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available fonts and font licensing

hughmcguire
hi all,

we're in the process of setting up PrinceXML server to be used as one output option for an online book production tool -- PressBooks.com.

We're starting by implementing Prince for one particular client, designing a CSS to match an INDesign-generated PDF from the client. This ID-generated PDF uses an Adobe font, MinionPro.

We are trying to figure out:
a) whether it is feasible to license a font from Adobe for such a use?
b) what free font alternatives are out there?

anyone have any thoughts on this?

[apologies if these are basic questions, but i've spent a fruitless afternoon poking around on the web trying to figure this out - with no luck... need someone to point me in the right direction].
mikeday
You can purchase Minion Pro directly from Adobe for $35 per font face. It may be available from other font retailers as well, like myfonts.com.
jim_albright
There are several very nice fonts available at sil.org. And they are free to use.

http://www.sil.org/computing/catalog/show_software_catalog.asp?by=cat&name=font

The description for each font lets you know the intended purpose of the font e.g. literacy (the letters a and g look more like handwritten letters), long documents, and several for special language needs. I don't think the IPA fonts would be of interest to you.

Jim Albright
Wycliffe Bible Translators

hughmcguire
@mikeday ... it's not clear to me that the Adobe fonts would be useable at that price on a server installation with multiple users.

@jim_albright: thanks!

also, from Hakon... I was pointed at Google Web Fonts, which all have an open source license:

All of the [Google Web] fonts are Open Source. This means that you are free to share your favorites with friends and colleagues. You can even customize them for your own use, or collaborate with the original designer to improve them. And you can use them in every way you want, privately or commercially — in print, on your computer, or in your websites.
dauwhe
Before buying a consumer version of a commercial font, I'd read the EULA carefully to see if your use case is allowed. We use Prince extensively for commercial book production, and need multi-seat licenses on most fonts.