Wanted: Font Books

[James N. Dawson]

Do they make font books anymore? I've made use of them in the past, from my library in Ukiah, California, but from my few visits here in Washington to some local libraries, it seems like they' ve gutted out much of the old books, and I'm afraid they may not have any.

 

I've tried some Net research, but most seem to refer to on-line sources that have be downloaded and installed in your wordprocessing program.  I've tried this kind of thing, but without success, and I'd rather just do it the old-fashioned way, by photocopying from a book or books.

 

I guess designers are creating new fonts all the time, but most of these are probably only available on the Net.  Is there a website that just displays them so they can be printed, not dowloaded for installation in a wordprocessing program?

 

Again, I'd prefer books, with as many  kinds of fonts as possible, but failing that, websites that displayed whole printable alphabets would be a second choice, even though I find these slow and tedious to search or browse.

 

The font I have in mind is hard to describe, but it might be "horror".  The letters are sort of in the shape of a triange, point down.  They may or may not be "drippy".  Also, I'd be interested in a "Soviet" font, which I hope is self-explanatory.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

JND 

[Dan 10things]

I think I still have a few I'd sell real cheap, essentially to cover postage and handling. But, I wouldn't shy away from downloading fonts too, I do it all the time. Are you using a PC or Mac? If you are using a PC, I can tell you how to install them.

[Emma Jane Falconer]

http://www.dafont.com/ This website has a fantastic selection of fonts, carefully categorised, and each webpage also has samples of all the letters and it can display your own text without installing too

Here's some nice looking horror ones
http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=110

[James N. Dawson]

Dan,
Thanks! Let me know what you want for them. Would a check be okay?

You're welcome to give me instructions, but I wouldn't want to put you through the trouble. As I've written in my zines, I try following instructions all the time. If I can't understand or make the directions I find on the Net work, why would I be able to yours. It's not a matter of shying away. It's a personal decision that it's too much work and definitely not my forte. No amount of instructions are going to make somebody into a piano virtuouso if they don't have the aptitude or enthusiasm for it.

Emma,
Thanks! A much better site than I'd be able to find. But I had a few problems.

I managed to download a font that looked good. It had the "Quick brown fox..." sentence, supposedly with all the letters of the alphabet. I printed it out, landscape size, but the last half of the sentence in the larger letters, which I needed, cut off. I guess I could do some enlargements on the small sizes on my photocopier.

When I tried to download/display the second font that looked good it said:

Compressed (zipped) Folders Error
Windows Cannot Open Folder
The compressed (zipped) Folder 'C:\users\James\AppData\Local\MicroSoft\Windows\Temporary\Internet Files\Low\Content.IE5\V71FUW5D\meltdown_mf[1].zip' is invalid.

This is just a case in point and tip of the iceberg of the kind of things I encounter when I try to do things on the Net. Of course there may be a million and one ways to "correct" the situation, but it usually drags on, is boring and time-consuming, and sometimes never pans out.

Not criticizing. Just explaining. I appreciate the help. I may play with it a little more as and when I've got the time and ambition.