Do you want to make your writing or design feel more powerful and leave a lasting impact? Using an impressive font matters a lot. It can change the impact of your document or a design. That’s why we have a variety of fonts that promote uniqueness and give a written piece an independent identity. If you love exploring high-quality fonts, you must have heard of Font Squirrel.
This article is a treat for font lovers. Keep reading if you care about using legal, free fonts that add an exciting touch to your design projects. This article will walk you through everything related to Font Squirrel, why to choose it, and how to use it effectively and safely for your projects.
What is Font Squirrel?
Font Squirrel is a free website that offers to download multiple fonts. You can download and use the fonts available at this site for your personal and commercial projects. These fonts are usually compatible with your PC, laptop, phone, and tablet.
You can find different options on this website that help you find and reach the font you require. You can explore the options by choosing font classifications and tags. If you are still unsure which font to use, this website helps you choose from categories of hot, recent, and popular fonts.
The best thing about this website is the quality. You will only find high-quality fonts here. If a font is of low quality, this website will not list it as an option. Additionally, you can use its other free services, such as the Web Font Generator and Font Identifier. So, you can easily check the details of a font from an image, and you can easily convert fonts into the ones that you can embed in your websites.
There is another option called Font Talk. This is a platform they have provided for their users to interact with one another. If you want certain fonts and you are not sure where to get them, you can post your inquiries here. Someone from the users group will reply to your queries.
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Why choose Font Squirrel over other font sites
While you may have a lot of websites or platforms that provide free fonts, Font Squirrel takes the lead. For better clarity, let’s discuss the exclusive features and benefits of choosing Font Squirrel over other font websites:
Licensing clarity
Using an unlicensed font can cause serious problems for your design or writing projects. That’s why you always want to use a properly licensed font. Font Squirrel provides complete license clarity. Whether you buy a font for your personal use or you need to use it for your commercial projects, you will get 100% legal fonts here.
Font quality
Font Squirrel has zero tolerance for the quality of the fonts it offers on its website. As discussed earlier, it doesn’t allow any low-quality fonts. That shows their commitment towards quality. In many cases, you will find that certain fonts are not available on this website because they are of poor quality.
Search options
This website makes it very easy for users to find the font of their choice. If you know the font name, you can just type it into the search bar, and it will come up. Otherwise, you can just start exploring different font categories and tags. The website shows the design of every font to give you a clear idea of how it looks. So, you know what you are about to download in advance.
Interactive community
If you are passionate about something, you always try to find a community for it. Font Squirrel offers a simple, unique, and very powerful community called “Font Talk.” In this community, users interact and discuss their font-related queries. If you love spending time reading and writing about fonts, it can be a great community to be part of.
Key features of Font Squirrel
Let’s discuss some of the salient features of the Font Squirrel website. In addition to offering simple ways to find fonts, this website also offers smart options. Let’s know about them below to get more clarity:
100% free fonts with detailed licensing
Font lovers find using the Font Squirrel website safe and legal. That’s because this website ensures that every font available on its platform is free for both personal and commercial use. Every font has detailed information regarding its license. This much information gives font users great confidence to download and use those fonts as they like.
Font identifier
Suppose you liked a font from a design or a computer-generated document. You want to use that font but aren’t sure where to find it. You can utilize this feature called “Font Finder.” It works very simply. You just need to upload the picture whose font you want to identify. The system will work automatically and do the rest for you. You will get the name of the font the picture designer used.
Webfont generator
This tool is especially helpful for web designers and creators. If you design websites and need help with certain fonts, this tool is for you. When you open this option, it asks you to upload the font that you want to use for your website. You upload the font in the “.ttf” or “.otf” formats. After the upload finishes, this tool gives you the same fonts in a web-friendly format. Now, you can easily embed those fonts on your websites.
How to use Font Squirrel effectively
Let’s quickly go through how you can navigate through Font Squirrel effectively, step-by-step:
- Step 1. Go to your web browser and visit https://www.fontsquirrel.com/
- Step 2. You can choose from the fonts available at the home screen, or you can type the font name in the search bar.
- Step 3. Click the font of your choice. From the page that opens up, just click the “Download” option as shown in the screenshot below:
That’s it. You must have found it super simple to get your favorite fonts from this website.
Tips for selecting the right fonts
If you are looking for the right fonts for your design projects, you need to be very specific with the fonts you use. Consider taking help from the following useful and practical tips that may help you choose the right font:
Choose a font to match your design
A font usually gives your overall design words. It is the speaking element of your design that may have a lasting impact on viewers. Always try to choose a font that complements your design. If you choose a font that’s completely different from your design, it may not fit well with it.
Avoid using too many fonts in a single design
You may like many fonts on Font Squirrel. In some cases, you may want to use more than one font for a single design. While you may use 2 to 3 fonts, avoid multiple fonts; otherwise, your design or its overall idea may lose coherence.
Test different sizes and styles
Don’t rely solely on the fonts’ instant appearance on a website. Your design may have a different overall ambiance and impact. That’s why you should always try multiple fonts in your design to see which looks best. In some cases, you may conclude that some fonts give entirely different impacts when you use them on your designs compared to their appearance on the website.
