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Free Fonts Of The Month: FF Unit, M+ Outline, GeoBats

By Smashing Editorial, March 7th, 2008 in Fonts | 49 Comments | Forum

Every now and again we take a look around, select “fresh” high-quality free fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually the time you should be investing in your current projects. We search for them and we find them, so you don’t have to.

This month we’re glad to present you M+ Outline, GeoBats, FF Unit Rounded Bold and IPAP Fonts Family. Please read the license agreements carefully - they can change from time to time.

You can find over 80 more free fonts in our section Fonts.

Free Fonts Of The Month

M+ Outline
These fonts are free software. Unlimited permission is granted to use, copy, and distribute it, with or without modification, either commercially and noncommercially. Designed by Morishita Coji. The fonts are regulary updated, work in progress. Caution: Japanese language.

GeoBats & Further Dingbat Fonts
“Personally, I love dingbats because (most of the time) I convert them to vectors in Illustrator and use them as very large elements in some cases. All you have to do is use the font in Illustrator and then go to Type > Create Outlines, and Bam. You got yourself a vector to work with. Here are some dingbat fonts that I thought you might enjoy.” You might find even more dingbat fonts here. The screenshot below features GeoBats.

FF Unit Rounded Bold
While it is soft, FF Unit Rounded isn’t a sausage face or one suited only for comic strips. It looks friendly without losing its precision. You can use the Bold OpenType font for free. Designed by Erik Spiekermann. You need to be registered to download the font.

IPAP Fonts Family
The Japanese Information-technology Promotion Agency offers 5 fonts for free download; among them — IPAP Gothic and IAP Mincho presented below. Caution: Japanese language. You’ll need to accepts requirements to download the font.

Bonus

Fruity Type
In his recent article John Boardley continues to discuss creative use of typography featuring Sarah King’s Typography Pear, Chocolate Scrabble and a pretty typographic umbrella created by Veer.

Published in Fonts, March 7th, 2008
Tags: downloads, Fonts, free, typography

1.

yyury (March 7th, 2008, 8:12 am)

it’s greate collection
thank’s !
2.

Bruce (March 7th, 2008, 8:24 am)

Link [downloads.sourceforge.jp]
that’s the link for those that don’t want to look through Japanese
3.

Sdm (March 7th, 2008, 8:24 am)

Nice, thanks.
4.

Yizi (March 7th, 2008, 8:53 am)

Can you please some provide link, I can’t find the links in the Japanese page.
Thanks
5.

Neko (March 7th, 2008, 9:13 am)

Woo Hoo! I am definitely loving the M+ outline font guys.
6.

Jason (March 7th, 2008, 9:17 am)

Thanks again Smashing Magazine! I absolutely love this site and use it daily!
7.

Jason (March 7th, 2008, 9:18 am)

Thanks!!
8.

Dave Lane (March 7th, 2008, 10:04 am)

Can someone explain what those little ornaments on the l’s and t’s are in FF Unit Rounded (and others).

I see them all the time and don’t like them. :)
9.

Kevin (March 7th, 2008, 10:05 am)

Really nice …
more fonts can be found at : Link [www.dafont.com]
10.

Shane (March 7th, 2008, 10:44 am)

Some really nice fonts there - thanks very much.
11.

Tyler (March 7th, 2008, 12:09 pm)

Man, that’s a lifesaver!!!!!! You rock! :)
12.

johno (March 7th, 2008, 1:01 pm)

Many thanks SM. Those GeoBats are perfect; just what I was after.
FF Unit Rounded Bold is a must-have, though people should hurry to download because it won’t be available for free forever.
13.

achmadbiz (March 7th, 2008, 2:45 pm)

Great Lists whoaaaa , many thanks SM :)
14.

Braintrove.com (March 7th, 2008, 2:53 pm)

Fun!
15.

Anthea (March 8th, 2008, 12:01 am)

The best fonts in this article link to Japanese pages? Oh c’mon… They look like really great fonts but this is an English Language site isn’t it?

Please provide an English alternative in the future, I hate feeling like I’ve missed out.

Thanks to Bruce for providing a direct download link, much appreciated!
16.

superxtian (March 8th, 2008, 3:29 am)

sweet!
17.

pinoy money talk (March 8th, 2008, 4:37 am)

awesome fonts! im gonna so bookmark this post :)
18.

dzg (March 8th, 2008, 4:56 am)

thx, good fonts
19.

mikemike (March 8th, 2008, 3:20 pm)

All your font lists suck because you have to navigate through filth to get to them.
20.

Eric Kelsey (March 8th, 2008, 7:18 pm)

Does anyone know if the Fruity Type fonts are a free download? I really like Chocolate Scrabble.
21.

Rich (March 9th, 2008, 3:16 am)

Great fonts - Here is a list of 30 really stylish fonts: Link [mintywhite.com].
22.

karina (March 9th, 2008, 8:17 am)

pretty good
23.

flyinel (March 11th, 2008, 3:23 am)

that’s right!
Yohoo!
it’s very useable*

thank you very much!
24.

jonjon (March 11th, 2008, 8:05 pm)

I don’t know Japanese but I really like ‘IPAP Fonts Family’. Does anyone know if we can use it for both perosnal and commercial purposes? Thanks
25.

orangeappled (March 11th, 2008, 10:17 pm)

For IPAP, if you scroll down the page & click the button, then you’ll accept the terms & it will take you to the page to download it. The download link is near the top and reads: IPAfont00203.zip (15.3 MB).
I downloaded it just fine & I don’t know Japanese. My computer did not want me to install the font. It gave me a warning not to because it doesn’t have “open type data”.
I installed it anyway, haha…
26.

nemo (March 12th, 2008, 3:01 am)

Wow!!!
great collection :D

may i grab it??
hehehehe thx
27.

starwalker (March 12th, 2008, 4:59 am)

nice! where can download it?
28.

andol (April 6th, 2008, 7:13 pm)

inspirational work~
29.

Cigdem (April 13th, 2008, 2:34 pm)

…looks very intersting this M+… I could even find a way to download it
…but anyone knows how to open this .tar folder?? never saw such a Zip before.
30.

Anil Rakhasiya (April 28th, 2008, 3:25 am)

Hello Sir,

I can not download the font ‘Precious Sans Book’. Can you please send me a copy of that font..??? Please…

Its too much urgent.

Thank you in advance,

-Anil Rakhasiya
31.

prazert (April 29th, 2008, 2:25 am)

Great Fonts and Thank you so much
32.

Adnan (November 30th, 2008, 4:03 am)

Can anyone send an URL to PreciousSans-medium font?