LaurelRusswurm

I'm a writer, although like most creative people I derive a great deal of enjoyment crossing disciplines, and have worked and played in illustration, film, photography, visual arts and design.

I was about to self publish my debut novel when it occurred to me that I should make sure using the Windows XP Professional fonts I'd chosen for my book design was allowed under the EULA. It was a shock to learn that each font has different licensing rules, and commercial fonts can't be used in eBooks... especially as there is no budget for font licensing. Who knew?

After a week of trying unsuccessfully to find out from Microsoft if I could legally use the five fonts I'd selected, I've decided to dump all those fonts and find free alternatives. It's especially important to have free licensing since my novel "Inconstant Moon" is being released under a CC license, and though I'm not a lawyer, when I considered paying the license fee it sounded as though the font license would prevent me from using the CC license I want.

Having spent the last few days cruising through the pages here I have been blown away with the talent and variety on display. There are many incredible fonts on offer across the whole range of potential licensing. The flip side is that I now have an itch in the back of my mind to start thinking about designing my own font.

In the interim I just want to offer a heartfelt thank you to all the amazing artists who have chosen to share their work in this way. :)