![]() ![]() Unbundle and charge less, and maybe the type industry would see an uptick in sales.īut if we took everyone’s toys away, would it help? Or would pirates take over the world? Is it too late? Have we already passed the point of no value? (And now I sound like Carrie Bradshaw. Maybe we should rewind to the way it was in the old days 16 (or so) basic fonts would come standard on new computers, and no (or very few, at least) freebies on CD ROM along with your new software applications. I don’t think that service bureaux are the problem either, and it makes me sad to think that computer and software manufacturers are the problem, but I think that they probably are by giving away so many “free” fonts – which they have commissioned or licensed from foundries and type designers – they are decreasing the value of all fonts. (For a great essay on prescriptve versus descriptive in usage of the English language, I encourage enyone with a few spare hours to read David Foster Wallace’s brilliant and entertaining review/editorial from the April 2001 Harper’s magazine, available here: Nick seems to be on the side of the former, and I would argue for the latter. ![]() One can either set down the rules and try to enforce them (prescriptive), or one can observe the reality on the ground and adapt accordingly (descriptive). There are two ways to approach this issue: prescriptive or descriptive. A “good” designer will appreciate that the fonts she is using were created by another individual, and a “great” designer will make sure that the fonts she uses have been paid for and properly licensed. While it may be difficult to swallow, the fact is that fonts are tertiary materiel computers are primary, software such as InDesign and XPress are secondary, and fonts are part of the content soup for any given design project. And what if that bureau has several computers which might get involved in the output of the job? Would that require multi-user licensing? ![]() Which is asking designers to buy every font twice, and leaving one copy parked on a bureau’s hard drive. Surely if one requires service bureaux to buy the fonts used in a job, they will have to charge the client for such a purchase. And this was back in the days before instant font shopping gratification, when ordering a font meant calling someone on the phone and giving them credit card numbers, then standing by for a day or two until the FedEx arrived with the floppy disks containing the purchased fonts. As a (recovering) graphic designer, I can tell you that my service bureaux, some of them smaller mom & pop shops than the design firms I was working at, simply didn’t have the typefaces necessary to output the jobs we sent to them, unless we sent them the fonts, in which case, it was all golden. ![]()
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