Whether you’re working on an app or game, it’s useful to have a library of fonts at your disposal. This guide will show you a variety of solutions for finding and choosing fonts for your projects. Our pick of 18 sites featuring the best video game fonts (app development) you need to bookmark!
You can get free to use fonts from our list of the 18 best free app font sites. Or if you have something more specific in mind, you can try a font identifier tool. Find out how to search google for the font you want or else learn to make your own using a single web tool. You can also learn how to use fonts with Felgo in the easiest fashion possible.
18 Best Free app Fonts Sites | Top Rated Video Game Fonts
There are a number of online resources for you to download your font from. Here’s a list of some of the best websites:
1. Fontsquirrel
When it comes to finding fonts free for commercial use, FontSquirrel could be your best friend. This site carefully selects high-quality ones and lists them in an easy to browse manner. They have a large selection of free use fonts and you can find something to suit your needs in seconds.
2. DaFont
DaFont is a large collection of typefaces including some great free use video game fonts. It’s easy to browse as well due to the large number of categories and a built-in search function. One of this site’s best features is the active forum where you can ask for advice on identifying fonts and engage in general design discussion.
3. 1001 Free Fonts
This collection of the best free fonts includes a large mix for personal use but also some great free to use fonts. 1001FreeFonts, like DaFont, is also searchable by name and category, making it a great place to find your font of choice as fast as possible. It also has a database of designers if you’d like a custom font made.
4. Urbanfonts
Urbanfonts is a great online resource for finding fonts free for commercial use. They boast a collection of over 8,000 freeware as well as some premium fonts and dingbats. The best thing about urbanfonts is the clean design of the website, which makes it easy to browse for your desired font.
5. Fontspace
Fontspace has over 28,000, many of which are free for commercial use. You can browse by most popular, new or randomly uploaded fonts as well as check out their blog on font design. If you’d like to save a collection of online fonts, you can also register Free account.
6. Fondfont | Great Reusrce to Download video game fonts
Fondfont advertises itself as having “The best free fonts on the Internet all in one site”. While you’ll have to investigate that claim for yourself, they do have a great collection of free use fonts and resources for you to find your perfect font. All of them are well-displayed and you can browse with ease thanks to the well-defined categories.
7. Fontcubes
Fontcubes hosts one of the largest collections of fonts out of any of the sites on this list. Every font they list is free to download but fontcubes themselves direct users to check with font authors for permission. So this mightn’t be the first place to look if you want to find a font and start using it in your project.
8. The League of Moveable Type
The League of Moveable Type is dedicated to well-made, free & open-source @font-face ready fonts. They have a collection of fonts free for commercial use that you can use in any app or game. The best thing about this site is you can browse the site in a seconds and get you’re font in no time.
9. Free Design Resources
If you’d like to check out a small collection of modern fonts as for video game fonts you need to visit Free Design Resources. They’ve made 10 fonts available to download with a range of licenses, going from free use to personal use. Whatever the license type they’re all sure to look great in your next project.
10. Font River
Font River collects fonts and dingbits from around the web with an emphasis on royalty free ones for commercial use. It also has a blog with tips on designing your own fonts. Although they like to promote free to use fonts, some of them are only licensed for personal use so make sure to check the license type before using it in your project.
11. Fontfabric
Although this isn’t the largest collection of free use fonts, Fontfabric does have some great looking ones for you to choose from. You can browse the free selection or else search according to style but either way you’re going to find something that will look great in your app or game.
12. FreeTypography
FreeTypography is a typography blog and it hosts a large collection of free fonts. They do great interviews with type designers and also offer design advice to help you make informed decisions about the ones you choose. Be sure to check out their “Must Have Fonts”, which would make a great addition to any font collection.
13. Comic Neue
Comic Neue is the brainchild of Craig Rozynski and is his attempt to improve on the infamous Comic Sans MS typeface. Comic Neue aims to be “the casual script choice for everyone including the typographically savvy”, and it comes in a number of varieties. It’s also open source so you can start using it today.
14. Ten by Twenty
Ten by Twenty hosts a small collection of great looking fonts, which are available free or for a small cost. The interesting thing about these fonts is that they’re unique without being distracting. You can also get a discount if you decide to purchase all of them for a relatively cheap £6.
