copyrights

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Look for fonts released under GNU License agreements. They often allow you to edit the font, and redistribute the modified version, as long as the GNU License is retained. Read the agreement though, as they are not identical. SIL release some high quality fonts under an Open license agreement Gentium SIL Open License. Bitstream Vera is another quality font with an open license.

My fonts are released under this GNU license. The license basically allows you to do what you want with the font, even to sell your modified version, as long as you change the font name.

[Ned Ludd]

My main interest would be creating display typefaces from old lettering and specimen books so I'm not sure where the law, especially in the UK, would lie on this.

I see this more as keeping old type alive than stealing as I don't autotrace or anything like like that, I simply use the existing font as a reference and 'hand draw' the new font in Illustrator, changing what I don't like, adding a bit of uniformity and sensible geometry and generally trying (not necessarily succeeding) to improve what sometimes appears as a blurry mess in 70 year old print.

It's still plagiarism, I grant you, but what isn't?

So, for example, I might creat this:

german.png (193.34 KiB) Viewed 3877 times

from this:

german-poster-alphabet.png (449.52 KiB) Viewed 3877 times

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

What I understand from many years of reading and corresponding with Ulrich Steilh about this complex issue is that an original design may be registered and protected for 25 years in Germany and for 14 years in the US. Plagiarising an old design by scanning and tracing, or using Scanahand, or FontCreator, is not a breach of copyright, unlike editing TrueType font files to modify the outlines or metrics, or removing the copyright notices as done by font forgers who made enormous profits by selling their illegal copies at knock-down prices.

There are many interesting articles about The Font Forging Industry on Sanskrit.web.