whereits@.killerfonts.

Does your writing lack conviction? Perhaps you need a little help from Killer Fonts, the online supplier of computer lettering in the style of the world's most famous and infamous figures. Trouble with stepmother? Drop her a few cutting lines in the slanty hand of axe-swinger Lizzie Borden. Or maybe you can't get past chapter one of your first novel: use the helping hand of Herman Melville. Each entry on the engaging Killer Fonts site has an extract of the person's original writing, plus a photograph or illustration and pertinent biographical details to help you select the right tone for your type. The celebrities are grouped into killers, dead presidents, dictators, "brainiacs" (from Beethoven to Michelangelo), cowboys (Butch lives on) and "notables". The last group, curiously, has only two members: Christopher Columbus and Helen Keller. The handwriting extract for Columbus reads, "I wanted to see more of the world"; Helen Keller's is a less literal vision, "Where there is pain, there is healing." Sadly, Killer Fonts is a commercial site (this month's special offer, "buy any three fonts and receive OJ Simpson FREE!"), but dozens of other sites offer free and shareware fonts to enliven your desktop. Often the fonts are the sad creations of lone geeks - think Dungeons and Dragons for typical styling - but there are plenty more professional offerings. Geocities has a Fontlinks page with a font of the day option, plus connections to related sites, including the excellent Font Fairy - home, it claims, of "guilt-free typographic treasures". Jonathan Dyson

http://www.killerfonts.com/Killer Fonts

http://geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/9311/ fontlink.html Fontlinks