Calling all font experts

**Big Dave** · 18th June 2008, 11:57

Originally Posted by Ixion

People buy fonts? Like, for money? Weird.

Some places of business are quite moral.
Indexed with: The taller the beacon, the more likely it is to be noticed.

**xwhatsit** · 18th June 2008, 12:18

Originally Posted by Big Dave

Some places of business are quite moral.
Indexed with: The taller the beacon, the more likely it is to be noticed.

I don't think he's advocating piracy. I think it's instead a case of `in my day, all we had was Bookman and Chancery, and we liked it!'

**Big Dave** · 18th June 2008, 13:22

Originally Posted by xerxesdaphat

I don't think he's advocating piracy. I think it's instead a case of `in my day, all we had was Bookman and Chancery, and we liked it!'

Viva Clarendon Bold.

**riffer** · 18th June 2008, 14:22

Sheesh. You amateurs.

Buy one copy.

Use FontForge. It's an open source version of Fontographer, the venerable font editing package that design professionals have been using since well, forever.

It's available in Mac, Windows, Linux/Unix and VMS (if you're as old as me and can still remember VMS) variants.

It will let you convert between TTF, PS1, PS3, OpenType and a few other obscure formats.

For free.

you're welcome.

Big Dave and Skunk, I was sure you'd have heard of this.

And yes, it doesn't screw up hinting, or ligatures.

**xwhatsit** · 18th June 2008, 14:47

Originally Posted by riffer

Sheesh. You amateurs.

Originally Posted by xerxesdaphat

You can also convert fonts between the two formats; here is an open-source utility to convert from Truetype to Postscript: http://ttf2pt1.sourceforge.net/

Originally Posted by WRT

Thanks for the tip, I'm not sure we can convert it in this case as the font is a licenced one - I would suspect we'd be guilty of pirating if we did such a move as when purchasing the font there is the option for one format or the other, if you want both then the price doubles.

**riffer** · 18th June 2008, 14:52

Obviously not talking about you Tom.

**xwhatsit** · 18th June 2008, 15:00

Originally Posted by riffer

Obviously not talking about you Tom.

Lol -- well aware of my high factor of awesomeness. However the point in quoting that was to point out WRT's response, could well have your license to use the fonts retracted if you break the EULA

Quite a few FOS copies of fonts around, though; well at least the more traditional and mainstream ones. Not sure about the more fancy ones, all I ever use is Computer Modern;

**riffer** · 18th June 2008, 15:02

Yeah, copyright vs fair use. Always a legal minefield.

Of course, you could always manipulate the font slightly then claim it's different.

**xwhatsit** · 18th June 2008, 15:06

Originally Posted by riffer

Yeah, copyright vs fair use. Always a legal minefield.

Actually, that's an interesting point. If it is just copyright, then could you perhaps claim the ability to transcode under fair use rules? Probably could. Don't see why a font is any different from any other kind of visual/aural art, at least under teh lor.

However, I suspect it might come with some kind of license instead, which would be separate from the copyright it's covered under. So, you obtain a license to use the font to publish whatever, and have to obey the terms of the license. A lot of EULAs are legally invalid, however.

**riffer** · 18th June 2008, 15:44

According to AIGA (who should know these things) you do not own a font, you only buy the right to use it for a specific purpose.

Here's their white paper on it.

Strictly speaking, unless you supply a PDF or postscript file to a pre-press bureau, you are breaking the law.

How many clients still do this? I've been out of the prepress game for a number of years now, but I assume that clients are still supplying Illustrator, InDesign, Quark etc files to bureaux, which is actually illegal.

**Big Dave** · 18th June 2008, 15:48

Originally Posted by riffer

Sheesh. You amateurs.
Big Dave and Skunk, I was sure you'd have heard of this.

I bought a gazillion fonts in a collection for $100 in....'88 and you have done all my leg work since. Who's looking kerned now hmmmm?

**Big Dave** · 18th June 2008, 15:53

Originally Posted by riffer

Strictly speaking, unless you supply a PDF or postscript file to a pre-press bureau, you are breaking the law.

How many clients still do this? I've been out of the prepress game for a number of years now, but I assume that clients are still supplying Illustrator, InDesign, Quark etc files to bureaux, which is actually illegal.

Nah. PDF or piss off.

**riffer** · 18th June 2008, 15:55

Interesting. How things have changed.

Of course the workforce is full of those lazy millenials now. They wouldn't know how to postscript a file and run it through a prepress system if their life depended on it.