FontCreator and Fonts.com

[Lesley Prince]

I approached Fonts.com for information about having fonts hosted and advertised on their site. I wonder if HighLogic should canvas them to include FontCreator in their accepted formats? This is their reply:

Hello Dr. Lesley,

There are a couple of ways that we can carry your fonts. We can distribute them on our web sites under your company name. Alternatively, you could submit the designs for inclusion in the Monotype, Linotype or ITC typeface libraries.

If you wish to submit a design for inclusion in one of our typeface libraries, I would present it at our next Typeface Review Board meeting. These are held about three times a year. If the Board decides to add your design to one of the libraries, we would license it from you on an exclusive basis.

If you chose to simply distribute through Fonts.com and Linotype.com (we own both sites), we would announce your font’s availability on our home pages and in our e-newsletters. We will also post any marketing images or content you provide about the fonts. We provide a way to reach millions of type buyers but it is essentially up to you to create your own marketing and promotional content.

In either case, every time we sell one of your fonts we pay you a royalty. The royalty differs between the two models. We pay a 50% royalty for non-exclusive distribution and about half that (because of the extensive marketing we put toward the design) for exclusive typefaces. I’ve taken the liberty of attaching a “font submission” kit for non-exclusive distribution to this. It will provide more information about distributing fonts through our web sites.

In answer to your question regarding fonts developed using FontCreator, If you are distributing fonts through one of our Websites, as long as the finished product is available as one or more of the font formats: TrueType, PostScript, or OpenType, how the fonts are made are of little importance. If you are submitting a design to us for possible inclusion in one of our typeface libraries, we can make a judgment about a typeface design from a PDF. If the design is accepted, however, final fonts must be provided to us must as either Fontographer or FontLab files.

If you would like to discuss any of the above, or have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

All the best,

Allan

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
a l l a n . h a l e y

monotype imaging
international typeface corporation
500 unicorn park drive
woburn, ma 01801
781.970.6040
allan.haley@fonts.com

[Erwin Denissen]

From what I read they do accept fonts generated by FontCreator for distribution. There are only stricter rules if you want your fonts to be included in the Monotype, Linotype or ITC typeface libraries. But even then you can submit your fonts created with FontCreator. If they like 'm I'm sure the restriction is of less importance.

[Lesley Prince]

It takes me a long time to create my fonts, and of course they might not like what they see (I don't as yet have an independednt way of selling them) so I'll let you know what, if anything, transpires.

[William]

Lesley Prince quotes a reply sent to her.

If the design is accepted, however, final fonts must be provided to us must as either Fontographer or FontLab files.

Considering the above sentence, I am wondering if it is the case that Fontographer and FontLab each has a proprietary font-authoring file format, with font design being carried out using the proprietary font-authoring file and that a TrueType format file is produced by a method such as a File Export... action on the proprietary font-authoring file.

Does anyone know if that is what is used in Fontographer and FontLab?

FontCreator does not have a proprietary font-authoring file format and a font designer works directly with a TrueType font file.

William Overington

5 May 2010

[William]

It takes me a long time to create my fonts, and of course they might not like what they see (I don't as yet have an independednt way of selling them) so I'll let you know what, if anything, transpires.

I looked at the possibility of trying to sell fonts to some of the font supplying companies a few years ago.

One thing to look at is indemnification clauses.

One company had in its standard contract a clause that required of the person who has authored the font an indemnity for all of the legal costs of defending any action against the company brought by anybody in relation to the font. There was no mention of only being liable if the action by the third party were successful. It seemed to me that the potential risk was huge and that I should avoid it. I am not a lawyer and maybe I did not understand it in some specialised legal-world manner. However, as plain English the risk seemed enormous to me.

A problem that I think exists, though I have no direct evidence for it, is that unless a company using fonts has licensed a font by buying it through an established font supplying company, then the company using fonts would not risk using the font, no matter how good it was, for fear of litigation of some sort in relation to the font.

William Overington

5 May 2010