What to charge for a font?
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- Alexico
Hey Guys,
i´ve made an experimental font during my course at uni. Now my teacher likes to buy it!
Well it´s handmade stuff. And i have no idea what to charge for it.
Any suggestions?
- stem0
When you say your teacher wants to buy it, do you mean - he wants to buy a copy of it, or does he want to pay to own the font?
- Alexico0
Good question!
I think if she likes to own it, it may be a little more expensive.
Both cases, what do u think is a reasonable price?
Thanks for answering anyway!
Alexico
- stem0
BEWARE TUTORS
I reckon our tutors - made loads of coin out of our shitty ideas when we were at college/uni.Ever wondered why they bought you that beer?
- rabattski0
give the teacher a one cpu license only, depends on the font and the complexity / family / function but not more than a couple of hundred bucks.
- Alexico0
Yeah, i dunno it´s all more difficult with that font-business. It´s just a Headline-Font of experimential nature. And there is only one weight.
Well if i would count the hours i worked on it it would be a lot of money, but as a single-use-license? Hundred Australian Dollars?
- stem0
It's a really difficult one to answer, how do you determine it's potential to make someone else money.
You could just say - It took me (example) 5 hours @ 10 euros an hour = 50 euros.
But if the font is used on a job for a client who uses the font on a big campaign, which generates millions of euros - you've undersold yourself!!
It's about supply & demand - how much do they want the desing and how much do you want the money?
You've done the work, just don't give it away for free!
- stem0
I dont really understand the ins and outs of licensing fonts, but what rabattski says seems fair.
- Alexico0
Yeah, that´s difficult.
She told me that she likes to use it for a job. So it´s not just for the "personal collection". There will be definetly money, which she´ll earn with my font. And she likes 2 pictures of my project. So it might be partly my work on that project.
I dunno how much she can charge for that stuff, she´s not a big advertising agency u know.
Well the font was much work, but i cannot say: 25 hours, 250 bucks. that would be different. font-business is different isn´t it?
cheers_alexico
- Alexico0
rabattski: do you mean us-dollars? how much would u carge in euros?
- kelpie0
had a look for similar stuff on the web? get prices for single face display fonts and work it out from there? :)
- rabattski0
well you can only charge a lot of money if you sell the font and it's right exclusively to one user. i doubt your teacher wants that.
within font making (unless it's custom work for a single client only) it's not about the hours you make, at least it isn't the basis in how much you could charge for it. no gamer has to pay $15 mln. for buying a game you know. so forget the hours ratio on this.
i would look at a similar font at a small font foundry and see what they charge for a single license.
- kelpie0
you could stick it on-line and see if anyone else wants it too after all :)
Do you have a pic?
- rabattski0
take for instance bello from underware, the complete package costs 75 euro.
http://www.underware.nl/site2/in…
they prolly sell way more than you will w/ your font. so i'd say 150 euros for your font. no idea how much aussie dollars that are.
- Alexico0
firstup: thank you all for your hints!
well, i think i´ll give her the right to use it australia-wide. so i think maybe 150 dollars are ok.
but what to charge for the photos? i casted the people, made them, photoshopped them and manipulated them.
sorry, can´t upload a pic somewhere.
cheers_alex
- kelpie0
what are the photos? excuse me for being thick, but is this the project you had done? and she wants to take it and use it on one of her commercial jobs.
Dunno about that :/
- rabattski0
$150 for exclusive rights in australia? are you mental? $150 for a single user license. if your teacher wants exclusiveness (which means you can't use it to) i'd say charge per hour.
- Alexico0
kelpie: that´s exactly what she wants to do. well it´s the substance of my styleguide for that branding-exercise we did. it seems to me she likes to sell it as her own idea...
rabbatski: well, i´m german and won´t ever go back to australia. so i wouldn´t care that much about that u know? so i could use it at home and every where else (except oz of course).
my teacher from germany (who is speaking at typo by the way these days) told me i could charge about 50 - 120 euros.
- vb_0
"well, i think i´ll give her the right to use it australia-wide. so i think maybe 150 dollars are ok. "
what do you mean australia-wide. don't sell her the rights you n00b! ;)
just a user-license, and 75-100 euro's seems fair enough to me, if it's only for headers and just one weight.
perhaps you should ask where she wants it for.
- kelpie0
oh please don't give away your rights - if that's what she's pushing for tell her to F off.
Don't let her have your project to sell either, would she work on it WITH you and split the fee somehow?
really, beware of her taking advantage of your student status, it's not fair :/
- vb_0
so you are planning to sell the Australia rights just for that amount of money?? why?
don't do it. sell her a one-user license (put it on paper) so she can use it in her works, but not resell the font.
if it is really that good why don't you go inform at some larger font resellers and make comparisons?