Finding Fabulous Fonts

Do you hate your handwriting? Are you tired of seeing the same few fonts over and over in your albums? Do you feel like your journaling could be improved? It can, and once again it's as simple and easy as your home computer!

Journaling is an important part of scrapbooking and paper-crafting. It's not just about what the text says, but how it looks—and thankfully, today's technology gives us lots of resources to turn to. From software packages to freeware and font sites, there are thousands of fonts to pick from. By choosing the right ones, you can give your journaling just the right touch and add great artistic effects to a project. With the available technology and resources, there's no excuse for not being able to find one (or more) that's absolutely perfect for your layout or card—be it block or typewriter lettering, elegant scripts or handwriting typefaces.

Computer technology allows you the opportunity to incorporate many different fonts in your layouts, matching the mood or theme of a page. “There's a lot of variety,” explains scrapbooker Shauna Berglund-Immel. “There's a lot to choose from. You can find fonts to go with a style or mood to create the feeling or look of a page. There's a font for everything.”

According to Shauna, using a computer can improve the quality of the writing of journaling, not just the appearance. Shauna explains that when she's journaling by hand, her writing doesn't flow as well as when she's using a computer. “I'm always thinking about spelling, grammar, my handwriting...when I type it on a computer it seems more heartfelt.” Shauna adds that the computer allows you to think more about the words and less about the little things. The computer also allows the freedom to edit the text using resources like spell check and grammar check, as well as giving options to change the size or the look of the text without rewriting the whole thing.

By using a larger font size, different typeface or color, you can emphasize key words or phrases in your journaling.
Page from Shauna's Secrets of Scrapbooking

There are a variety of techniques for using fonts in your albums or on cards. You can emphasize key words or phrases in your journaling by making the text larger or a different style or color. You can also print your journaling directly onto vellum or your background paper to eliminate the work of matting it. Journaling can also be done on vellum to create a photo overlay or stacked journaling (done by layering printed vellum over other journaling). Another designer tip is to print out your journaling on scrap paper, then trace it onto vellum with a gel or metallic pen to make it look handwritten. This gives your page an extra-special touch.

So how can you get the resources to improve your layouts and journaling? There are lots of options, and we're here to help you find them. From telling you how to download fonts to your computer to where to go to get them and how to find that great font you saw in a magazine, being a font expert will come quickly and easily to you. Soon you'll be stumped about which font to use—not because you have so few choices, but because you've found so many great ones!

Where to Find the Fonts

There are a variety of ways to get a selection of fonts for your creative use. One is to purchase font software. There are a variety of software font collections available for purchase at computer and office stores as well as online. Programs like PhotoShop and Print Shop come with fonts and graphical editing tools to help you make them look their best. Adobe offers the Value Pack OpenType Edition, a collection of 29 typefaces for around $70. Creating Keepsakes (LINK TO http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/shop/category_new.ihtml?cat_id=11) also has font packs available, including The Art of Creative Lettering and The Best of Creative Lettering collections ranging from under $10 to about $40. You'll find a variety of other software font programs at amazon.com

There are also tons of sites that allow you to download fonts of all different kinds for no cost at all. Some of the most popular free font sites are listed below. Read on to learn about how to download them and how to keep your fonts organized.

Cézanne is one of scrapbooker Shauna Berglund-Immel's favorite fonts. This font can be purchased at Impress Rubber Stamps
Page from Shauna's Secrets of Scrapbooking

The web not only offers these free sites, but sites where you can purchase sets or even one typeface at a time. This way you don't have to purchase a whole set to get two or three fonts you want to use. Here are several to check out:

One important piece of information to remember is that fonts that are for sale either on a CD, disk or online are copyrighted material. It is illegal to share fonts that are not freeware via private web sites or email.

The Dirt on Downloading

Though it may seem like a lot of work, downloading fonts from online sites is simple, and quick once you get the hang of it.

First, create a folder on your computer to store the fonts in. This can be done either through “My Computer” on a PC, or from the desktop menu of a Mac. Just select “File,” then “New.” Name the folder something simple and relative to it's function like “My Fonts.” Do not name it simply “fonts” because your computer likely already has a folder with this name that contains all of the standard fonts that come with the machine. It's better to keep this folder separate from the original to prevent any mistakes and deleting fonts that are necessary for your computer to have.

Next, go the site you want to download fonts from. Select the icon for the font you want by clicking on it. Select “Save to Disk” from the menu (you may have to right click or click on the icon and hold the mouse button down for the menu to appear). Follow the prompts to save the file into the fonts folder you created.

Many of the fonts found online are “zipped” or compressed to save space and make downloading quicker and easier. You'll need to unzip the files before you can use them. Winzip (for Windows) or ZipIt (Macs) will decompress the files. You can double click on the icon in your fonts folder, then follow the prompts to unzip files. The unzipped version will appear in a separate window; simply drag the icon into your fonts folder.

Keeping Your Fonts Organized

If you're like many scrappers, once you start downloading you may become addicted. To keep track of your font downloads and make it easy to organize and find the fonts you want when you need them, it might be in your best interest to download or purchase a font manager, or even to simply set up a series of folders within your “my fonts” folder.

You can make a folder for each category of fonts that you download, making it easy to find what you want instead of sorting through one really long list. You may choose to use folders for “handwriting”, “script”, “typewriter”, “funky”, “block” or whatever categories you deem necessary.

You can purchase font managers from companies like the Adobe Type Manager (ATM). ATM allows users to organize typefaces anyway they want as well as preview them. This program is available from amazon.com for around $70. The CK Font Organizer also allows users to preview and print entire fonts in characters as well as to categorize for quick and easy reference.

I Want That One!

Ever looked at a page design and fell in love with the font but don't know how to find it? How about finding a perfect font but not knowing what it was called? Now it's easy to answer your questions. Myfonts.com provides a service to eliminate the guessing on which font was used. Simply upload a scanned image of the font and they'll find the closest match in their database for you. Or, go to fontseek, type in the name of the font and the site will tell you where the font is located online or what software package it can be purchased through.

Save Space, But Be Careful!

Don't Forget to Scrap!

With so many fonts to choose from, you may soon spend hours and hours browsing and downloading. Make sure you save some time to work on your albums so you can use your new-found fonts!