Is it legal to use fonts in a picture that came with Windows say Arial Black, or must I purchase the font?
Legal use of Fonts
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Legal use of Fonts As far as I know it is legal to use any font any way you want once you've bought the software that distributes it.
Fonts included with windows are free to use iirc yes, its when you get to the Adobe fonts etc that they expect payment, and you have to pay to get them in the first place anyway so its a moot point.
Ok thanks
The US Copyright office does not recognize copyright on the IMAGE of a font, so using any fonts in any image is fine. Just so long as you don't distribute the font itself, of course. Other countries, I don't know.
The US Copyright office does not recognize copyright on the IMAGE of a font, so using any fonts in any image is fine. Just so long as you don't distribute the font itself, of course. Other countries, I don't know.
Does that apply to bitmap fonts created from TTFs, I wonder?! Does that apply to bitmap fonts created from TTFs, I wonder?!
I would have to assume it does. When I was trying to license some fonts for my game, I emailed the owners of each ( of three ) fonts I wanted and asked them how much for a license to use one font in a game. They said $5,000. I said remove your head from your posterior and try that again. They said no, that's the best price. So I asked them what was to stop me making a bitmap font of the image, and using that, negating the necessity to pay them a cent. Wouldn't they be better off making me a sensible offer to at least get something for it? None of the three replied, so I have to assume that nothing would prevent me, or anyone else, from doing that.
Of course, I didn't do it, because I wouldn't even give them the satisfaction of knowing I used their fonts after they tried to bilk me for $5k for a poxy font. Moreover, I don't think the copyright office has this one right, morally at least. You shouldn't be able to take it for free just because it's an image, because - as you indicate - bitmaps can be used as fonts too. But I wouldn't blame anyone if they were faced with people trying to get five grand out of them.
Interesting. Means all the time I've spent trying to locate decent, free fonts to convert to bitmaps has been somewhat wasted. :)
P.S. 5k for a fricking font! They're clearly mental. "Meanwhile, back on planet Earth..."
P.S. 5k for a fricking font! They're clearly mental. "Meanwhile, back on planet Earth..."
$5k ?! someone slap them. what are they thinking? they aint bill gates. (yet..)
i once bought a pack of freeware fonts.. thats properly the best you can do. i now have about 5.000 fonts. lot look the same tough, but who cares.. i just pick the nice onces.
i once bought a pack of freeware fonts.. thats properly the best you can do. i now have about 5.000 fonts. lot look the same tough, but who cares.. i just pick the nice onces.
Don't really need any fancy stuff just clear lettering which Arial black seems perfect for.
i once bought a pack of freeware fonts..
Paid for freeware fonts? You mean on a CD or something? yes, cause it where so many... :)
here are some opensource or publicdomain-fonts - like bitstream
I'm sure you could make a bitmap font of arial black but I doubt you could distribute the ttf with your game as it belongs to M$.
Also a lot of free fonts actually have licenses that say free for personal use but not for commercial use, so be careful.
Also a lot of free fonts actually have licenses that say free for personal use but not for commercial use, so be careful.
I doubt you could distribute the ttf with your game as it belongs to M$
I don't think MS owns it as Arial is also distributed with MacOSX and many Linux's.
Also a lot of free fonts actually have licenses that say free for personal use but not for commercial use, so be careful.
The other thing I found is that a lot of fonts claim to be free in the discription field, but really were stolen from the original makers by people selling 'free' font CD's or websites. You'll find that in many cases the built-in descriptions are obviously replaced.
so... don't assume that a font is free even it is pretends to be -- unless you have (written) permission of the original creator/owner, they can still sue you for including it.
I doubt you could distribute the ttf with your game as it belongs to M$
Is "distributing" installing a TTF on the users system so he could use it with other programs then yours ?
Or means "distributing" already if the TTF is IncBined or put in a file, only your application can read ?
I'm sure you could make a bitmap font of arial black but I doubt you could distribute the ttf with your game as it belongs to M$.
I was more talking about something like an image used for a title screen with large lettering, anyway wouldn't many Windows systems have Arial Black?
Is "distributing" installing a TTF on the users system so he could use it with other programs then yours ?
