Like your first respondent codeman38, I’ve purchased my commercial fonts almost completely in separate collections and bundles with other software, like the Bitstream 500 CD from several years ago, and the huge “Illustrator” collection which Adobe sold me in conjunction with an upgrade to Pagemaker 5.0. Before Adobe Type Manager was free, I also bought whatever fonts Adobe put on special every time an early version was upgraded. That was probably over 25 faces. The list goes on: Just about the complete URW library came with my old version of Deneba Canvas (they don’t include that bundle anymore). Some real dandies from Monotype, Agfa, URW, and elsewhere came bundled with MS Home Publishing, Corel Draw, Sierra Print Artist, and others. (I’ve purchased several graphics software packages I don’t use just to get the fonts bundle which came with them. Of course, a few of those were “free with rebate.”) I’ve really been surprised how many bundles with inexpensive products include “big name” first-quality faces instead of cheap look-likes with amusing names.

I’ve also purchased “look alike” collections from Clickart, Swfte, SoftKey, SoftMaker, WSI, Arts & Letters, Summitsoft, and Tiger Direct’s discontinued Expressiv line. With those sets, sone faces are good quality; some inferior, on the same disc. I bought the Ingrimayne collection direct from Robert Schenk, the professor/artist who drew all those original faces. Back when foundries sold “unlocking” CDs, I also bought those from Adobe, Monotype, Linotype, Creative Alliance, Image Club, Precision Type, and others. I used the “free with purchase” unlocks to “plug gaps” in my collection. I bought all three Monotype “Fun Fonts” collections, two early TTF sets by Agfa, and a pack from Microsoft that had Bigelow & Holmes Lucida in it. Out of certainly more than 10,000 fonts I’ve bought, I have probably purchased fewer than 20 fonts individually, not in some kind of discounted collection.

Finally, I look for the best free original fonts sites, like Typoasis, where hundreds, maybe thousands, of very classy free faces await. I really appreciate too, commercial vendors who give free samples, like Harolds, Nicks, FontShop, and many more. Letraset used to give away a different face every month; now they stick to just one for months or years, and it isn’t easy to find the URL anymore: http://www.letraset.com/us/info/treasure/index.asp

If I were to add up the current individual retail prices for just the “big name” foundry fonts I have purchased or received direct-from-vendor, it might be more than $20,000. However, because I waited for bargains (not because I am patient, just because I could not afford full price for the extensive collection I wanted), those vendors freely sold me my collection for little more than $700, less than 5% of today’s full retail price for separately-sold fonts — and that spread over nearly ten years. Once I own it, I hang onto it.

All the fonts I use for work or fun are licensed — either purchased or freeware or samples commercial vendors have given away on diskettes or by download. I am not only not using unlicensed commercial faces, I am not even using a fraction of the licensed fonts I have purchased. But I do like having the big collection, and sometimes I study them just for pleasure (uninstalled) with font preview software. (”Do these fonts make me look fat?”)

With the Corel bundle, one or two other good bundles, and some of the best freeware, you can produce lovely documents for all occasions. You can limit any commercial faces you buy to those you love or for paid design work. No one absolutely has to spend even what I have, at the steep discounts I’ve enjoyed, unless they want to. Free and cheap fonts are adequate for almost all home work and a good part of smaller commercial jobs. Some commercial faces are uniquely distinctive, but there is almost always a freeware face suitable for the same purpose even when it is not an exact look-alike.

I would really, really, really have to fall in love with a font to buy one separately for $25 a face or more, or $75 per family or more. I suppose it could happen. I don’t object to paying for fonts I like priced at $2 to $10 per font, but I normally don’t even do that if there’s comparably useful freeware or a look-alike already in my collection. I agree with the conventional wisdom and would buy premium, standard faces if I were laying out a volume-circulation slick national magazine or consulting on major corporation identity documents. The best fonts would be a small part of the whole cost for such projects. But even though you usually “get what you pay for,” I do believe that at least SOME of the freeware is (not just “as good as” but) BETTER quality than some of the premium commercial stuff, even from major foundries! Caveat emptor.

Thank you, Joey! I am SO looking forward to regularly checking your site!

Hugs.

There are two other lookalikes of this design, not necessarily illegal clones, WSI “FunStuff,” and the Brendel font “Troubador” sold later by Canon, Greenstreet, and Summitsoft.

Hope this helps. With this information, you can broaden your search by adding three more names (the original and two look-alikes). Maybe it will even help you locate your own misplaced copy.

If you cannot find yours or a freebie, new and used CDs of Swfte, WSI, and Summitsoft faces are frequently sold very inexpensively for from $5 to $20 (places like eBay, Best Buy, CompUSA), and the quality is sometimes quite good, unlike the “junk” CDs of renamed freeware and shareware.

Good luck

are you looking for chili pepper or chilli pepper?(do you remember the designer, foundry, classification?, the search would be easier then)
see if these links help….
http://www.fonts.com/findfonts/search.htm
http://www.masterstech-home.com/The_Library/Font_Samples/Font_Indices/Image_Pages/C/ChiliPepperDingbats.html
http://www.masterstech-home.com/The_Library/Font_Samples/Font_Indices/Image_Pages/C/ChiliPepperDingbats.html

Hope this helps.