Font Licenses?
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- ukit0
It's kind of basic economics right? You don't necessarily make more money the more you charge right? There is a price point where a maximum number of people will buy it, given the alternatives available.
Common sense tells me that that price point for most fonts is not $700 or $300 and doesn't involve a licensing fee.
- version30
photoshop, one computer. fonts, every application with countless combinations. when was the last time you were able to edit photoshop?
- jimbojones0
meh, software and fonts, how do they related price-wise? you can stick with PS 7 for years, or you can buy a Sparkytype font and design EVERYTHING with it, your entire career. if they think the font should cost that much, it's their deal, they surely calculated something.
Besides, fonts are not expensive at all. most cost between $20-50. if you don't buy from TEFF.
Adobe also protects their software btw, activation and all.
- ukit0
^ RIght , that $20-50 price range is totally reasonable and shouldn't make you think twice before clicking Buy. But that totally goes against the original point of this thread;)
- The original point of this thread was to filter foundries which have restrictice EULAs :)jimbojones
- jimbojones0
another example: there are these security guys at the supermarket. not for me, I'm an honest customer, I don't like the way they lurk behind me, as if I'd wanted to steal something. And still stuff gets stolen. What if there were no security at all, is that a good idea? And then imagine that the one apple that was stolen is magically reproduced and shared. What do you think will happen? some people will take the easy way, some will still buy stuff, some will try the free stuff and then buy the real deal.
- version30
House for the win apparently & as you said, it's a luxury item, if everyone could afford it, things would be over saturated with shit
- ukit0
Right, and if they are dealing mainly with agencies where the licensing fee is just another expense then I have no problem with it at all, rock on House Industries.
But if every foundry adopted this idea, it wouldn't be all that great.
- it's a balance act, if the software to extract fonts becomes easier and more available, shit hits the fanjimbojones
- jimbojones0
Things ARE oversaturated with shit because people think fonts are luxury items! Fonts are the most important tools of any designer, how can you go cheap there? And still so many look at dafont crap even for clients who can easily buy a beautiful and working font.
- version30
on that point, again i would have to say quality will be paid for, you'd see which foundries would sink and which would swim, sounds like the class separation between the rich and the poor to me
- nah, a great deal of luck is involved in running any business, no exceptions.jimbojones
- ukit0
Yeah, I think what v3 meant was "things would be oversaturated with good shit." But that's kind of the luxury item theory? If everyone was wearing Armani it wouldn't be cool anymore.
- everyone has an iPod, it's still cool. fonts are toolsjimbojones
- i never said good, i said shit, bad designers using good tools equals shit in the endversion3
- iPod isn't all that luxury, luxury would be something too expensive for the average personukit
- the average person can eat for 2 months or buy an iPod, so...jimbojones
- haha, not me dude!ukit
- you're not average, another reason to buy fontsjimbojones
- jimbojones0
how do you know?
- the cool bit I meanjimbojones
- Basic psychology, people want to be different and better than the restukit
- version30
i never said good, i said shit, bad designers using good tools equals shit in the end
- version30
just look at applepirate and what he plans to do with flash
he thinks that is better than this possible template he called out.
http://actionbasedlearning.com/t…- bad designers make shit, no matter what they have availableversion3
- huh?jimbojones
- version30
flash is the tool like a font, doesn't matter the tool, what matters is the artisan, cheap/free house or house like fonts would just put better tools in the hands of the masses to desecrate what could be beautiful, he is a perfect example of someone likely not paying for their tools therefore has no respect or concern for learning to use them correctly
- i sound like an elitist prickversion3
- I'm not sure what you're talking about, except that both layouts are horrible. But talk about fonts?jimbojones
- tools rights licenses... i'm making analogiesversion3
- ukit0
And in general, doesn't it suck that we are stuck with two crappy fonts - Arial and Verdana - for most of the text on the biggest media platform?
I feel like something has to give here...
- make beautiful what you can control, make the unchangeable useful in your layoutversion3
- yeah, but isn't it amazing how much diverstiy you can create with only TWO fonts? (actually more like six, but anyway)jimbojones
- jimbojones0
meh, the fact that you bought the font doesn't make you layout look better either.
my point was though, that generally retail fonts have more effort put into them and the professional level of the author is just higher. there are exceptions on both sides.
- i get your driftversion3
- but i think if you're willing to pay, you've proven you have intent, easy come easy go, no loss involved for piratesversion3
- if I have customer who has bought my faces before, and he wants to test drive a new font - sure. a new customer? uh ohjimbojones
- version30
theirs always bold and italic people ;)
- jimbojones0
the day someone invents a good way to embed webfonts (encrypted, no local copy whatever) will be a very happy day for most designers AND foundries. it's not like they don't understand that restrictions drive people away.
- And now we've gone full circle...SWF is an encrypted formatukit
- ukit0
Yeah...anyways, interesting discussion. Just so you know I am coming at it from the POV of having worked in digital music industry for a couple years where you saw different stages of denial and failed strategies to prevent piracy.
First they tried DRM, which Jimbo mentioned some foundries are now implementing. We all know how well that turned out, and even iTunes has now dropped it. Then subscription services (i.e. Rhapsody, Urge etc) was supposed to save the day. And then they thought they were going to enforce piracy by suing individual consumers, I think we know how well that turned out.
And on the stock imagery side of things, you may not know it but GettyImages has gone through similar issues and is struggling for a solution: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/2…
The question is do we live in a world where everything is cheap and shit, or where some of the good shit is also free? Do we have to continue the exact same business model when it is clearly not working or do we try something completely different?