Royalty Free Fonts or Buy Fonts? Copyright Issues?

[pineapplepocky]

I want to distribute my project eventually, and I'm considering all my options about the font. Best way would be to get a royalty free font, but unfortunately that's usually only legal if you're not selling the item, and that you'd have to pay a fee. Are there common free fonts that you absolutely don't have to pay and use? Have you ever just ignored this idea?

Well the other thing I can do is make my own font, which I've never done.

I have some fonts in mind, but I'd like everyone's opinion on this subject about their own work.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

My experience with fonts comes from comic work, not games, so with that caveat out of the way ...

In comics and graphic work you must purchase a font to use it. You never distribute an actual font file with the work - not even to the printer. Instead you convert the fonts to outlines before sending off the file.

If you are using the font for a digital file or book, where the font MUST be distributing with the work, you are required to pay an extra "ebook" fee, and to make absolutely sure you've encrypted the crap out of the font file so no one can easily get to it by dissecting your files. The ebook fee is a one time price you pay at the time of purchase with most fonts if you are planning to distribute the font file electronically with a work - typically this triples the price of the font. A good font with ebook rights can easily cost over $100.

If you've got the typography skills, I'd say that making your own font is definitely cheaper.

Usually any font included with a default installation of an OS is fair game for distribution with an electronic work that needs the actual file. Maybe someone with more experience on the subject for games can chime in.

[qirien]

1001 Fonts has the ability to search by Free for Commercial Use, which means anyone can use them without any sort of license or whatever. They also have lots of great categories to easily find the type of font you want. Basically, you want a font that is public domain, or free to use with attribution (CC-BY is one example of this). You could also try Open Font Library.

[SundownKid]

Dafont.com has an option to search for "free" fonts (e.g. free for commercial use, not just personal use). Google Fonts are also completely free for commercial use.

[Camille]

Font Squirrel is a site where all of the fonts listed are 100% free for commercial use. They have a really nice selection and it's good having peace of mind while I browse, knowing that I can use every font there without problems.

[PyTom]

Let me second google fonts: http://www.google.com/fonts

It currently has 629 font families, and they're all open source. Check the licenses to be 100% sure, but they should all be usable in your projects.

[pineapplepocky]

omg thank you! I'm an illustrator and I've got serious copyright anxiety about this stuff. I'll definitely check all these places out