Freebie: Bitmap Text Pack (1 font, 16 crazy variations)

Game Engine Game Engine Resources
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I started thinking to myself “I wonder what kind of effects I could pull off with bitmap text…”

So I made gold-filled text. Then I got carried away.

http://www.blendenzo.com/Images/ImagePosts/16FreeBitmapFonts.jpg
16FreeBitmapFonts.jpg541×643

You guys are welcome to them. (This image only shows 15 of them. I forgot to include the original, which is the outline, except white instead of black.) If you want to make your own variation of this font, I recommend opening ka1blackwhite.tga and using color select on the white with anti-aliasing on and a feather edge of 1px. Then just fill it with what you want. Here’s the file:

http://www.blendenzo.com/Files/BGEBitmapText-ka16.zip (698kb)

Edit: A Note About Copyright
Since the discussion in this thread, I’ve done a bit of research on the subject of copyrights and how they pertain to fonts. My findings were very interesting. First of all, a “font” is the actual vector (or other scalable) font file, and does not refer to any rasterized image made from the said font. Secondly, a “typeface” is the shape and look of a font.

I live in the US. From my research it would seem that the US Office of Copyrights refuses to issue copyrights for typefaces, saying that they are “industrial designs”, not “works of art”. The US Office of Patents does offer patents for typefaces, but the actual chances of coming across a patented typeface and not knowing it seem rather slim.

Since the intention of a font file is to produce a rasterized image, bitmap images of a particular font are considered normal usage of the font (as long as you have a license to use the font in the first place). The bitmap image produced from the font file is not a copyrighted work of the author of the font, since the Office of Copyrights only offers copyrights on the actual font file (as a “computer program”), not the typeface.

I am not a lawyer, so please do not consider this legal advice. It is simply what I have found in my research. Here are a couple of the most relevant source links:

http://www.copyright.gov/title37/202.html US Copyright Regulations (Read especially 202.1 a, 202.1 e. “Material not subject to copyright: …mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering or coloring… Typeface as typeface.”)

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/law/copyright/faq/part3/ Copyright FAQ (not a US government document) Section 3.9 ("…In essence, a font will be protectable only if it rises to the level of a computer program. Truetype and other scalable fonts will therefore be protected as computer programs, a particular species of literary works. Bitmapped fonts are not copyrightable, because in the opinion of the Copyright Office, the bitmap does not add the requisite level of originality to satisfy the requirement for copyright.")

Old BGE users will recognize this second link as being the same reference given in the original FTBlender tutorial at blender.org.

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What is the licence on the fonts? are they originaly GPL or (CC) ?

They look nice.

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The original font was licensed as “freeware”. I’m not sure that I felt a need to have any fancier license than that. I need no attribution or anything, I don’t care how you use them and I don’t mind if you redistribute them. GPL and CC just get too complicated for me sometimes. These are free. End of story.

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A bit more on the license thing… The font was originally created by Vic Fieger, who has a wonderful selection of free fonts available at www.vicfieger.com. Here is a direct quote taken from the “About” page on vicfieger.com

“Note on Fonts
You don’t have to ask permission for using my fonts. Though I always enjoy someone dropping a line to show me what they are using them for. Credit for the font/s is, again, not necessary but appreciated.”

1 Like
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amazing the attitude some people have about altering other peoples artwork.

I had the decency to do a bit of research, and found the original author.
The actual artist’s name here is: Vic Fieger
http://www.vicfieger.com/

It seems that he dosent care how the fonts are used. He has some other there on his site as well.

He has some contact information there… I would definitely talk to him about Re-packageing and distributing his artwork in a different format, and without his name or copyright in the meta data.(Look at Karmatic Arcade in any font viewer, and you will see this information…)

He spacificaly says the word “Font” and dose not give any permissions to Alter them, re-name, re-distribute in a non-Font file format(bitmap), re-paint them or take credit for them.

I dont see anything there saying he allows commercial use, nor do I claim to understand his feeling on this matter.

Furthermore… Free-ware dose not mean , “Free to make up your own rules, for re-distrabution”

Here is a freeware font license, I got out of a freeware font zip file pay close attention to the word’s De-Compile, ADAPT, and MODIFY…
Not includeing the entire charictor set in the original font file might piss him off as well.

ACCEPTABLE USES
You may use these fonts in personal projects and in projects for which you get paid. You may provide copies of these fonts to a service bureau or printer, if necessary. 

UNACCEPTABLE USES
YOU MAY NOT modify, adapt, translate, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble these fonts; copy or sell them as someone else's original work; nor include them in any commercial freeware or shareware font collection without express written consent.

If you are going to re-distribute their font in the medium of a bitmap ,you should have the decency to include the fonts meta data with the correct COPYRIGHT in tact.

At least give the authors name, so people can have a choice weather to attribute the real artist or not in the game credits…
EDIT: looks like you beat me to it :slight_smile: … that is much better.

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Hi blendenzo and all

by the way bnzo you are a beast in blender ! :slight_smile:
you can make shadow to text by copying a new object of the plane then change it’s color to black then move the 2 vertices to right .

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Thanks blendenzo! These font variations look very groovy = )

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Is there a Font police I dont know about lol!!!

For real guys. Like he is gonna pick up the phone and call the FBI because some snot nose kid in indiana is using his font in some home made game…

My company uses all kinds of fonts for mass production, we have never gotten a phone call from someone saying to stop because they OWNED it. I think people who make fonts for “fun” are bigger losers than people who make desktop icon packs…

So use fonts till your heart falls out. If the font police read this post…KISS MY YOU KNOW WHAT!