where to find fonts

boriskey

Hi All,

my first post here

I am a bit confused where I can find fonts that I could use and what others are doing. Like is there best practices when to use bitmap fonts or ttf?

Thanks

Scouser

Hi @boriskey and welcome to the mad fun house

Whether you use a bitmap font or a true type one really depends on your design. Bitmap fonts allow for multiple colours & border/stroke/outlines whereas true type is usually plain monochrome.

As to where, you could try here or just do a google search for free true type fonts.

boriskey

Thanks, Scouser! I did not realize that font in Gideros is an asset like images or sounds - got it!

very cool link - thanks!

One more question - If I want to localize my app, does it mean that I would have to find a font that supports unicode or fonts in native languages?

hgvyas123

Welcome @boriskey

ar2rsawseen

@boriskey yes you are right, you would either have to find font that support all your localizations or use specific font in each localized version

bowerandy

@boriskey, one thing to bear in mind when you find a font that is described as being free on one of those "free font" websites is that you still need to find and check the licence for your chosen font(s). Very often a "free font" is free for personal use only. Worse, it might not be free at all (i.e. there are a few rogue sites out there that put any font up and claim it is free just to get web traffic).

Even when you have found the licence you need to read it carefully. I have recently discovered to my cost that what appears to be a valid licence to use a font in a commercial app may not really be so. I was about to purchase a font for $50 and I thought I'd just email the creator to check it was okay to use it in an app. The reply from the author passed me to his lawyer who then said I needed to pay an "extended licence fee" of $199 for iOS and $199 for Android (per title) in addition to the original $50 fee. These prices were "guaranteed" for 3 months. I couldn't help thinking that they were making it up on the spot.

best regards

techdojo

Also the licence can vary a LOT depending on if you generate pixel images from your font (ie in Photoshop and save the text as an image - often times this is free (or very hard to prove either way - especially if you add filters etc) or want to include the actual .ttf file in your .apk / .ipa bundle (which is very easy to tell)

boriskey

thanks guys, good to know! and after spending a few weeks on this forum I feel right at home seeing all the familiar names thanks for the great community and a wealth of information and all the code examples! I look forward to writing my first Gideros app.