I'm new here, but I've had the pleasure of downloading some of the wicked fonts here on the site. I, however, am clueless as to what is what, as well as what should go with what. I've looked around on line to simplify some of the different fonts and types, but it sort of gets mixed up from the page to my brain....
If there is anyone, or any place that I could go for "fonts for dummies", I'd really appreciate it. I am not a designer but am having fun with my Silhouette machine and would like to put a subway art together that doesn't make one go cross eyed. I have read that there are "rules" of what goes where...but again...(picture the doe in headlight...) Its not clicking.
I'd like to put together 3 or 4 fonts that wont clash for the board. I have about 20 to 25 words I'm going to place on there and could sure use a guiding hand when it comes to choosing something that will please my eyes.

thank you so much for any help you may have the patience to offer me (newbie...)

Debbie Cadene.

DeboraCadene, I don't think you question has anything to do with fonts; you probably just don't know how to edit or format text in a word processing application.

Most likely you have Microsoft Word installed on your computer, or you should have access to some word processing application which allows for the simultaneous use of more than one font, (ie: Not Notepad or Wordpad).

To use more than one font at the same time, first install all of the fonts you want to use, or just open the font files themselves while you are using multiple fonts in the word processing app; Windows XP will allow you to do that for text display. If the font has not been installed, however, your ability to print the displayed text may be hampered). Install a font by opening the .zip file, extracting the .ttf or .otf file, cut or copy the .ttf/ .otf file, and paste it in the location C:\Windows\Fonts. Open a font by double-clicking the .ttf or .otf file with the left button on your mouse.

Type the text you want to display using any font of your choice; it doesn't matter, initially. After typing that text, select a glyph, or a series of consecutive glyphs, that you would like to have displayed as per the font of your choice. While the text is selected, open either the list box that displays the names of the fonts that are either installed or open, or open the fonts dialog box, and select the font you want to use. If you want to change the size of the text display, do this by changing the point size of a glyph or glyphs, while that text is selected, using the point size list box. If you want to use a size not displayed on the list, (ie: like larger than 72, or between 37 and 47, select the point size in the list box, and type the desired display size with the number keys on your keyboard.

Repeat this procedure, until each of the glyphs in your text is displayed as per the character guides of the fonts you've chosen.

If that doesn't solve your problem, you'll probably need to ask your question in a different way, as anyone who would help you with this here would likely give you identical advice.

~bobistheowl

Thank you for your reply. I am able to use multiple fonts from my list, that isn't what I'm wondering about. I'm just looking for suggestions from the folks here who have lots of experience with the use fonts, on 3 or 4 different fonts (some favorites) that would work together on a poster like page and not clash with one another. I've read that I shouldn't use two serifs or two sans, but you could use a serif and a sans and they wouldn't fight each other for attention. I know I could look for ones that allow bold or italics, or use upper or lower case with the same font too. Should I stick to one sans and one serif, or could I use two of each as long as they didn't resemble each other???
I'm also wondering if someone might be so kind as to point me to a spot with some simplified information, that could teach me a little more about the different types of fonts and their meanings (fonts for dummies???)
p.s...I have to tell you that I don't even know what a glyph is, or what a .ttf or otf file is..

Debbie.

Glyph: A letter, number, symbol, punctuation mark or picture contained in a font file, generated by depressing a specific key on the keyboard, or some sequence or combination of keys on the keyboard.

.ttf: True type font. The files with the icon that looks like two T's on a piece of paper, with the upper right hand corner folded back. An icon is a little picture that represents a file. It's the thing you pull, when you drag and drop something.

.otf: Open Type font. The icon looks the same as for the true type font. except there's a letter O in the middle, instead of two T's.

As for which fonts go together, you're probably best off to browse through the Font Identification forum. There are tens of thousands of text samples, many of which have been identified by name.

Rather than asking people for their suggestions, you could start by looking at fonts other people have shown interest in, identify some that interest you, and then ask an informed question like "Which fonts would go well with Feinen Light or Hiroshige Book"?, instead of asking a question like 'What kind of food should one eat, while drinking wine'?