I've recently discovered that Dafont (the huge free font site) allows registered users to create "selections" (which others might call "collections"). I can make whatever categories I want, and put whatever fonts I want to in those categories. So I've built a bunch of lists!
These lists are handy as heck when you're looking for a free font for a personal project. (For most of the fonts at Dafont, they're only free for personal use; be sure to check each font's licensing information for details on how it can be used.)
These lists will always be growing and changing as I find new fonts to add to them. I've done some deep digging down to the bottom of the categories at Dafont, and hopefully these will help you discover some new favorites!
Fonts that are totally free for commercial use, with a license document included! (As of when I added them to this list; be sure to confirm documentation when downloading.) Curated to those fonts I find attractive and relatively well-made.
Bones, skulls, dripping blood, lightning, monsters, aliens, and lots of other fonts I felt were Halloweeny!
Snow, stars, candy, cookies, and lots of other fonts with fun wintertime elements!
Fonts with a 3-D effect, or a background shadow look.
Retro pixel-style fonts for a computer-from-the-1980s look!
Font styles reminiscent of the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s.
Heavy and bold fonts with a more blockish and squared-off look, where the letter sometimes nestle into each other.
Heavy/bold sans-serif fonts with a handwritten flair.
Handwriting fonts with a more masculine feel.
A list of period and retro fonts reminiscent of the text styles on old car badges.
Fonts that look like they were written with chalk.
Highly decorative and embellished fonts, mostly serif or slab serif, in a style often linked to the circus or a carnival.
The squared-off style associated with colleges, universities, and sports - slab serif style.
The squared-off style associated with colleges, universities, and sports - sans-serif style.
The squared-off style associated with colleges, universities, and sports - all of these have their own single, double, or triple outlines.
Collected for the new trend - these fonts have embellished letters with parts that can be colored in!
This one is a personal taste list - these are fonts with decorative elements and embellishments that I find cool.
Mostly handwritten, these fonts have dots or circles at the end points of the letters.
Letters with a dripping liquid look. Whether that's blood or melting ice cream is up to you.
Both script and print styles that look like they were made with a dry or semi-dry brush and ink.
Fonts with decorative embellishments (from dots to stars to swirls and flowers) inside the letters.
Fonts with inline elements, or the look of having been engraved.
Calligraphy and Script fonts with fine lines and decorative embellishments.
Another personal taste list. These are fonts I think are really cool, but as of when they were added to the list, they were getting fewer than 5 downloads per day. Check them out for fonts that not everyone is using!
Fonts with geometric styles and sharp graphic elements.
Fonts with a glossy shine to them, fonts with a fat bubble-style look, and fonts that would fit in the 1970s.
Serif fonts, drawn by hand. Most of these are on the narrower side, with lighter weights.
Handwritten, bold, mostly all-caps fonts that look like they were drawn with a permanent marker.
Just right for your metal band's logo.
A blend of vintage/retro, letterpress, and roughness. It's the look all the bearded hipsters are tending toward these days!
Fonts with kids in mind - both kids' handwriting styles, and monocase/unicase fonts (where both uppercase and lowercase are the same height).
Fonts with a letterpress/stamped look, with grungy texture. Mostly sans-serif and slab, but there are a few script fonts in here too.
Fonts that are either intentionally created to make monograms, or regular fonts that I thought had a good monogram look.
Cursive/script fonts with a single line weight throughout.
Handwriting fonts in styles from the distant past.
Fonts consisting of an outline instead of a solid letter shape, and a few with an empty spot inside the strokes of the letters.
Used for beers and sports, these are mostly retro-ish script fonts with decorative swashes that connect to the end of a word and go under the letters.
Mostly rough-edged serif fonts; not just for pirates, these can also pair with Old-Timey Writing!
Fonts reminiscent of the styles of text used in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
The Salt Life company logo is distinctive, hand-written, and highly protected. These fonts have similar elements!
My personal favorite sci-fi style fonts. (Mostly wide sans-serifs.)
Science-fiction style fonts with a stripe-based element throughout the letters.
Handwriting fonts with a casual, signature-style look.
Handwriting fonts with a style reminiscent of the logo for "The Simpsons" television show, and the art of Matt Groening.
Handwriting fonts that transition from a very skinny stroke to a very wide stroke in the same character.
Not sure what font to pair with a script font? Can't go wrong with these clean, simple sans-serifs!
In contrast with the Dry Brush Fonts list, these are hand-written brush fonts with smoother outlines, collected with crafters and cutters in mind.
Serif, slab serif, and sans-serif fonts with a little something extra or unusual that caught my eye.
My personal favorite stencil-style fonts, with bridges connecting the counters to the space outside the letters.
Fonts with stitches, thread-style looks, or embroidery-style looks.
Fonts where the letters are all on squares or rectangles. (Includes Scrabble tile fonts.)
Tall, narrow, handwritten, mostly light-weighted, mostly all-caps, mostly sans-serif fonts.
Both script fonts and upright caps fonts reminiscent of tattoos.
All-caps fonts with a rough, messy, trashed look.
My favorite options for western and cowboy styles.
Handwriting fonts with a wider stance, since so many handwriting fonts are tall and narrow.
Fonts that look like they're made out of wood or trees.
A not-safe-for-work list consisting of nudity, body parts, and biological functions; including a surprising number of "gentleman's area" images.
Television,Film, and Pop Culture Font Styles
Be aware with these: most are only available for personal use, and it may be infringing to use them to duplicate a logo or other intellectual property.
Disney Styles: Fonts reminiscent of various Disney properties.
Friends Fonts: Fonts in the style of the opening credits of the TV show "Friends." Yes, there are several of them!
Fonts of Thrones: Fonts in the style of the logo for the "Game of Thrones" television show.
Harry Potter: Fonts in the style of the Harry Potter books and movies.
Star Warsy and Treksy: Forgive me, my fellow geeks, for collecting both Star Wars and Star Trek styles into one collection.
Simpsons Fonts:Handwriting fonts with a style reminiscent of the logo for "The Simpsons" TV show, and the art of Matt Groening.