15. Cooltext
Cooltext is a little bit retro but depending on your project, it might be just what you’re looking for. Its main feature is a logo generation tool but it also has a large collection of free use fonts to download. They have 1928 fonts available at the moment and these can also be used in conjunction with the logo generator.
16. Dotcolon
This site is a little bit more ‘boutique’ than some of the others on this list and hosts a small collection of mostly free use fonts. Dotcolon is the product of Sora Sagano, a Japanese font designer. These typefaces are very clean and refined and would look right at home in any professional app.
17. SMeltery
SMeltery was founded in 2002 by Jack Usine, a French font designer. Jack has made a number of free use fonts as well as a selection of high-quality paid ones. You can start using Jack’s free use fonts in any project you like. SMeltrey also has a newsletter so you can stay up-to-date to any additions to the font library.
18. Free Goodies for Designers
Free Goodies for Designers is a small blog run by a group of designers and art directors that aims to provide great material for all kinds of designers. They have a number of categories with a dedicated font section filled with free use options. These fonts would look great in both games and apps so be sure to check it out.
Try a Font Identifier Tool
If you’ve seen a font you’d like to use but don’t know what it’s called, a font identifier can help you out. Online font identifiers usually require a screenshot of your desired font and then they return the name of your desired typeface in seconds.
Here are a few different free tools for you to try:
Note that these tools take a good guess at identifying fonts but there’s no guarantee of accuracy. But they’re a great solution if you’ve got a general idea of what you’d like or you’re open to suggestions.
Find App Fonts Using Google
This method is simple but effective if you’re looking for a well-known font. Many fonts reside in online directories and indexes so if you know how to look, you can find them in less than a minute. You can use the following search term to do a specific search for fonts on Google.
You just need to start your search with [intitle:”index.of” (ttf|otf) fontname -html -php -aps -cf –jsp]. In the above example, we’re looking for the Minecraft font. To search for another font, just insert the name after (tff|otf) and hit enter.
There is one downside to this method. It’s important when using a font to make sure you have the proper permission to do so. This can be unclear sometimes with this method as license information isn’t always included with the fonts. So make sure to contact the site administrator to get the proper permission before using these fonts in your app or game.
Don’t Know What Font to Use?
If being able to instantly recognize a certain typeface is missing from your skill set, that’s ok. Nowadays there are a couple of ways to find a font you like.
One site that can help you is Identifont. They have a couple of tools that can help you to choose a font for your project. You can browse various categories by type, such as tall or wide fonts. You can also compare them to one another to see the individual merits of each one. You can even find a companion font to your main font so that everything in your project appears complimentary to one another.
Another feature of Identifont allows you to take a survey which suggests suitable ones for you. The survey is very easy to take and you can find a font suited to your tastes in a few minutes. You’re provided with two or more characters of varying style and you just pick whichever one you like most. After a few questions, it will suggest a couple of fonts for you.
Create Your Own Fonts Free for Commercial Use
For creative mobile developers, there are a couple of tools that can help you to make your own typeface. One option that might interest you is the possibility of turning your own handwriting into a font. You can do that at sites like paintfont and myscriptfont. You just print out a template, fill it in with your own style, scan it and the websites creates your own free to use font.
Another option is fontstruct, an online tool that lets you draw your own font. This is a fun way to create fonts free for commercial use and you have total control of your typeface. There’s a bit of a learning curve but fontstruct can yield great results.
How to Use the Best Free Fonts in Felgo
Now that you’ve got a nice selection, you can use this simple process to include them in your Felgo projects.
Fonts can be added to your game using the FontLoader element. This element can load fonts by name or from a URL.
Once you’ve found a font you like and transferred it to the correct directory, all you have to do is copy the code below:
import Felgo 3.0
import QtQuick 2.0
GameWindow {
FontLoader {
id: customfont
source: "Airstream.ttf"
}
Text {
text: "Here's my custom font"
font.family: customfont.name
font.pixelSize: 48
}
}
This looks something like this:
Both .ttf and .otf fonts are supported by Felgo. If you have a font in a different format that you’d like to use, you can use this tool to convert it to a supported format. Onlinefontconverter.com is a simple web tool dedicated to converting font files into whatever format you like.
Did We Forget One of the Best Free Fonts?
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