[OpenFontLibrary] Sample images

[Erik van Blokland]

Eric,

On 14 apr 2009, at 11:39, Schrijver wrote:

> There is no such thing as the ‘type industry’ anymore,
> Because there is no infrastructure of technology and capital you  
> have to adhere to in order to be considered a type designer

I'm not sure that covers the current situation completely. As far as  
the investment in technology is concerned you're right. Investment  
covers more than capital and software though. To be any good at type  
design you're still required to spend a decent amount of time  
acquiring the appropriate skills. While these skills have become more  
accessible over the last 30 years, I don't think the time required to  
learn has changed much since.
Neither has the time required to make a good typeface decreased much.  
The quick and dirty stuff has gotten a lot easier of course, given the  
contributions to the oflb and the selection of free fonts. But that's  
not what is needed, is it.

> I am sure that there are major type developers just waiting for the  
> right moment to abandon traditional licensing;
> because they see the value of their product is not in it’s  
> licensing, but in its typographic quality and fitness for the  
> current situation (which is IMHO on the screen).

None of the type developers / designers I know.

> And I’m sure there will actually be people who are able to think up  
> ways so that they actually make *more* money with more liberal  
> licensing than with traditional licensing.

Isnt't that a bit like http://www.step3profit.com ?

The problem lies not with unreasonable typedesigners, but with the  
expectation that economic models just pop into existence to fill the  
space between supply and demand.

So far, patron / donation / charity based models are the only ones on  
offer. I'm familiar with the cost of designing and developing  
typefaces. A paypal donation button on a designer site just isn't  
going to cover it.

Perhaps the OFLB should consider to become more proactive as a  
fundraiser: set up a trust, collect donations from various sources.  
Then fund specific, targeted projects. This could be financing new  
designs, extending or improving existing designs, competitions.
But I'm sure there are a lot of mouths to feed with whatever money  
gets FOSS gets as a whole.

Cheers,
Erik-returning-to-proprietary-typedesign-reviews
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