Is Font Squirrel safe and legal to use?
Just as with any other object available on the internet, it is very important that you use fonts safely and legally. As we discussed before, most fonts available on Font Squirrel are completely free and legal to use. But it is always a good idea to double-check before proceeding, especially when conducting commercial activities.
Let’s discuss the safe and legal aspects of this website below:
SSL certificate:
Font Squirrel website uses an SSL certificate. It gives you the assurance that the website is safe to visit. All your data, including personal and professional information, will be safe on this website. When you upload fonts to utilise the Webfont Generator feature, the uploaded and generated fonts remain safe.
Licensing information:
Every font available on Font Squirrel shows detailed information about the licensing agreement. You can quickly review the license agreement that comes with each font. Look for the file named “LICENSE.txt”—it explains the permitted uses and helps you understand how to use the font safely and legally.
Restricted fonts:
You may notice some fonts with limited availability on this website. For example, some fonts may have the license for “Personal use only.” That means you can only use those fonts for personal projects, not for commercial designs. You may also find “Attribution required” written in some licence agreements. In that case, you would have to attribute the font to its original owner while using it. Some font licenses may also mention “Limited embedding rights”. In that case, you can’t use those fonts in your website projects.
How to ensure legal usage of fonts?
It is very important that you always use fonts legally. You can ensure it by following the guidelines we listed below:
Always read the license:
Having the license file alone is not enough. You must also read the license file carefully before using a specific font. While the Front Squirrel team carefully ensures that all fonts have a legal license for use, you must also double-check. Reading the license agreement in detail may give you the impression that, while the font is free to use, you may have to give attribution to the font owner. If you use it without attribution, you may get into legal trouble.
Don’t resell or redistribute:
Reselling or redistributing licensed products constitutes gross misuse. If a website has provided licensed products free of cost to you, it doesn’t mean that you get a license to sell them. That website states that users will only use those fonts for personal and commercial projects. Font Squirrel naturally invests its time and resources in bringing amazing fonts to its users for free so that they can get value from them. If you start selling them to other users, it would violate their website’s core purpose. If you deviate from this policy, you may face legal issues.
Keep the license with you:
It is very important that you always keep the license with you. Even though there are very few chances of getting into trouble by using the licensed fonts from Font Squirrel, you still need to be vigilant. Try taking screenshots of the section of the website that shows information about the fonts. In case you face any issue in the future, you can show that the font you downloaded earlier was fully licensed to be used for personal and commercial purposes.
Alternatives and complementary font resources
Although Font Squirrel is one of the most popular sources to get your favourite fonts, there are other famous options too. But they may have paid subscriptions. If you want to explore more options, you can check the following popular alternatives to Font Squirrel:
Google Fonts
Google offers a dedicated platform to get fonts of your choice. Users widely refer to this platform as a free, open-source font repository. But finding hand-picked fonts here may be challenging.
Adobe Fonts
Offers a wide range of premium fonts. It is ideal for professional and commercial uses. But unlike Font Squirrel, most fonts of Adobe Fonts are available through subscriptions.
DaFont
Do you want fonts that better align with the creative touches? You may consider exploring DaFont. This platform is an ideal destination for design projects and user-uploaded fonts. While you have many options here, unlike Font Squirrel, you may struggle to find high-quality fonts.
MyFonts
Do you want to explore professional fonts, especially for your commercial projects? Try MyFonts. You can find thousands of font options on this website. It is one of the top choices for designers and web builders. It offers a feature similar to Font Squirrel’s “WhatTheFont,” which can identify a font from a picture. You get exclusive licensing for each font on this website, but unlike Font Squirrel, it is not a free platform.
Here’s a quick table for your reference to compare each platform:
| Feature | Google Fonts | Adobe Fonts | DaFonts | MyFonts |
| Cost | Free | Paid | Free + Paid | Paid |
| Font Quality | Good | Premium | Depends on uploaders | High & Professional |
| Licensing | Open Source | All fonts are licensed (included with payment) | Need to check manually | Need to check manually |
| Best for | Personal & professional uses | Professional | Creative & design projects | Professional |
| Unique Feature | Huge variety of free fonts | Adobe integration | Uniqueness because of user-uploaded fonts | WhatTheFont feature to identify fonts |
Conclusion
So, now you are well aware of the powerful magic that Font Squirrel brings to you. With all the amazing features for font lovers, you can safely conclude that this platform is ideal for users who want completely free and legal fonts. The convenient search options allow you to find the font of your choice in a jiffy. Plus, the ability to use the licensed fonts for your commercial use is a huge bonus.
While there are other decent alternatives to Font Squirrel, like Google Fonts and Adobe Fonts, the complete package that you get with Font Squirrel steals the show. Plus, features like the Web Font Generator and Font Identifier provide you with extra, yet much-needed, options. With all its features and benefits, this website remains a trustworthy and reliable go-to platform for all font lovers.
