On the Matter of Fonts...

[Archeia]

This is something that I've been concerned about aside from the issue of Unencrypted Audio from RM. The encryption of fonts. Has any commercial gamedev bought a font and used one where the license states:
 

You can’t distribute copies of my fonts to unlicensed users, but you can embed my fonts as follows:

5.1. You can embed read-only versions of my fonts  in digital files you create, including PDFs, e-books, software applications, and websites (as  webfonts). “Read-only” means that those who use your digital files can neither install my fonts  nor use them to make new documents.

5.2. You can embed read/write versions of my fonts in word-processing documents you create that will be shared with fewer than 20 people.

5.3. These embedding rights don’t extend to files or websites you create on behalf of third parties  (e.g., as an external designer or developer). Third parties need to get their own license

So...basically one of my concerns is that just making a Fonts folder in an RM Game project does count as distributing it as is and could terminate the license. And fonts are expensive ($90++++) for a complete family set.

Does anyone know of a way or have attempted to encrypt their fonts? Or do most just don't bother at all to purchase beautiful fonts?

 

[♥SOURCE♥]

You can either make bitmap fonts with the font you want, similar to SFont and write/search for a script to read them, or you could write a script to encrypt the font file into some format which the script would open and "decrypt" it to access the font, and then load the font into the memory without user interaction (nor font installation).

Both options would work, but a third option would be searching for another font that allows free distribution..

 

[Archeia]

I knew Sfont will be an alternative, hmmm...
 

Both options would work, but a third option would be searching for another font that allows free distribution..

If only one can find a free font that is a revival of an old style serif of 16th-century France that channels the strong, precise forms of its metal predecessor and possesses a delicate flow from stem to foot. Its varied stroke thickness and humanist axis point to handwritten forms of broad nib pens mostly based on the work of Jean Jannon. (For the curious, I'm referring to Adobe Garamond by Robert Slimbach, 1989)

Jesting aside, Typography is a big but often underlooked art form in presentation so I just had to ask, haha.

 

[Leonardo Myst]

If only one can find a free font that is a revival of an old style serif of 16th-century France that channels the strong, precise forms of its metal predecessor and possesses a delicate flow from stem to foot. Its varied stroke thickness and humanist axis point to handwritten forms of broad nib pens mostly based on the work of Jean Jannon. (For the curious, I'm referring to Adobe Garamond by Robert Slimbach, 1989)

I don't know how helpful this could be to you, but I found this site yesterday and it has quite a few fonts that are free-to-use commercially.

http://www.fontsquirrel.com/home

I ended up grabbing Sofia and Quiggly Wiggly. There might be something there that comes close to the style you're looking for.

 

[mlogan]

You have to be careful though. I found a font that I really like on a "free" font website, but when I traced the font to it's creator, found out that it wasn't actually free for commercial use like the "free" website stated.

 

[Mouser]

Yeah, I just spent a whole day (at least eight hours) tracking down a font I could use [both "free" for commercial use in a video game and looks good in said game]. Finally found one

Check the very bottom of the fine print of the licensing agreements: many will list computer applications (or even games specifically) as excluded uses, requiring a separate license. I want to say Fontspring, or something like that kept coming up as "free" fonts that I couldn't use. That said, if there was a really good font that fit the game and I hadn't found anything else, I would look into the licensing terms.

If you want to save time, go to a site where you can browse fonts by license type: anything released with the MIT or BSD license is free to do whatever the hell you want with (you just need to keep a copyright line in the credits). Anything with the letters GPL you should avoid like the plague.

I now have the problem of all the "preview" for message boxes in the game editor not being worth a darn since they use the default font (maybe this is why it throws a fit if that Gothic font isn't present?), and it took a while for me to adjust to the change in game: no matter what you pick, it will look "wrong" for a while simply because it's not what you're accustomed too. Give yourself some time with it.

Edit: Here's the site that finally helped me: http://www.fontsquirrel.com/

Check under desktop/application/OFL-Apache and you should be good

 

[Leonardo Myst]

You have to be careful though. I found a font that I really like on a "free" font website, but when I traced the font to it's creator, found out that it wasn't actually free for commercial use like the "free" website stated.

Good advice. You do have to be careful.

I learned that about textures a while back, and now I have one specific site I go to or I'll use my phone camera.

 

[Jomarcenter]

Well for my games I only looking for free Commercial use fonts like from Matthew Welch

here the link to his font below

http://www.squaregear.net/fonts/

Here is the license from the font White Rabbit. 

Font: White Rabbit

Created By: Matthew Welch

E-Mail: matt@squaregear.net

Web Address: http://www.squaregear.net/fonts/

 

My fonts are all free.  You can use them for personal or commercial projects,

and I ask for no money.  I would, however, love to hear from you.  If you use

my fonts for something please e-mail me letting me know how you used it.  Send

me a copy if you can or let me know where I can find your work. You are under

no obligation to do this, I just like to see how my fonts get used.

 

A license.txt file should have been included with this font, explaining the

license under which it is made available. You can also read it at:

 

http://www.squaregear.net/fonts/license.shtml

 

About the font:

 

White Rabbit is reminiscent of the characters displayed on all those

old low-res terminal screens. Smoothed out and cleaned up for 1999,

this is the font to use for all your computing applications.

 

 

Copyright © 1999 by Matthew Welch

 

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of

this font software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal

in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to

use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies

of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do

so, subject to the following conditions:

 

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in

all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

 

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR

IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,

FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE

AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER

LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,

OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN

THE SOFTWARE.

 

I know that he got what your looking for.

You know I could start providing an Authenticated links to free fonts (As in totally free and not fake free).

But I think we really need a list of fonts that can be use for commercial and non-commercial use. really.