15 Fresh (and Free) Fonts for 2012

The most compelling Web designs rely on creative uses of typography, which requires both smart and original thinking when it comes to font selections.

With the inventories of free online font libraries such as Google Web Fonts and Typekit being added to regularly, and even more custom fonts being created daily, there are virtually thousands of open-source font families to choose from for your next design project.

Poring through thousands of fonts can be time-consuming, however, and time is a commodity that few designers have in excess.

Aovel Sans

Aovel Sans is classy font that is best used for headlines of 16 points or larger.

Archive

Archive is a contemporary, versatile typeface with strong geometric forms.

Carton

Carton is a strong and sensitive slab-serif font inspired by letterpress.

FV Almelo

When a character has an alternative to all caps, you will find it by using lower-case.

Hagin

Constructed with strong geometric forms in old-school style, Hagin's serif font is applicable for just about any type of design.

Homestead

Homestead is an elegant slab-serif typeface that achieves an avant-garde look and feel.

Jura

An elegant serif typeface of narrow proportions with distinguishing details, this font will maintain legibility even at small sizes.

Lavanderia

Featuring numerous open-type features and three weights, the Lavanderia font was inspired by the lettering seen on laundromat windows in San Francisco's Mission District.

Molesk

Molesk is a vintage-looking typeface that works well for headlines and logos.

Novecento

The Novencento font face is designed to be used mostly for headlines, visual identities or short sentences, both in big and small sizes.

Otama e.p.

Otama E.P. is a quiet but confident typeface created for selling expensive and fashionable things.

Parisienne

Parisienne is a casual, connecting script that has a slight bounce and intentional irregularity, making it a typeface for a variety of uses.

Poly

Poly's initial design plan aimed to define an alternative system of diacritical marks to be used in parallel with standard punctuation marks.

Scruffy

Inspired by writing with a black marker, Scruffy's rough-edged, uppercase-only font comes in regular and light weights.

Weston

A rounded slab-serif that is suitable for modification in logos and headlines to spice up any design.