There are a lot of free fonts available online. Sites like Dafont and 1001Fonts are invaluable repositories for designers, because they give us such a wide range of font options.
Cartoon fonts are one type of font that rarely get much praise. The problem with them is that by definition, they’re gimmicks. They are never the most legible fonts, I’d never recommend using one for content, and quite often, they just look foolish.
But when it comes to creating a memorable logo easily, a good cartoon font can be a great first step. They’re distinctive, look great in large sizes, and can be easily modified and re-colored in Photoshop to make it that little bit more unique.
Of course, that only works with certain styles of design. If your site is all bubbly and colorful, it’s worth considering. If you’re more minimalist or professional, stay well clear!
So with that in mind, here are 37 of the best free cartoon fonts we could find. Let us know if you put any of them to good use!
Glimstick
Joint By Pizzadude
Mandingo
Smilage
Chachie
Bumbazoid
Baby Kruffy
Letras Locas
MTF Scribblie
Taxidermist
Smartie
Mickey
Chizzler
Umberto
Space Pontiff
Fontdinerdotcom Sparkly
Broken Toys
Ice Age
Army Beans
Chlorinar
LoOse Gangster
Gwibble
Chubby Cheeks
Candy Time
Cosmic Dude
Cactus Sandwich
BabOonjaZzbaSsoOn
Altamonte
akaHoggle
Eyesis
Armor Piercing
Fighting Spirit
Denne’s Aliens
Clink Clank
Pokemon
Oogie Boogie
Burrito
Which was your favorite of these cartoon fonts? Or did I put you off a little too strongly in the intro to the post?
Any others that you would recommend to us?
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Jonathan Kurten (1 comments)9 November 09
This is a great list Lee. You are right when you say cartoon fonts are frequently overlooked. I will definitely be downloading some of these and saving them for when that special project comes up.
Lee Ka Hoong (12 comments)12 November 09
@Jonathan,
Thanks dude, I hope you find this useful. Grab some of them for your project, that would be cool! Don’t forget to share with us your design after completion.
Mandingo (1 comments)9 November 09
With the exception of fonts created by Blambot and FontDiner, etc…. Why would anyone want to use fonts derived from pre-existing properties like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mickey Mouse or Pokemon (to name the most obvious)?
No serious designer would bother with a lot of those fonts.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)10 November 09
You’re right that you’ll probably never need the majority of these, but there’s no way you can say that they could never come handy in any project. There’s no way of knowing what projects will turn up on your doorstep someday.
Cartoon fonts by definition are just for fun sometimes. The least likely to be used, the ones you mentioned like TMNT, might only ever be used in a personal projects for fun, but that doesn’t make them useless.
Design Informer (5 comments)9 November 09
Awesome! Pokemon, LOL!
Carla (9 comments)9 November 09
I love Mandingo and Smilage! I wish I had a use for them though!
Michael Martin (1319 comments)10 November 09
lol – Likewise Carla! Someday, you never know…
Dwayne Cossey (1 comments)9 November 09
Great collection of fonts. Always need a good cartoony type face. thank you!
Lee Ka Hoong (12 comments)12 November 09
@Dwayne,
Thanks Dwayne, I hope you like the list, come back for more!
Orange Apple (1 comments)9 November 09
Decent list… One I use quite a bit for banner ads is Komika. It’s got that comic book urgency that fits quite well. You should definitely add it to the list
http://www.dafont.com/komika-poster.font
Michael Martin (1319 comments)10 November 09
Thanks for sharing the font, it looks good!
Print Door Hangers (1 comments)10 November 09
Great collection of cartoon fonts, I love that glimstick font at the top of the list. Would look nice wit some color at a huge font size.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)10 November 09
Agreed about the huge font sizes. Most of these would look dreadful even at medium sizes!
steve (12 comments)10 November 09
I really like Joint by PizzaDude. The link seems broken though, it just seems to redirect to the home page.
Emily Caswell (1 comments)10 November 09
These fonts are excellent! Just a thought: some fonts are “free” to download for personal use, but if you intend to use them for a commercial project, they’ll require an additional license. You have to check the individual type foundries for their licensing information.
movers Raleigh (2 comments)10 November 09
Great advice. DaFont has been my go-to font resource for a few years now. I’m glad to see it mentioned by others
. And while cartoon files are not usually practical for my purposes, it’s always nice to know where to find any type of font I want. -Mike
Lee Ka Hoong (12 comments)12 November 09
@Mike,
Thanks Mike. I used to love all the cartoon fonts above, I have used some of them for my design work too. Perhaps you can bookmark this and keep for future use.
DesignBoy (1 comments)13 November 09
Great list, love the fighting spirit would look good on a t-shirt.
Waasys (2 comments)13 November 09
Some of them are really nice, but I wouldn’t use them more than once.
Jordan Foutz (4 comments)16 November 09
These are great! I like chubby cheeks in particular. I would add Brady Bunch to the list. Outside of that, this list is legit.
Toan Nguyen Minh (3 comments)16 November 09
Great collection, Lee
Thanks for sharing!
Melvin (2 comments)16 November 09
Wow.. those are really good looking ones.. I think I can them a lot in my future projects..
izdelava spletnih strani (2 comments)16 November 09
Cool stuff, but the problem of these fonts is that they usually do not support special characters like č,š,ž ect.
Michael Martin (1319 comments)16 November 09
True, I wouldn’t expect much more than the basic alphabetic characters and some numbers if you’re lucky.
Print Brochures (1 comments)18 November 09
This is a good selection! Seeing the Pokemon font made me nostalgic about the old days… LOL! I sound like a grandma. Thanks for posting these!
Robomaster (23 comments)19 November 09
Awesome, I especially like Cosmic Dude and Fighting Spirit. Great list!
Live Chat (1 comments)19 November 09
Love smilage and chubby cheeks. Thanks for sharing this.
Grace Han (5 comments)23 November 09
Although I have discovered 1001 Free Fonts site while ago, but still excited when saw this post! Thanks for sharing!
Ashely Adams : Online Printing (4 comments)30 November 09
The Glimstick Logo reminds me of Garlfield and Army Beans reminds me of the 101 Dalmatians…These are really cute fonts…Brilliant use of cartoon fonts…Thanks for sharing this post…
Ashely Adams : Online Printing (4 comments)30 November 09
The Glimstick Logo reminds me of Garlfield and Army Beans reminds me of the 101 Dalmatians…These are really cute fonts…Brilliant use of cartoon fonts…Thanks for sharing this post…
Ashely Adams : Online Printing (4 comments)30 November 09
The Glimstick Logo reminds me of Garlfield and Army Beans reminds me of the 101 Dalmatians…These are really cute fonts…Brilliant use of cartoon fonts…Thanks for sharing this post…
Chronic (1 comments)19 December 09
akaHoggle is the best here
Nelutu (4 comments)12 January 10
very nice collection, thanks
fitri (3 comments)12 February 10
good and excelent
Black-Heart (1 comments)12 March 10
THX