If you're looking for freebies:

Da Font offers free fonts in a variety of styles that you can search through. They have a little bit of everything: scripts, decorative, handwritten, serifs, san serifs, distressed, etc. With free fonts you have to be careful that you are adhering to their license agreements. If you're using the fonts for personal use (ie. creating a baby shower invitation, designing a wall hanging or chart for your home) you are fine using any of the fonts. However, if your usage is 'commercial', only certain fonts are allowed. To the right of each font, it'll say 'Free for personal use, Free for personal and commercial use, 100% free, or donationware'. To stay on the right side of the law, make sure you adhere to the license agreements.

Foundries

There are thousands of font foundries (meaning companies who create fonts). You can make a list of different foundries that you like by going to myfonts.com and browsing through different styles. Once you find a bunch of fonts you like, click on the overview and find the foundry who created the font. Go to their website. Many times they offer freebies on their site.

If you're looking to buy fonts:

My Fonts is great for one off purchases; for example, if you just need one weight of a font, you can purchase that inexpensively on myfonts.com. They also run specials frequently, so checking 'Special Offers' in the navigation is a good place to start. If you want to purchase the entire family of fonts (meaning all of the weights of that particular font: light, regular, medium, bold, black, etc.), checking the foundry’s site, which will be located in the ‘overview’ section, might get you a better bundle deal. This is where I buy 99% of my fonts, the site tracks your purchases and if you somehow lose your fonts due to a computer issue you can always re-download and install.

Cloud based fonts are a bit new but if you have an Adobe Creative Cloud membership you get a certain number of fonts included via Typekit. The way it works is you go to the website, log in with your Creative Cloud user name and password and you have access to a certain number of fonts based on your membership level. You 'sync' the fonts you want to use and you are automatically given access to them in your computer programs.

Foundries

In addition to occasionally having free fonts, a Foundries main business is selling fonts. Some of my favorite Foundries are Frere-Jones Type, Sudtipos, URW++, Latinotype, Cultivated Mind and FontFabric. Their websites offer many styles and collections for purchase.

Using script typefaces is a great way to infuse a huge dose of personality into a design piece, but with so much character it's pretty easy to select the wrong one or one that doesn't feel appropriate. Below are 6 script typefaces I'm loving right now and where I'd use them.

Sant'Elia Script

The Sant'Elia Script font family comes to us from Yellow Design Studio in Madison, Wisconsin. There are a variety of weights and distress levels to choose from in this family. The thinner weights feel contemporary, clean and have a bit of a handwriting feel to them. As they get thicker and more distressed they take on more of a rugged feel. I love the thinner weights for casual invitations and the thicker weights for farm-to-table, organic or locally sourced cafés or restaurant materials.

Wanderlust

Wanderlust is a brush typeface and is SO beautiful. Because it has been hand-painted it has an earthy, organic feel to it. Extremely feminine, Wanderlust works fantastically with a watercolor treatment and would look great in a logo on a book cover or as an accent font. Although two lines of text look great in the quote above I wouldn't use this for copy any longer than that. Script fonts in general are a little tough on the eyes so a touch is all you need.

Heroe

Part Italic, part Script, the Heroe family is just beautiful. It comes in a variety of weights and styles and has a very classic and elegant feel to it. It would work well on anything in that vein: Fashion, Weddings, upscale Products, etc. I could see it used in Invitations, on a book cover, as a fun typographic treatment in a magazine, in a logo. It's a really multi-purpose typeface and could be used in many different ways.

Rolling Pen

Sudtipos is the Font Foundry responsible for creating Rolling Pen and like the countless other typefaces they've created, this one is pretty great. I'm not a huge fan of capital letters when it comes to most scripts, they tend to make fonts feel dated, so I prefer Rolling Pen all lower case. It's fun and casual and works great in logos and typographic treatments. Think of situations where you need to use a script typeface for a short word that needs to fill a wide space, Rolling Pen is the perfect solution.

Local Market

The Local Market font family is more than just a few weights, it's a kit. The whole family consists of 1 script, 5 display fonts, 1 set of icons, 1 set of labels and a free set of illustrated words and banners. The typefaces work great together and creates a handcrafted, earthy feel. This kit would work perfectly for businesses based on hand crafted or homegrown items: Ice Cream Shops, Farmers Markets, Coffee Shops, Farms etc.

LiebeLotte

I'm a sucker for thin weight scripts and LiebeLotte is a simple and very pretty script. It's modern but has a bit of a casual feel to it so I would tend to use it in more casual environments. Because it's so thin, you can use it at large sizes without it looking too clunky. It would work great on posters, t-shirts, large format pieces, typographic treatments, etc.

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