It seems like I spend countless hours trying to figure out what font to use in my designs.

I try to consider the general feeling of the design (silly, elegant, simple, etc) and try to pick a font that fits, and then try them out for size, but it seems to take forever.

Does anyone have tips for trimming that down to minutes instead of agonizing hours?

Thanks!

Kathy

Well, I'm one of those people that find the processing of choosing fonts to be mildly enjoyable, ha ha. However, I know that sometimes efficiency dictates finding them fast.

I use Linotype Font Explorer to manage my fonts. I can group them (eg. handwritten, serif, sans, classic, vintage, modern, etc.). That alone helps me narrow choices down because I usually have already made decisions regarding style and theme.

The list that's organized can be sorted so that only the style/theme I want is presented. So, if that's a part where you get bogged down - it might help because then you only have to click through appropriate choices at that point, bypassing obvious ones entirely that don't apply.

Thanks, Blipfish, I didn't realize there were programs for that. (Not sure why I didn't realize it, there's a program for everything!)

Maybe that will help some.

selecting the right font is a painstaking process for me also, because I think it make a good design great, or complete crap.

But Blip is right, I also use a font previewer on occasion when I need to narrow the down the candidates they are very handy

I haven't thought about this in years ;^)

I have been using the old scroll through the list technique for a long time now. But now that you have brought it up as a question I am reminded of my short but busy career in the sign business back in the early 90's.

As you can imagine, a sign guy has alot of fonts and knows all the names by heart. My super time saver however was a giant poster I made to hang in my office that had every font available spelled out for me to glance at.

Of course, nowadays I guess that would be more like wallpaper considering the amount of fonts that are available.

Painstaking doesn't even describe it for me sometimes. Agony. Torture. Angst and self-doubt. Wrapped up in nails. I think it's because I agree with you, that it can make a terrible design or a really cool one. And I often have trouble really SEEING what I've made. I have to set it aside for a few days, then come back and look - quick - what's my first reaction?! I'm often surprised at what I see that way, both good and bad.

Rags, you could wallpaper an entire house that way! (And get a little crazy, too...)

I use AMP Font Viewer (free) to help pick a font. I can type the text into the window and scroll down through my fonts as it changes the text. Much faster and less resource intensive than doing it in Photoshop.

I spend some time on picking which, but I don't agonize over it unless it's part of a design that really calls for a specific type of font. (There are some above me that would say that every design including no design at all calls for that scrutiny. I say to them HOGWASH! Fontophiles... fooey!)

LOL Teesed, thanks for the heads-up on the free one. That's a price I can afford!

I'm trying to not make it such a big deal. Maybe if I can sort them and only look at the style that I want to use, it will take some of the pain out of it.

And maybe I will stop worrying so much about the fontophiles (sounds like a boogey man under the bed!)

i have 5-10 key fonts i use most often....when then dont fit i highlight the text click the name of the font and hit the down arrows....i have gotten used to seeing them flash on the screen if one catches my eye then i stop (and usually got back 3-4 to the one that caught my eye cuz i was clicking too fast)

I have a fear of the FONTOPHILE too lol

I will try AMP Font Viewer, sounds like this might help a lot. Thanks!! I have too many fonts on my computer right now, so that doesn't help. I need to clean them.

I have 11,000 fonts on my computer and this can be the most time consuming part of a test design. But everyone who suggested using a font management program is completely correct. Spend some time gathering up fonts into groups (and a font can be in more than one group depending on how loosely you want that group to be focused on a 'theme'). All of them I am aware of do permit a sample display of text in the chosen font and scanning down a list should be fairly quick once you get used to seeing the choices. If you have a lot of free fonts, you might be better off choosing a font program that also displays the licensing for a font - owner, copyright, etc. I use three different ones, but 'The Font Thing' is right up there with the best of them - and is Free. Has eight screens for all sorts of font info, and includes a character map, and a magnifying window too. Nice little program since 1999!

AMP font viewer sounds sweet... Thanks!

http://www.cafepress.com/orangemoonapp

What I do is imagine first the kind of font I want. For example, I think of the feel I want for the image (comical, grungy, elegant, futuristic, etc.) and then I do a search online of free font websites.

I scroll through the sample images of the font quickly until I find a set of fonts (maybe like 5) that fit closely to what I imagined.

Then from those selected few fonts I make a final decision.