There have been a raft of quality free fonts released over the course of 2011, perhaps encouraged by the explosion in the use of web fonts, either way it’s great news for typography lovers like myself. Here are my personal favorites over the last year.

If there are suggested donation/pay what you want options on any pages for these fonts please consider showing your appreciation.

Ostrich Sans

A gorgeous modern sans-serif with a very long neck. With a whole slew of styles & weights:
http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/ostrich-sans

Raleway

Raleway is an elegant display face that features both old style and lining numerals, standard and discretionary ligatures, a pretty complete set of diacritics, as well as a stylistic alternate.
http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/raleway

Ribbon

Ribbon is now a full display face, including Opentype features for an alternate alphabet.
http://losttype.com/special/?name=ribbon

Homested

A lovingly crafted slab with multiple variations for playful and unique combinations.

http://www.losttype.com/font/?name=homestead

Ubuntu

A contemporary style and contains characteristics unique to the Ubuntu brand that convey a precise, reliable and free attitude.
http://font.ubuntu.com/

Maven Pro

A sans-serif typeface with unique curvature and flowing rhythm. This typeface is constantly being added to so it’s worth subscribing to the mailing list.
http://vissol.co.uk/mavenpro/

Egypt 22

Interesting typeface that approaches characters as standalone graphical symbols.
http://practicefoundry.com/egypt22.html

Infinity

Based on the infinity symbol or 8, this font has a charming simplicity of lines and curves with round corner and cap.
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Infinity/1126535

Fabrica

A sans serif typeface optimized for screen display on handheld devices. Highly efficient for small screens.
http://practicefoundry.com/fabrica.html

Oh! Mai Mai!

To round things off, a playful font bursting with character and a great little website too. Well work the clicks to get the font at the end.
http://www.jorgeartola.com/omm/