Where do you get your Fonts?

[Sybixsus]

I'm looking for fonts I can make bitmap fonts with and use in my games. In the past I've used Larabie fonts as Ray's license terms are very generous so I know I'm safe. I can donate a fair price for them, but I know I won't get caught by a dodgy license.

I know font licensing has been discussed before, so bear with me, and you'll see why I'm not just buying any font I like the look of.

Unfortunately, Ray doesn't have anything that suits the GUI design for my current project, and I need to look elsewhere. I found a nice font from BitStream which worked perfectly, so I checked the price. $25 on MyFonts.com which is great. So I emailed BitStream to ask what it would cost to distribute the TTF with the game ( at the time I felt it might be necessary ) and they told me $2.5k if it was encrypted with the game assets and $5k if not.

Ouch! So I said ok, I'm gonna use it as a bitmap font. That qualifies under the $25 license, right? Oh no, they say, still gotta cough up $2.5k for that. So essentially the $25 license is just bait, you're paying for nothing if you can't use any images you create with it.

And yes, I know US copyright law holds that the design of a font can't be copyrighted, and that BitStream are probably trying to charge me $2.5k for something that they have no right to sell ( above the $25 standard license ) but I'm not going to put myself in the position of having a company which is clearly pretty "flexible" where morals and the law is concerned sue me just for the use of a nice font.

So, bearing this story in mind, anyone have any suggestions for good sites to get fonts from where they won't try and bilk me for $2.5k after I've paid $25?

[Indiepath]

I've used http://www.blambot.com/ on a couple of occasions, very professional, very good work and very good prices.

[Hamumu]

http://www.aenigmafonts.com/

A lot of really tweaky weird ones, but a fair number of real solid ones too, all totally free to use.

[Drake]

I bought a pro font from fonts.com, and was given this info when I inquired about the license:

"The End User License allows you to install and use the font on up to 5 CPUs, and the intent of the license to allow you to create static graphics for view and print purposes. As long as you do not distribute the font software itself with the video game, the End User License is all you will need."

[Sybixsus]

Thanks guys. There are some great fonts on BlamBot and Aenigma, but nothing that I could use for a GUI as they're not clear enough at the small size I need them.

There are a couple of fonts on fonts.com which are very similar to the font I wanted from BitStream, so once I have heard back from them to confirm the license, that looks like just the ticket.

Thanks again.

[Nikster]

I was under the impression that all fonts license were based on if you distributed the actual ttf it would cost more (reselling etc), what the original post would suggest is if you use it on anything it would cost 2.5k, that's absurd, as it means the $25 cost would mean only you could use it and only you could look at it if you convert the ttf to bitmap you wouldn't be redistributing the original ttf, sounds like they're trying it on.