Fonts that are free to use

Am sure that you all have your favorite sites, but what do you think is the BEST source for fonts that has an open (free) license???

Are we talking about fonts for use specifically on displaying a web site or just favourite websites to find free fonts to much around with? My reading of the OP’s question is the latter, or am I missing something?

Which means that the only way to use them on the web is inside a graphic or to rely on your visitor already having a copy.

Uploading a font to your site so it can be used when people don’t have that font is not personal use.

I think a key here is understanding what is meant by the word “use” in this context. As fegall pointed out, you can “use” any font you own, whether you got it free or paid for it, in a printed work or rendered as a graphic. The trouble arises when you try to use such a font on a website as text, attaching it with a technology like @font-face. This counts, not as “use” of the font, but as redistribution, which many font licenses - including free ones - do not allow. Fortunately there is FontSquirrel, to which kohoutek already linked.

fontsquirrel and [URL=“http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/”]The League of Movable type offer great fonts that you can use in your commercial and personal web projects. That doesn’t mean they’re free, however (see respective licensing per font).

To be honest, I never saw fonts that aren’t free to use.

i never seen an issue with using a paid-for font on a website even if is not for a graphic. Simply put it wont display it in most cases unless the visitor has it on their system. is that correct?

Dafont.com is pretty good, whether the font is free or not is usually specified. Most are free, or at least free for personal use.

Yes, that’s correct - provided you do not “attach” the font with a method such as @font-face; that would be redistributing the font, which font licenses usually don’t allow.

You can use any font in a graphic so whether they are open or not doesn’t make any difference when creating graphics.

I will take note of Fontsquirrel and The League of Movable type too. I still have to check out more fonts as I always find myself sticking to my favorites. Time to “level up” =)

what do ya guys think about multimedia and graphic used on the web?

My recent favorite is Museo, which has 3 free commercial flavors (out of 5 total). It is also allowed for use in @fontface - I used it in a recent project to excellent effect

Then you likely don’t do web design.

Lot’s of foundries are opening up their restrictions to enable usage through embedding via font-face (which is a good thing), however there’s also other options.

Font embedding services often have a free license (with restrictions) or a trial, but they do allow gaining some typefaces that are still locked into the older formats.

http://kernest.com/
http://webfonts.fonts.com/
http://www.extensis.com/en/WebINK/
http://fontdeck.com/
http://www.typotheque.com/webfonts
http://www.fontslive.com/
http://www.webtype.com/

Lot’s of choice (if you don’t want to mess with getting them working and cross compatible). :slight_smile: