For web developer

NexusFont is a free Windows application for easily managing fonts.

It is a very useful application specially when trying to decide "which font to use" for a specific text as it can "display outputs of a custom text with various fonts" in a grid.

The application has support for TrueType, OpenType & Adobe Type1 fonts.

NexusFont can help installing/uninstalling fonts, finding duplicates, anti-aliasing, renaming & more.

Also, it can export the preview lists as images which is a nice feature when sharing the options with clients, colleagues, etc.

Compatibility: Windows OS

FontFriend is a bookmarklet for easily & instantly changing the fonts + styles used on a website without code editing or refreshing.

Once clicked, it overlays a menu with web fonts, font-variants, weights, text-transform properties, size/height entries & an element selector to target specific elements.

At this point, every clicked property instantly updates the selected element.

The overlay screen also has an @font-face support which makes it possible to test non-standard fonts by simply drag'n dropping them.

To sum up, the bookmarklet is very functional for any web designer by removing the standard code editing + refreshing process.

Requirements: No Requirements
Compatibility: All Major Browsers (@font-face works only in FF 3.6+)

Font Squirrel, which was mentioned at WRD before, has been improved so much & presents hundreds of free fonts that can also be used in commercial projects.

Fonts listed are well-categorized with their styles & it is possible to view the most-downloaded ones that generally takes you to the most popular fonts.

The @font-face property of CSS3, which enables us to use any font in websites needs some work on fonts as every browser requires different formats:

Original TrueType or OpenType Fonts for Firefox 3.5 and Safari

EOT fonts for Internet Explorer

SVG fonts for Opera, iPhone & Chrome

WOFF fonts for Firefox 3.6+

Font Squirrel has ready-to-use @font-face kits for many popular fonts which include everything needed (and some examples). Also, it offers a @font-face generator to upload your fonts & create custom kits.

Dingbats, the ornamental characters in typesetting, can be very useful objects in design as they are similar to shape or icon sets which come as fonts.

They are highly compatible as they work in every image editor & can be resized or styled easily.

Also, with the @font-face property of CSS3, where it becomes possible to use any font in webpages, it is pretty sure that dingbats will find a new usage area for themselves.

Here are 30 quality, useful & free dingbats to improve your fonts library:

Pie Chart Font

Flamez

Dingbatz Formz DSG

WC Rhesus A Bta

Read the rest of this entry »

It is sometimes a scene, a color or just a thought. Designers can get inspired from anything.

letterPLAYGROUND is a community-driven resource for inspiration where users design letters how they wish.

In the website, a "p" can be a portrait of a girl or "w", the claw of a bird, totally up to the imagination of users.

With a free membership, anyone can upload their work, comment to other letters or create a favorites list.

Letters can be browsed easily & it is possible to see the most faved letters or choosing a specific letter & seeing its variations.

Web Font Specimen is a project by Tim Brown of Nice Web Type, for seeing how a typeface renders in browsers.

It is simply a well-prepared HTML/CSS setup that displays most important elements like headings, lists, text in different colors/sizes, emphasis of them & more.

The download comes with the Georgia set by default & new typefaces can be configured by updating the CSS file.

Considering every font is becoming a web font with @font-face & web designers will probably be purchasing more fonts, analyzing how the font will be rendered becomes more important.

To see a demo of Web Font Specimen, click here.

Typedia is a free-to-use community-driven resource to classify, categorize, and connect typefaces.

It works like a wiki, anyone can join, add & edit pages for typefaces or for the people behind the types.

It is possible to find out details about fonts like: 

the designers

foundries

country of origin

release year

& more..

The resource is not complete yet (and won't be, as new fonts are created everyday) but growing & becoming a very useful resource.

Typedia also offers some other great information under the "Learn" section.

FontCapture is a simple & free web application with an impressive function: it turns any handwriting into a font.

It does not require any software and works in few steps:

download (PDF) & print a special template
fill it with your handwriting
scan & upload the template

The service automatically creates your font & presents you the download file.

Also, just before downloading the generated fonts, you can see a full-preview & decide to re-create a new one or not.

P.S. The service is currently in beta status.

Requirements: A printer & a scanner

myFontbook is a free web-based service that enables anyone to browse their font collections.

It can be used with or without registering (free), but by signing in, you can tag & categorize your fonts for reaching them quicker in the future.

A custom text can be displayed with all fonts in both swatch & list views. Also, gylphs view allows you to quickly scan characters and symbols.

The font metrics view displays guides to show default kerning, text baseline, and median height. And, a selected font can be printed easily with several style samples by the click of a button.

Requirements: No Requirements
Compatibility: All Major Browsers

TypeSelect is a JavaScript-based solution for using selectable custom fonts on the web.

It combines the power of typeface.js, jQuery, the canvas, toDataURL, CSS background properties & real overlayed text to accomplish this feature.

TypeSelect is very easy to understand & implement. It is totally controlled via CSS & no server-side files are required.

It has support for double/triple-click selections, UTF-8 characters & gracefully degrades in IE6.

On the other hand, currently, it has some limitations like unselectable text in IE, not being able to use :hover or line breaks & few more.

Requirements: jQuery, Typeface.js
Compatibility: All Major Browsers (with some limitations)