I’m continuing my All Things Chalkboard series with today’s post. Here I’ll be sharing what I think are the BEST free fonts for birthday chalkboard posters….woot woot!
Soooo many people have reached out to me asking for specifics about particular elements on the birthday posters I’ve shared here for my son’s and niece’s first birthdays. I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked where I found the tooth dingbat, or the dotted line divider, or the birthday banner….I figured I might as well write up a post with all the info since so many people are interested!
While I don’t have the time to list every. single. element. I’ve used or do a visual display of all my favorites (sorry!), here are links to some of the fonts I frequently use in my digital chalkboard projects.
Just click on the link and it will take you to a page where you can view all the characters on their character maps and download the font if you like what you see.
I’ve already shared some of these in my various posts detailing my favorite chalkboard fonts, but they’re being repeated here because I think they work especially well in birthday chalkboard posters. I’ve also used a majority of these (but not all) in chalkboard projects I’ve made in the past.
The Best Free Fonts for Birthday Chalkboard Posters!
First off, if you’d like to know how I make my birthday chalkboard posters, check out this full tutorial….I promise it’s easier than you think!
Most of the below are dingbat fonts (I love ’em!) and as far as I know, all are free for personal use. Please check each font’s specific terms of use first though. There’s also some overlap between the categories, so one font may be listed in one category but still have some awesome characters that apply to another. Have fun creating! :)
Doodles
- Pea Jillybean’s Doodles
- Pea KT Doodles
- Pea Lauren’s Doodles
- Pea Snoflake Doodles
- Pea Stacy’s New Doodles
- Pea Family Joy Doodles
- Sleep on the Moon
- MTF Doodles
- Happy Day Dingbats
- JLR Toofy Grin (for the number of teeth, of course!)
- Janda Christmas Doodles (has some nice presents & music notes, or good for December babies!)
- KG Christmas Trees (same reason as above)
- KG Heart Doodles
- Janda Spring Doodles (has some cute animals and months March – June)
- Today I Feel (lots of cute face doodles)
- LoKinder Dingsbums (I used some of the dinos on my son’s first birthday invitation!)
- Boy Characters / Girl Characters
- LCR Party Dings
- Birthdaze
- FAD Omega Birthday Bats
- KR Birthday Cake! Dings
Banners/Buntings/Pennants
- KG A Little Swag
- KG All of the Stars
- KG Chasing Cars
- KG Royals
- Hanging Letters
- Paper Banner
- Party Time
- Viva La Fiesta
***Make sure you check out my tutorial for how to make a birthday banner for a chalkboard poster to learn how to really jazz up your design!***
Balloons
Dividers/Brackets/Frames/Ribbons
- Bella K. Brackets
- VariShapes
- Frames ‘n Ribbons
- KG Defying Gravity
- From This Moment
- It Was a Good Day
- Bergamot Ornaments (one of my faves….has great dividers, including the dotted line I frequently use)
- KG Flavor and Frames (also versions 2 through 7)
- Elegance
- Peax Webdesign Circles
- BorderMon
Arrows
Other Embellishments
Know of Other Great Fonts??
So did I miss any great ones? If so, please share in the comments below so I can add them to the list! I’ll also be updating this post as I come across new great fonts, so check back regularly!
All Things Chalkboard!
Like I mentioned, I have a series called All Things Chalkboard where I periodically share info on, well, all things chalkboard! Be sure and check it out for lots of other great tutorials, tips, and fonts, such as:
- How to Make a Birthday Chalkboard Poster
- How to Make a Birthday Banner for a Chalkboard Poster
- How to Make Your Own Chalkboard Poster on a Mac
- Fabulous & Free Chalkboard Fonts
- 50 MORE Fabulous & Free Chalkboard Fonts
- Awesome Free Dingbat Fonts for Chalkboards
- Gorgeous Hand-Scripted Chalkboard Fonts
- Plus lots more!
I’ve also compiled a list of my favorite sites that offer awesome FREE digital resources, some of which would be great to use with chalkboards! High-quality fonts, SVGs, backgrounds, digital scrapbooking, Photoshop fun….it’s all covered here! And most include commercial rights too!
