What are the legalaties involved in font use? What fonts are open?

I guess all the fonts that are by default in your word processor and all the ones you can get legally from the Internet (for free or not) and free to use. I have one book or two where they say at the end what fonts were used, and it's mostly ones you got in Word by default (such as Garamond).
That said, most RPG companies that can afford it have a typesetter (that can be the same guy that makes the layout) to do this.

Hope that helps.

-Addix

Guessing isn't always a good thing.
;)

Actually many of the fonts that come on your computer, packaged in software, and free on the internet are limited in one way or another. Some are personal use only. Even those that allow commercial use often don't allow embedding in PDFs or sending to your printer. Be careful to check the license of any fonts you want to use to make sure they allow the uses you have in mind.

I've heard a lot of rumor that the basic windows fonts are ok to use commercially, but I've never managed to confirm it. I chose to just play it safe and purchase a nice basic text font to use for all my body text and a couple fancier ones for headers & such. Better safe than sorry, I figure. And they're not all that expensive (and if you buy them from a commercial font foundry you can get them in postscript too, so the printer won't whine about truetype fonts).

Personally I like Bitstream. Their basic license includes permission to embed in PDFs (it's amazing how many don't) and their prices are reasonable. And most importantly, their fonts are good quality. I've had some cheapo fonts cause problems with certain software.

madelf wrote:
I've heard a lot of rumor that the basic windows fonts are ok to use commercially, but I've never managed to confirm it.

I'm not much of an authority on fonts in general, but in the long-ago world of DOS and Ventura Publisher, I used Bitstream fonts. Good stuff, good support (which was important in the world before TrueType and etc.). Admitedly somewhat out of date info, but if you do choose to go the "professional" route with fonts, I'd say Bitstream is a good choice.

Gordon

I don't have any answers for you, but let me suggest some places where you might find them:

Bitstream donated the Bitstream Vera font family to the opensource community, in cooperation with the GNOME project. These are very nice basic fonts (I use Vera Serif, Vera Sans, and Vera Sans Mono all the time), and can be downloaded for free. I have not verified that they are free for commerical use, but Bitstream has given the fonts to the opensource community to be distributed, modified, etc., so if you are looking for a free font I would check these first.

Debian Linux is, by definition, free from copyright restrictions. I don't know what the state of font development is for Debian, but you might check there, also. Any ttf font that Debian includes (and this isn't to say that they even exist; I haven't checked), is going to be free to use.

Lastly, Scribus is an opensource DTP application, so checking the Scribus bulletin boards would probably give you some insight into the state of "public domain" fonts in the opensource community.

Good luck.

The rule of thumb I've always used is this:

1. If it's on a Word or some other word processor, it's free use.

2. If you download it from the internet and the "Readme" file or EULA says it's free use with no restrictions, it's kosher as well.

3. If there is no EULA or "Readme" assume it's not free.

4. If you buy it, it's yours to use for fun and profit.

That being said, I have a secondary question for this topic: What fonts are considered "good" to use?

Personally, if I see one more game in Times New Roman, I'll be ill. ;c) Then again, I don't like serif fonts. Rarely use them in any of my graphic design work except as titles or captions, so it's a personal choice. But to me, TNR just doesn't look professional for printing IMHO. I'd much rather see Century Gothic (my current fave), Arial, Futura (not free) or Verdana even. If one has to use a Serif font for text, I much prefer Garamond to TNR.

I do feel that the proper font can set the proper mood for a game and is an important choice to pick the right font. So just consider me curious is all as to people's opinion if they have one. :c)

It's harder than I though to find open fonts. (Fonts released under some kind of open source license.) I did find LinuxLibertine font, but it is still in development. You might want to check it out, though.

Echoing what other posters have said above, I've always tended to stick with font that come with a readme file which explicitly states that commerical use is allowed for a free font. Saves any worries for the future.

Cheers
Malcolm

As a quick aside: Gentium is a very nice free to use font that supports extended Latin and both modern and ancient Greek.

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&item_id=Gentium

In terms of using Fonts, the laws as I understand them are a bit muddled.

There are legal differences between illegally owning and illegally using a font - it all gets a bit muddy. You're safest bet is to either buy a font or using one in which the legal documents clearly state that the font is free to use in any way.

Chris

I personally think Verdana is a nice font to use for the main body text. Headers...eh, I'd like something a bit more thematic.

I've had decent luck finding fonts that are OK to use (readme file says font can be used commercially) at this website:

http://www.fontface.com/fonts/a.html

Hope this helps.