Need advice regarding fonts

[waraiotoko]

I have a quick question: how is everyone here loading fonts for their games? Is everyone using free fonts, putting the .ttf within their game directory or do some of you load fonts from the Windows directory? I'm using Windows 7 right now and the "true" path to a font is really convoluted, plus if I load from the Windows directory I would eliminate Mac and Linux support.

Any advice? Should I switch to a free font? If so, is there a good replacement for Mangal out there?

Thanks in advance.

[Ellohir]

I think putting the ttf on the game is the best solution. It's not a big file, and it's really easy to use. Each operating system has different fonts, even between versions of the same family. So I wouldn't try difficult things, just get a free font that you like

[waraiotoko]

I think putting the ttf on the game is the best solution. It's not a big file, and it's really easy to use. Each operating system has different fonts, even between versions of the same family. So I wouldn't try difficult things, just get a free font that you like

Thanks, I'll have to find a replacement for the Microsoft font I'm using.

[Robin]

Make sure the license of the font permits you to use it in your game and distribute it. A lot of "free" fonts floating around have really restrictive licenses, and you don't want that.

[kikito]

I can't recommend Google Webfonts enough:

http://www.google.com/webfonts

It's 320 font families (plus variants), completely open sourced and free to use however you want.

Downloading them is a bit tricky - the easiest way is choosing the fonts you want, and then looking for the "download your collection" button (upper right).

[Kadoba]

Wow that is a great resource kikito. Thanks for sharing.

[Jasoco]

I think it would be neat if we could call system fonts in a list like you can with CSS where the program uses the first available font in the list. We could have "Helvetica Neue", "Arial" and it would try Helvetica first, then Arial if that doesn't exist, and if neither exist, it defaults to the Löve font Vera.

Personally I prefer to make my games have a pixelly style so I use image fonts which is much smaller and free of licensing issues.

[IQuit]

Some fonts can be a large as 10MB, distributing is not always an option ...

[Jasoco]

That's why it would make sense to optionally allow us to call fonts in the same method you call them in CSS and HTML. Optionally. As an option. Since pretty much everyone has either Helvetica or Arial. And if not, then fall back on Vera. Makes sense. Do like browsers do.

[MarekkPie]

That's why it would make sense to optionally allow us to call fonts in the same method you call them in CSS and HTML. Optionally. As an option. Since pretty much everyone has either Helvetica or Arial. And if not, then fall back on Vera. Makes sense. Do like browsers do.

Just make sure that option is optionally optional.