Unique Fonts for your Blog

Ya know how everyone and their Aunt Sally was using that ‘swiss cheese’ font* from Picnik to label their pictures? I like that font too but who wouldn’t want to stand out a bit? 

Especially if there are a million free fonts out there to pick from! And did I mention it’s easy? If you install a font on your computer it shows up in Picasa. 

Don’t have Picasa?

You should.

It’s free (from google) and awesome. 

It’s also simple, very intuitive for the non-computer geniuses like me.

Step 1. Pick your font. I use DaFont. 

{I’ve never gotten viruses from them but always becareful!}

There are tons and tons of awesome fonts available for free. You need to start somewhere, I had an idea in mind I went with the Retro Category (green box).

Now you see the blue box? Type in what you want see. If you’re looking for a unique font for watermarking type the name of your blog ect. I went with Valentine’s Banner. Also change ‘Number per page’ to 50. You’ll want to scroll through them pretty quick and this makes it easier. Now click submit.

See? Those are the same fonts from the top picture, but with my words.
Something to note: see the box in the bottom font where the apostrophe would be? That means there isn’t one in that font. It means you can’t use it (duh!) so if that character is important keep looking!

There we go! I picked the font in the green box. Click on the font for for info

Good choice! This one has 2 versions. Some have many versions, some only one. These will all be separate true type files. If you’re sure this is the one click download (red box).

Step 2. Download and install:
After you click download this will pop up:

There are 2 ways to go from here, open or save. I go with open because I think it’s easier but you can also do it the other way. Click Open With and then OK

Click Extract (green box)

A window will pop up asking you where you want the files to go. I have a folder on my desktop for all the fonts I download. You don’t have to put it there, just make sure it’s somewhere you can find it. Make sure that folder is highlighted (green box) and click Extract (blue box).
This window will pop up:

Find the TrueType Font Files. Without closing this window go to the Control Panel

This is a little tricky if you have a small screen. You need to see both windows like this:

You want to drag the TTF’s (green box) to the Fonts Folder (double blue box).
If you have Picasa open you need to close and reopen it. If you don’t have it open now is the time.

Click the Text button. Go to the drop down bar.
Your font should be there (just need to remember the name!)
Click and start typing!

There you go! You just added a unique font to your computer.
You can use it in Picasa and Word/Powerpoint ect.
Think of all the printables you could make!

***

After all that I decided to go with a different font. The capital letters wouldn’t show in Picasa (they do in word?) and I wasn’t crazy about how it showed up over the pictures anyway.
So I went with this font – Devinne Swash.
Luckily the steps are pretty easy once you get the hang of it!

*If you happen to miss the cheese with the demise of Picnik you can get a similar one from DaFont.

If you’re still confused please email me @

ChickenScratchNY {at} gmail.com

This is the XP version!

If you’re running Windows 7 head over to  Brown Paper Packages