And here are some examples of my chalkboard creations!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Autumn says
Is there a way to download all of them at the same time vs. individually?
Jennifer says
Hi Christine! Thanks for putting this together… I’m dying to know which font you used for “Free Fonts” on your poster board? The one with the diagonal lines going through it? Thanks so much!
Nicole Bridges says
I was wondering if you knew what font you used for Free Fonts in the birthday poster
Kristen Cornell says
Do you know how to access the special characters? For instance, it looks like the horizontal dotted line for creating dividers on the chalkboard for bergamot ornaments is a crazy apostraphe thing that’s not part of the regular keyboard. I can’t figure out how to get it in…thanks! (I am working in the full version of PS)
Carrie says
Hi! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THESE TUTORIALS! I also like to do crafty projects while the kids nap! Question, I’m trying to use to “polka dot line” in the Bergamot Ornaments font…but mine are curved. I’ve tried warping them become straight and I’ve tried looking for a straight dotted line to use… and coming up empty.
How do you get your dots lined up straight??
Thanks for any help!
sylvie says
I just want to say a big thank you, I made a birthday card for my sister with the chalkboards idea, and It’s just amazing, I’m proud of my card !!!!! thank you for the idea, for all the fonts, for your website.
I’m one of your frenchs fan :) Have a great day
Christine says
Oh you are so welcome, Sylvie! I’m so happy to hear you found something you saw here inspiring and that it helped you with a creation of your own. You just made my day. :) I’m sure your sister will love her handmade birthday card!
Lori says
Just wondering what font you used for the world “Chalkboard” on your How to make a birthday chalkboard poster image towards to top of this post?
Christine says
Lori, that font is called Heartwell.
Alexis says
Hi, I recently came across your blog and your tutorial has helped so much in trying to make my own chalkboard before caving in! I downloaded the tooth font but I can’t seem to figure out how to come up with the blank tooth. Which key did you use for that? thank you!
Lisa says
I had this same question the other day – I eventually figured out it’s the “period” key :)
Christine says
Yep, that’s it! :)
Christine says
Hey Alexis! Yep, like Lisa mentioned, the blank tooth is the period key. An easy way to find out what character results in which dingbat is by checking out the font’s character map. The one for the tooth dingbat can be found here: http://www.fontspace.com/gorillablu/jlr-toofy-grin/6658.charmap. You can also just type through every character until you find what you’re after, or check out wordmark.it. Have fun designing! :)
Aspen Jay says
Hi Christine,
Ooo I love free fonts and graphics! Thanks for sharing and for partying with us at Talented Tuesday!
Cheers,
AJ
Christine says
Glad you enjoyed this! :) Thanks for hosting!
Aliza B says
These are perfect! I love finding new fonts. Thanks for linking up at the Bloggers Brags party, I pinned your post to our group board on Pinterest.
Christine says
Thanks so much for sharing, Aliza! :)
Cathy says
Love these!! So fun & creative! I am featuring them today, Friday, in a special edition fantastic features from Making Memories Mondays!!!
Cathy
Christine says
Yay, thanks so much, Cathy! I’ll be heading your way shortly! :)
Kim~madeinaday says
Christine Lovin this huge list! I added it to my Pinterest Font Board & Sharing on Fb today!
have a great week!
Kim
Christine says
Thanks so much for sharing, Kim! :)
Angela @ Setting My Intention says
Wow – thank you for this! I’ve been using PicMonkey and love the Chalkboard fonts on there for members but didn’t want to pay for them. I love me some free resources!
Christine says
You’re so welcome, Angela! Yes, free resources are the BEST, especially if you can find some high-quality ones!
April says
Hello!
First of all, thanks so much for all this information! My husband bought Photoshop for me just last night and I have spent the day working on my baby girl’s chalkboard. Her birthday is in 2 weeks. I would have had no clue how to do any of this without your help!
I have one question. It is defaulted to size 8×10. How do I adjust the size? I would like to print this in a much larger size when it is done. I have tried resizing the image AND the canvas but I end up with a white background behind the chalkboard. How do I fix this?
