licensing issues

[martybee_98]

I really like the home edition of font creator but have JUST noticed that I cannot produce fonts for sale using it (according to your feature page). This is a REAL bummer. I was just getting the workflow down. I have done a number of SHAREWARE fonts but this discourages me greatly. Any chance of this changing? (I mean I MAY get 5 bucks a font if I'm lucky... once a year...) and I would LIKE to use Font Creator but If I got to pay 149 instead of 79 its tough to justify. I ain't a BIG foundry or company, but rather one of the tiniest in the world...

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Although the pricing is significantly different, so too is the feature set. See the Feature Comparison Chart.

In terms of productivity, the Pro version is many times more efficient. If you spend any significant amount of time editing fonts, you will soon appreciate the extra value.

If you post a link to your shareware fonts, I will gladly show you what I can do with the Pro version in five minutes to enhance your fonts.

[martybee_98]

I appreciate the offer, but my concern is not the feature set but the licensing. My experience with font editors has been with Fontographer so I am fairly familiar with more advanced features. I have already shelled out the money for the Home Edition but now find its useless if I cannot sell my fonts. If the Pro Edition would let me copy and paste directly from Illustrator it might be worth it. But as of now I don't know if that is possible.

What is the upgrade price?

(All my fonts that are shareware have been made with Fontographer, I was hoping to find an adequate replacement for it...)

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The upgrade price is listed as $70 — the same as the price difference.

I can cut and paste from IrfanView into FontCreator and you can do that with the Home Edition too, so I would be surprised if Illustrator cannot do the same. If Illustrator doesn't copy a bitmap to the clipboard, then print screen will do just fine. Zoom to a large size and hide any screen clutter. Use FastStone Capture to grab just what you need.

Since FontCreator and Illustrator use two different curve formats, the nodes are never going to be identical even if FontCreator could import AI files. You can set the default tracing options on the Image Import dialogue.

[martybee_98]

The old fontographer on the Mac would allow you to copy and paste the postscript directly from Illustrator to it (since System X this is not true anymore, and it NEVER worked on the PC). Type Tool also does this (although I think it may mess with the point placement). There are some enhanced features on the pro set of font creator that are good but nothing that seems to justify a doubled cost (automatic kerning is too automatic, even in Fontographer this is better done by hand, and I do just fine copying and pasting a bitmap into FontCreator now but that defeats the idea of setting things up cleanly and simply in Illustrator as far as points go.)

If I upgrade, its primarily so I will be able to sell my fonts I make. So its not any enhanced features that make it interesting but the licensing that I would be paying for.