GENERAL INFORMATION

VIEWING FONTS

INSTALLING FONTS FOR WINDOWS

INSTALLING FONTS FOR MAC

CONVERTING FONTS TO MAC

BEING A RESPONSIBLE FONT-DOWNLOADER!

GENERAL INFORMATION

Tack-O-Rama would like to thank and acknowledge the generosity of the designers whose fonts appear on this site, in particular Nick Curtis, and Font Diner for their assistance with my queries while compiling this collection.

All the fonts found on these pages are freeware and contain full alphabetical sets (ie. no demoware).

Tack-O-Ding was designed by Josella Colquhoun for Tack-O-Rama. It is not for sale. Feel free to distribute it, but please include the notes.

Excluding Tack-O-Ding, all the other fonts have been gathered from various sources for their retro look. When using or distributing them, please read the notes included and honor the instructions and requests of the designers.

In accordance with the wishes of some of the designers, the fonts cannot be downloaded in one large file. Each font must be downloaded individually, but please feel free to download as many as you like.

Where a font designer's website is available, a link has been added to their name above each font example. Clicking the link will open a new browser window but please be mindful that although Tack-O-Rama is a G-rated site, there are one or two links from the fonts pages are not suitable for children.  

These fonts are provided in good faith. If you have designed a font that is found on this site against your instructions, please email Tack-O-Rama for its immediate removal.

The fonts have been thoroughly tested. If you are experiencing difficulties downloading them, please check your local computer configurations (for example, firewall installations) before contacting Tack-O-Rama.

The fonts have been compressed with WinZip. The current version of WinZip is no longer free, but if you don't have a copy of the program, you can download it here for free.

VIEWING FONTS

If you are using Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000 or XP and you require a good quality font viewer, Tack-O-Rama recommends The Font Thing.

The Font Thing allows you to view installed and non-installed fonts with your own sample text in different colors and sizes, and unlike many other font viewing programs, there's no requirement to have a printer installed for the program to work.

For more information, and to download The Font Thing, follow this link to CNet.com.

INSTALLING FONTS FOR WINDOWS

When you have downloaded the font, go to the desktop and double click on My Computer.

Locate the font you wish to install.

Double click on the font. The WinZip program will activate.

Follow the prompts to unzip the font, and store it where you will easily find it later. (By default, WinZip saves the files it opens to c:\unzipped\filename.)

To install the font, click Start on the toolbar in Windows, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double click on Fonts.

On the file menu, click Install New Font. Click the drive, and then the folder that contains the font you want to add.

Click on the font you wish to install. To select more than one font, hold the Control (CTL) key and select multiple fonts.

INSTALLING FONTS FOR MAC

Double click the Hard Drive icon on your desktop.

Drag the font into the closed System Folder icon.

A message box will ask if you would like the font installed in the Fonts Folder. Click OK.

A message box will advise that the font cannot be used with currently running applications. Click OK. Close and restart running applications if necessary.

CONVERTING FONTS TO MAC

In the past I have provided Mac fonts for download, and tried to assist with advice about Mac fonts. Due to the fact that my knowledge on this subject is extremely limited (and I'm told that newer Mac models are able to use Windows fonts), I have decided that for the good of all, I should cease this service.

If you require advice about Mac fonts, Tack-O-Rama recommends visiting one of the many large font sites who specialize in providing this sort of information.

For information regarding Windows to Mac font conversion, try visiting Luc Devroye's trés comprehensive font site.

BEING A RESPONSIBLE FONT-DOWNLOADER!

The designers of the fonts on this site have devoted many hours to creating fabulous and free typography (without which, we'd be using nothing more exciting than Times New Roman or Comic Sans). Some of these designers are being exploited, and - not surprisingly - are fed up with the situation. [For more information, read Nick Curtis's 'Finis' at TypOasis.] 

Even though honest souls like you and I aren't directly responsible for causing font abuse and theft, there are a few things we can do to help prevent it:

If you are the owner of a freeware font site, or you are downloading fonts to share with others, it's important that those fonts are verified as freeware. Aside from tracking down the designer (which can be a difficult and sometimes impossible task), the best method I've found for determining if a font is legitimate freeware is to run it through the search function at dafont. All of their fonts are freeware, and if your query concerns a commercial font, you will be referred to a font vendor such as MyFonts or fonts.com. [Note: To the best of my knowledge - and exhaustive research - all of the fonts contained on this site are legitimate freeware.]

If you identify a commercial font that is being given away as freeware, or you have downloaded a commercial font for free, please don't share it around. If you're really conscientious, you could alert the font designer, but contacting the download site yourself might just get you an earful of abuse (and I'm speaking from experience here)!

When purchasing fonts, always buy them from the designer, font foundry, or a trusted font vendor such as MyFonts or fonts.com.

Never purchase one of those "all the fonts on this site included on one disk" deals. Unless the site selling the disk has permission from all the font designers included on the disk (which is unlikely), this practice is illegal. Imagine if you'd devoted hours, days and weeks to creating a font that you wanted to give to people for free, and someone else was making money from it.... 

If you're financially challenged, begrudge paying for a font, or purchasing fonts is against your religious beliefs, there are so many free fonts out there that with very little effort, you should be able to find a very passable look-alike for the commercial font you're hankering for.

And finally - please take a few moments to read the instructional information included in the font zip file. If the designer has usage information or limitations, it will be specified in the documentation included in the file. [For example, some designers request a fee if their fonts are used commercially.] 

This information may seem petty or banal, but by doing the right thing by the font designers, hopefully they'll continue to provide us with lots more free fonts - it's the least we can do to thank them!