Thanks,
April
Christine says
Hey April! I’m so happy to hear my tutorials have been helpful to you! :)
As far as resizing your file, do you know the resolution of the chalkboard you’re using? Is it larger than an 8×10? If not, you should find a larger one so it’s not pixelated and boxy after you enlarge it. I wrote about how to find a large one HERE in case you haven’t seen this yet/don’t know how.
If you go on and change your Canvas size, you will see the white background you referred to, and then you should see in your Layers menu on the right that your chalkboard is now a separate layer from your background (as well as any other layers you’ve added). You can then use your Move tool (the black arrow) and click on the chalkboard so a box appears around it, then click and drag a corner to enlarge it to fit the background and cover all the white. This is why you want to have a large enough chalkboard file to begin with though so you don’t end up with a pixelated background.
You can also just create a new file that is 8×10 (and make sure it’s at least a 300 resolution). Open up your chalkboard file separately. You should now see both file names up top. Then click and hold on the chalkboard image and drag it up (you should see its outline move with your cursor) to the new 8×10 file you just created which will then open on your screen. Keep holding your mouse and drag the outlined chalkboard over the blank white rectangle and release, and you *should* see your chalkboard show up as a new layer, which you can then move/resize as needed. If you already have a bunch of text layers added, you can move everything at once…..just select all the layers and move them at the same time by clicking/holding/dragging. I hope all that makes sense! :)
Just in case you haven’t already seen this, HERE’S a tutorial I have for making birthday chalkboard posters. Let me know if you have any more questions! Good luck!
April says
Hello again,
I apologize because I may drive you crazy with questions since I can’t seem to get it to work. :(
The background I chose is a 2400 x 3000. I chose the largest I could find. So I enlarged the canvas to a 16 x 20 because that is what I want. It will let me move the black chalkboard but it will not let me adjust the size. What could I be doing wrong?
Thanks,
April
April says
For some reason the chalkboard is not a separate layer. The white canvas and black chalkboard are showing as one layer.
April says
When I delete the white canvas and go back to only chalkboard, it says that layer is partially locked??
April says
Please ignore all my other comments… I figured it out! Woohoo! Thanks!!
Christine says
Wahoo! :)
Emily @ Two Purple Couches says
This is an awesome list! Thanks for documenting and sharing it :) I’ve seen some super cute birthday chalkboard signs at parties we’ve been to recently. I kind of want to make one for myself even though I’m an adult!
Christine says
Haha, I know what you mean Emily! I started to make one for myself for my 30th birthday back in April, but I threw in the towel….just ran out of time! They are fun to make though and are a great way to jazz up any celebration, for kiddos and adults alike!
Brittany @ DIY Just Cuz says
Wow, I think you may have even more fonts than I do!! Thank you so much for sharing this with us; I’ll definitely be pinning!!
–Brittany
Christine says
Thanks, Brittany! I wonder how many fonts is *too* many?? Can you ever really reach that point? My husband would probably say I passed it long ago! :) Thanks for sharing!
Brittany @ DIY Just Cuz says
All I know is that without wordmark.it I would be completely lost…I have to click “load more fonts” 1000xs before I can see all of them. It may be excessive but…a lot of them were free! Who can say no to that :)
Georgia @ Silver Spiral Studio says
These are so fun!! Thanks for sharing.
Christine says
My pleasure, Georgia! I hope you enjoy them!
Tiffany says
Hi, Christine ~ Thanks for putting this list together! I’m sort of a font hoarder… :0) I love to have tons of choices when it comes to them! Chalkboard fonts are my favs!! Have a great day!
Christine says
I’m with you, Tiffany! I can’t ever have enough fonts. Sometimes I get a little nervous that my hard drive is going to crash from all my downloads. *knocks on wood now* ;)
Kelly of Simply Kelly Designs says
Thanks for compiling all these free chalkboard fonts! This feeds my slight font addiction. Now it is going to take wordmark a lot longer to load. ;)
Christine says
No problem, Kelly! Yes, good ol’ wordmark will definitely be put to hard work! ;)