[Openfontlibrary] design service

[Dave Crossland]

Hi!

2008/11/5 jeremy schorderet <casperduet at gmail.com>:
>
> i am jeremy.
> i am a graduating student in graphic design in ECAL/switzerland.
> i have a little experience in type design.

Pleased to meet you! I'm a student on the MA Typeface Design course in
Reading, UK :-)

> i would like to participate in the free font project

Wonderful!

> what kind of font is most needed?

I think Ed's idea is great, but if you hoping to develop a new
typeface design and font from nothing, I would suggest searching
around for "most popular fonts" lists and seeing what you like. I'm
not suggesting making any direct copies, but the free software font
movement needs fonts that people want to use, and the proprietary
fonts many people use is a good guide to this.

There are two general sources for such lists: Proprietary font
distributors, and graphic design bloggers. Here are some examples:

http://www.myfonts.com/bestsellers.html
http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/popular.php
http://www.fontshop.com/fonts/bestsellers.php
http://www.ascenderfonts.com/list/most-popular.aspx

http://www.instantshift.com/2008/10/05/21-most-used-fonts-by-professional-designers/
http://www.typeoff.de/?p=122

If you are thinking of doing a "historic revival" of a public domain
type design (which is, worldwide, anything older than 25 years, as far
as I know but I am not a lawyer and that's not legal advice ;-) that
doesn't yet exist as a free software font - say, Gill Sans - Raph
Levien has done some good work like that, and even written some
prototype software to help with the overall process.

Best,
Dave