I recently started writing a pumpkin growing sim in Java. I made all the graphics for it myself and wrote all the code myself. The problem I am having is that the game is using standard windows fonts. No problem right? Get on google and there are thosands of free Halloween fonts for download. Then you read the Terms of Use... no distribution, period. Basically I have a few options: 1) Write companies asking for written permission (I already sent a request out to a few companies, will call others tommorrow) 2) Make my own font (this is hard as hell, and probably would suck when I was done with it anyway) 3) Stick with good old Times New Roman (it doesn't look Horrible, just doesn't look good) 4) Use fonts anyway, deny downloading them from site - lie and say they were from anyother site that must have stolen them. If sued, change fonts - game is going to be freeware anyway, not like there will be profits to protect. What do you guys reccomend doing? Do you know of any sites that allow fonts to be redistributed freely or non-commerically?

look for freeware fonts...they are everywhere...flashkit.com has a bunch..some are shareware..but some people dont mind if you use them commercially...they will be the ones marked freewhere when you browse it..

Theres also a lot of relatively cheap distributable fonts if you can't find any free ones. I recall getting a couple for my school game project last year. They were something like 10-20 bucks.

Font licensing is slightly unusual. While font files (and in general, the font implementation) can be copyrighted, the typeface itself cannot be (in the US). Which means that though you may not be able to redistribute the font file, you can use the font itself in your game. You could, for example, render the font to a bitmap, and use the bitmap in the game (of course, glyph width and kerning may become an issue).