available at MyFonts varies widely. Here are my personal recommendations (rated 4 stars and above) as a start.
FontShop — The foundries represented at FontShop are more carefully curated, but there is still dreck through which to wade. I can’t link to my picks until the site’s Favorites function is shareable, but the Bestsellers, Award Winners and Underused lists feature some of the best stuff.

Of course, there are dozens of reputable outfits that make and sell good fonts. It’s almost irresistible to list every little foundry I love, but most of them are available via one of these outlets and a set of links longer than the one above is often more overwhelming than useful. Think of this list as a shopper’s starting point for building a lasting typographic toolset. These sites offer most of the best fonts available, and — crucially — present them well, too.

The focus here is on downloadable desktop fonts for print use, but some of these shops offer webfont versions as well. For now, my webfont service shortlist is simply: Typekit, Webtype, Typotheque, Fontdeck, and Fonts.com. MyFonts and FontShop also offer downloadable, self-hosted webfonts.

Speaking of typeface recommendations, our very own Typographica.org reviews are also a good introduction to a few of the best new typefaces. After an unforgivable two-year hiatus, we’re wrapping up the 2011 edition now.

9 Comments

Josh Farmer says:

01.06.12 at 11:58 am

What about Underware and TypeTogether?
Stephen Coles says:

01.06.12 at 2:10 pm

The goal of this list is to be as concise as possible. Like many other foundries that aren’t listed, Underware and TypeTogether are both top-notch with only good stuff in their libraries, but because their fonts are available at FontShop, MyFonts, and Village (Underware), they don’t get a place on this shortlist. If they offered something extraordinary and exclusive on their sites I would consider mentioning them separately. Meanwhile, you’ll find many of their typefaces are represented in my favorites on MyFonts.
Josh Farmer says:

01.06.12 at 3:02 pm

Ah, that makes perfect sense. In hindsight, silly question. Sorry. And, I did notice that as I made my way through your list of favorites.
Brittany Nutt says:

01.26.12 at 9:29 am

This was very useful. I never realized how many font websites there were. The one I only really new of was Dafont.com. This will definaitely help me with college projects and my career after school.
Laura Hutchison says:

02.23.12 at 12:17 am

What about YouWorkForThem? I find them to be much nicer than the MyFonts site you mention.
Stephen Coles says:

02.28.12 at 8:37 am

YouWorkForThem offers many of the same fonts available at MyFonts. Those that they offer exclusively are not good enough to warrant a special mention. The YWFT site itself is aesthetically appealing to many designers, and its functionality is improving, but MyFonts still offers much more information and faster, more flexible sampling — not to mention thousands more fonts of a professional-level quality.
Hubert Florin says:

04.29.12 at 7:09 pm

Thanks for this, I always go back to this list when looking for a new font to buy. I would only add the absolutely excellent fonts from Jean François Porchez.
Marc says:

09.11.12 at 5:09 am

You should definitely check out http://www.fontspring.com. They are pretty new but they have grown a lot. Their selection is pretty complete, but the real winner is they keep things simple. Licensing is one affordable fee without all the requirements. I have also found their web font hinting to be superior to some of the other distributors.
Stephen Coles says:

09.11.12 at 11:14 am

I’d love to hear what fonts and what distributors you’ve tried. The hinting is going to vary quite a bit at Fontspring as there is no single production flow for every font. Some are probably quite good, as they offer some of the same fonts available at higher end retailers, but many are very poor.