If a fellow designer supplies me with a font, can I use it legitimately or pay up?

I would, that’s freaking expensive for text.

It depends on how you “got” the font from your fellow designer. Does he own a license for that font that he transferred to you?

Be straight up with him. You said you “got” it from him. Do you mean to say, he just “showed” you? If so, tell him you want to use it.

I honestly don’t see what’s so great about it. You could use a similar open source font for free.

@flip86 – It just has a very appealing bounce to it. It would be perfect for one of my projects; I get what you’re saying, and the design is far from final – it will be one of many fonts I’m going to sample, but I understand where you’re coming from. Having said that, I’ll err on the side of caution. If my client likes it, we’ll take it from there.

@serenityNOW use it for comp purposes. If your client likes it, charge them for the cost of the font and buy it for you to use on their work. Simple as that.

@Silence04 Brilliant ! That’s all on the up-and-up.

@serenityNOW You might want to prep the design with an alternate font so you can show them why the fancy one is superior and why it’s worth a bit of marginal extra cost.

It turns out that it’s a Typekit font which means at least I have a license for it, and should be able to use it for client work. Like @Silence04 says, though: if they like it, they pay. I’m more concerned with them getting a Shutterstock account; that’s another expense that they haven’t thought through, it’s pricey, and is infinitely more important than a font, in my opinion.