These 15 free fonts with glyphs will probably make your heart go pitter patter. Those sweet little decorative strokes coming off the ends (and beginnings) of certain letters are glyphs. And they can make such beautiful letters with all of their twirls and swirls. Download your favorite free fonts with glyphs below. I've included some fun font pairing ideas, as well.
Glyphs can take a normal word or letter and give it such panache and fun with an extra little stroke, curlicue, or swirl. These fonts are such a joy to work with, as well. I use fonts with glyphs in lots of decorative lettering...to really take things over the top in the cuteness. Download some of my very favorite free fonts with glyphs below.
If you come around here much, you know I love some pretty fonts. And if they're free? That's even better. Today's free fonts with glyphs are a bit unique. Usually with a glyphed font, the main font is free, but the characters with glyphs can cost extra. However, I went through and found 15 totally free (for personal use) fonts that incorporated all of the fancy, decorative glyphs into the main font characters. This actually took a bit of digging, but I think you're going to love the outcome and all of these pretties. Again, these are for personal use. If you want to use them in a commercial manner, most of the font designers do provide options for licensing and commercial versions.
As I mentioned above, I also included a few helpful font pairing ideas and tips. They're located at the bottom of this post...feel free to scroll ahead and check them out. Below are some seriously gorgeous glyph-filled font downloads. Some are great for intricate sign-making, some fabulous for making your own prints to frame and display. They'd ALL look amazing on simple invitations. You can also just print them out and use them for home labeling (it's fun to take labeling up a notch, isn't it?). The possibilities are endless with these beauties.
Installing Your Free Fonts with Glyphs
I'm actually a Mac user (since 1997...I sadly know nothing of how a PC works, y'all). But, there is afont installation guide for PC users here on Wikihowthat can definitely do the trick.
To install these free fonts on your Mac (since this is what I use, I can speak to that the best), follow my tutorial below:
Installing Fonts on a Mac:
- After you download your new glyph-filled font, open your download folder (or wherever you've downloaded your font to).
- Now, open the folder of the font (there may not be one, it may just be the actual file, in which case, you won't have to open a folder).
- Double click the .ttf or .otf file (I prefer .otf. or Open Type Format files if they're available, they can be resized and manipulated without compromising quality. But, they're not always available).
- Once you've double clicked the .ttf or .otf file, your dialog box should automatically pop up.
- Click 'Install Font' (as pictured above) and your installation will automatically begin (it takes just a few seconds, total).
- Check your Font Book to make sure it's there and you can start using your new font immediately.
Using Fonts with Glyphs
- Fonts with glyphs are a bit different than normal fonts. Some of them require an extra character to create the actual glyph.
- When you get to the download page for each font listed below, if extra characters are required in using the font, the font designer has provided them, usually in a chart on the download page.
- Common extra characters can be as simple as adding a bracket "{" or "}" on each end of your word. Those brackets are the glyphs.
- There are some fonts that have the glyphs built right in, so no extra action or character is needed.
Free Fonts with Glyphs
Just click on the image or name below each font name below to be taken to the download site. Please check each designer's Terms of Use, as most of these fonts are for personal use only (but many have commercial licensing available). Happy fonting, friends!
Pacific Again Font (pictured above)
Qwerty Ability Font (pictured above)
Sandrina Font (pictured above)
Lovely Home Font(pictured above)
Strawberry Blossom Font (pictured above)
Lovely Girl Font (pictured above)
King Lionel Font (pictured above)
Veni Font (pictured above)
Shink Font (pictured above)
Weather Sunday Font (pictured above)
Yessy Font (pictured above)
Inkland Font (pictured above)
Asmelina HarleyFont (pictured above)
Candle Mustard Font (pictured above)
Glyph Font Pairing Ideas
While all of the above free fonts with glyphs look lovely on their own, most are even better together (aren't weallbetter together, y'all?). Below, I've included some glyph font pairing ideas for you to put into practice on your own creations. The best piece of advice I can give? Have fun with your fonts! But, there are a few rules of thumb for font pairing and usage to make them look FABULOUS:
- Try to avoid pairing two fonts with glyphs together. They're quite ornate in nature and would compete with one another. It would also be a little tough on the eyes.
- Pair a thicker, heavier weighted-font with a skinny font.
- Pair a script font with a print font (combine this with the thicker/skinny idea and you've got a good thing going on).
- I also like to do all caps with one font and pair it with a script font in all lowercase, but that's just my own preference.
- When I do the above pairing, I often do the script font on "top", allowing it to kind of sit on the all-caps font. The all-caps font acts as a nice "base". You can see how I did that in the first font combination illustrated below (although the second combination is exactly the opposite, but still works).
- While this has nothing to do with font pairing, one thing I have to mention: please don't ever use ALL-CAPS with a glyph font. It's just really unfortunate to look at and makes my eyes hurt (both literally and figuratively, y'all).
Font Combinations to Try:
The above combinations are the following fonts with glyphs, along with some other fun ones to try:
- Printable Panache: Pacific Again Font
- PAPERS, PATTERNS, AND PRINTS: Dominique Font
- OPEN WEEKENDS ONLY:Market Fresh Regular Font
- The cookie cafe: Watermelon Script Font
- make a big Splash: Lovely Girl Font
- in the pool only: Typography Times Font
More Free Fonts
- This collection offree Vintage Romantic Fonts are my number one group of fonts.
- And myfree Marker-Style Fonts are always popular.
- And who doesn't enjoy a good slim font? This skinny font round up is sure to make you smile!
- Love a fun chalk-style font? My 25+ Free Chalk Fonts post is always a big reader favorite.
- Glitter and Graze has a great list of Fonts for Your Cricut.
- And these funFree Hipster Fonts from Sheer Ever After are super cool.
