Safe free font site?

[Chuck Peterson]

I need to download a font a customer needs. It's called Luxury Diamond, but that doesn't matter. The last time I got a font from a free site I'm pretty sure it loaded a bunch of other garbage onto my computer. Does anyone know which site is safe, if any? Thanks.

 

[Geneva Olson]

Dafont.com but it doesn't always have the fonts you are looking for.

 

[Johnny Best]

FontSquirrel

 

[Boudica]

The two already mentioned, and I'll add 1001fonts.com

 

[Jburns]

so when you are on those sites, there are several download links that are actually ads. I hover over the "Buttons" and you can see in the lower right it says something like Goodle Ad".

 

[Chuck Peterson]

Thank you all.

 

[eahicks]

fontspace.com has been very usueful. It's a bookmarked site on my browser. And no confusion as to what or where download button is. Not the best for "standard" fonts but lots of great options and alternatives.

 

[shoresigns]

Safe free font sites (high quality from professional designers)
https://fonts.google.com
https://www.fontsquirrel.com

Safe free* font sites (mostly lower quality from amateur designers)
https://www.dafont.com
https://www.1001fonts.com
https://www.fontspace.com
* Check the license terms for any fonts you get from these sites. Many amateur designers only offer their fonts for personal use, and they're not free for businesses to use.

Safe paid font sites
https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts (subscription fonts)
https://www.fontspring.com
https://www.myfonts.com
https://fontstand.com (rental fonts)

Sketchy/pirate/illegal/unsafe font sites
https://www.1001freefonts.com/
https://www.cufonfonts.com
https://www.downloadfonts.io
http://fontsgeek.com/
https://www.dafontfree.net/
https://www.fontsmarket.com
https://fontoteka.com/
http://fonts3.com/
https://copyfonts.com/
https://www.free-fonts.com/
There are dozens/hundreds more like this. Most of these "sketchy" sites come up when you search Google for specific paid fonts. They'll either offer a low-quality pirated copy of the font, or malware, or they'll bait and switch and redirect you to a legit site like MyFonts and collect a commission if you end up buying the font.

 

[shoresigns]

And the only place to safely and legally buy Luxury Diamond is from House Industries:
https://houseind.com/hi/luxury_text

 

[Signed Out]

so when you are on those sites, there are several download links that are actually ads. I hover over the "Buttons" and you can see in the lower right it says something like Goodle Ad".

This is pretty much what I do. You need to avoid the big "download installer here" buttons and find the little "download font" button. I always make sure it's downloading just font files and nothing else. But I'm always a little fearful that a 75kb ttf file is actually a virus or something. Since I'm not big into the hacking game I don't really even know if a virus could be on that filetype or what size file might contain something bad or if I would ever even know because they don't make it that obvious... But I don't think I've ever infected anything this way...

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Malware and virus files can be very small. they can easily hide inside any file you download.

 

[Signed Out]

Malware and virus files can be very small. they can easily hide inside any file you download.

My biggest fear confirmed. Lol

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Malware and virus files can be very small. they can easily hide inside any file you download.

To go along with this (and a uniquely Windows centric issue, in my experience) is that they can be labeled as say a .txt and it's really an exe (not an exe within a txt file, but a pure exe file) and they can fool systems and it will run (even more hazardous is that combined with how you have your admin account setup as well (if you only have 1 account on a Win machine that by default is your admin account (really no bueno, but that's for another time)).

This and a few others (in my opinion) are why things aren't always as secure on a Windows machine, but I digress. This can happen with any OS, but it's just heightened with Windows and add that to the large user base, prime real estate.

But I don't think I've ever infected anything this way...

Contrary to popular belief, not all malware/virus etc are obvious. Sure Ransomware is, but not everything is. Even monitoring resources religiously may not show signs of being infected.

Brave new world out there.

 

[CanuckSigns]

always run any shady file you download through virus total here: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/upload

It's an online tool owned by Google that checks your file against hundreds of anti-virus programs and malware programs to determine if it's safe, you can even enter a URL and check the file before you download it