Or means "distributing" already if the TTF is IncBined or put in a file, only your application can read ?
Or means "distributing" already if the TTF is IncBined or put in a file, only your application can read ?
When I contacted the three font companies I referred to earlier with that precise question, they said that they did not consider that packing the fonts into the executable or another datafile, protecting them and keeping them away from prying eyes made any difference, that it was still distribution ( and in their case, they still wanted $5k. )
@Azathoth: I just looked on Microsoft Germanys Website under legal questions and found:
Translated: Microsoft is not owner of rights for Arial but Agfa Monotype Corp is. Please ask them for licensing questions.
Die Schriftart 'Arial' steht im Eigentum der Agfa Monotype Corp., nicht Microsoft. Für Informationen über Lizenz- und Nutzungsbedingungen von Arial wenden Sie sich bitte an die Agfa Monotype Corp.
Translated: Microsoft is not owner of rights for Arial but Agfa Monotype Corp is. Please ask them for licensing questions.
Ah OK, yeah I bet Agfa wouldn't be into the ttf being distributed as ttf or incbinned. Althouth you could bitmap font it and it would be legal (in some countries). Wiki has a thing about font copyrights that's quite informative.
This should be in the FAQ, the question appears once in a while and is usefull.
bet loads of people illegally use fonts (and graphics/sound/music). I'm very careful as I've got a business to run and protect.
So, to be really safe, buy some font creation software and make your own fonts from scratch?
yeah for sure but who can be bothered with that?
Hell, I might do that and see if someone is gullible enough to pay me $5k for my fonts.
Is it a solution to make a font by yourself ?
There are probably hundreds of thousands of fonts all in the world and chances are high, that, if you create a well done font, it looks similar, perhaps VERY similar to an already copyrighted font (from whichs existance you not even might have knowledge of). But then again you are in the copyright-violation-trap, because this is just like producing a song with except from some notes nearly the same melody as a hit which earlier run in the charts - someone may blame you for violating his rights because your work is just a copy of his.
I really begin to hate this copyright issue ;)
I bought Corel Draw X3 some times ago and it came with a big bunch of fonts. At least there should be no problems to use this fonts as text within Images, because Corel Draw! is sold a program for artists to make drawings.
There are probably hundreds of thousands of fonts all in the world and chances are high, that, if you create a well done font, it looks similar, perhaps VERY similar to an already copyrighted font (from whichs existance you not even might have knowledge of). But then again you are in the copyright-violation-trap, because this is just like producing a song with except from some notes nearly the same melody as a hit which earlier run in the charts - someone may blame you for violating his rights because your work is just a copy of his.
I really begin to hate this copyright issue ;)
I bought Corel Draw X3 some times ago and it came with a big bunch of fonts. At least there should be no problems to use this fonts as text within Images, because Corel Draw! is sold a program for artists to make drawings.
GreyAlien:
Very true. Font construction can be a bitch (especially for a full-featured True Type font.) But the effort may be worth it if you use it in multiple projects.
xMicky:
There are probably hundreds of thousands of fonts all in the world and chances are high, that, if you create a well done font, it looks similar, perhaps VERY similar to an already copyrighted font (from whichs existance you not even might have knowledge of).
Also very true. Which is why it helps to keep multiple snapshots/saves of your font's ongoing development. That way, if anybody ever makes accusations you can at least provide them with a 'record of development'. Not a perfect defense, but it might make them think twice about taking legal action.
yeah for sure but who can be bothered with that?
Very true. Font construction can be a bitch (especially for a full-featured True Type font.) But the effort may be worth it if you use it in multiple projects.
xMicky:
There are probably hundreds of thousands of fonts all in the world and chances are high, that, if you create a well done font, it looks similar, perhaps VERY similar to an already copyrighted font (from whichs existance you not even might have knowledge of).
Also very true. Which is why it helps to keep multiple snapshots/saves of your font's ongoing development. That way, if anybody ever makes accusations you can at least provide them with a 'record of development'. Not a perfect defense, but it might make them think twice about taking legal action.
Yeah I guess if I was to make a nice clean font that I could reuse in several games it could be worth it. I used to make bitmap fonts for the Amiga, and that was very time consuming, but at least they were mine.