Questions about fonts in 2025

[Carlisle1500]

Creative cloud is an amazing suite of products and everyday I learn more and more. 

Can I ask some questions about fonts? 

1. I know fonts have a clear value for print media but on the internet don't the browsers limit the value of fonts? 

Example, if I use a custom font on the web, if the other browser user don't have the font, don't they get a standard font replacement? 

2. When a customer asks for font work for the web logos and website, how do you navigate this with them? 

I had a client ask me to do logos and a website with Irish fonts but when I searched Adobe fonts, I couldn't do by nationality. Also, this goes back to the question above, if the user doesn't have adobe fonts, will they see the irish fonts on their browser? Is this a secret that nobody talks about basically?

3. This is a sample of my work. Usually, I list the company name in a word document and then go through the fonts lists and apply them for the client. Is there a way to do this in Illustrator or InDesign? 

Example,  Company A - Font 1, Company A - Font 2, Company A - Font 3...

My irish list now has 130 fonts types so I can make it easy for the client to select so I can start the work. 

[Carlisle1500]

This font service needs more work...

I can't find what I'm looking for and you don't allow me to get to what I want. 

I need to be able to specify the search return details. I need like 100+ choices to list here

Your wasting my afternoon....

[Carlisle1500]

The responsive view is poor so I can't list my fonts and search for them. This is just AWFUL. 

Now I'll have to print my list and have it next to me, lol. 

[Carlisle1500]

This is my font list. Do I need to get training on how to use Adobe Fonts? 

[Bobby Henderson]

I had a client ask me to do logos and a website with Irish fonts but when I searched Adobe fonts, I couldn't do by nationality. Also, this goes back to the question above, if the user doesn't have adobe fonts, will they see the irish fonts on their browser? Is this a secret that nobody talks about basically?

The problem is typefaces can't be categorized by nationality. A font that someone would call "Irish" might be a Celtic Unical calligraphic style. Unical typefaces were used across multiple countries in Europe. The same goes for various Blackletter typefaces.

Some typefaces are so successful they defy their national roots. A layout that uses some flavor of Garamond isn't automatically French. Nor is something set in Caslon automatically English. Modern OpenType fonts blur the lines more by sometimes including more than just the Latin alphabet. They might have Greek, Cyrillic and other character ranges included.

I think what Adobe Fonts needs is an option to categorize type families in more professional vernacular. The type categories they currently show are obviously geared for users who haven't studied typography. They don't have serif typefaces classifed in categories like Old Style, Transitional, Modern, etc. It would be helpful if I could type something like "Didot" in a search field and get a result of fonts in that classification. Trends in typography also change through time, particularly in recent decades. It might be nice to be able to select decades like "1970's" and get an appropriate result.

[Carlisle1500]

@Bobby Henderson First, thanks for your comments. It's nice to hear from experienced members. 

I get this feeling that somehow or somewhere I need to get real font/typeface training but I don't know where to do it. As a novice, I search the web first and list the fonts in a file, like I posted, and talk to the client and they narrow it down. If the client is intelligent and has time, they may just tell me the font they prefer but as a consultant my job really is to give options so they present their content its best foot (indirect agreement with your comments about trends changing). That's what they are paying me for, right? 

5. When Adobe lists a font pack, are the fonts in that pack individually searchable or do I have to download the fonts to see what's in it? 

6. Is there a way for me to push the font to the clients who visit from the web so they see the site or content as intended? 

[Bobby Henderson · Accepted solution]

You can learn more about type by reading books on the subject. The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst is an excellent resource. The Visual History of Type by Paul McNeil is another excellent book. The Anatomy of Type by Stephen Coles is a more visual book and has a reference on typeface classification. At least a couple dozen or more good books on type are available.

Numerous web sites exist that focus on type such as Typewolf, Fonts In Use, I Love Typography, etc. Several type-related blogs and forums are active.

Regarding search results at Adobe Fonts, they only seem to give results based on type families. For instance, if I searched "Proxima Nova Bold" it would just bring up the listing for the Proxima Nova family and other similar/related type families.

For clients needing to see samples of a typeface, you could try sending them a link to the type family page at Adobe Fonts or a link to another web page where the same type family is listed. Some sites like Fonts in Use show some real world visual examples of many type families. Outside of that you could add/install a given type family from Adobe Fonts and then create a sample layout with various text strings styled in those fonts, save it as a PDF and email it to the client. Most of the fonts from Adobe Fonts will embed in a PDF.

[Carlisle1500]

@Bobby Henderson Thanks for your comments.