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Re: Howzit Done? The Tutorial Section
I think I've made the changes I wanted.
If you want to have a look, Bill, feel free to tell me if it's OK or not.
If anyone is interested and want to use the Font or the FontLab file, there's no copyright on this, and thanks to Gary for doing the tutorial in the first place.
All the Lowercase letters: copyright symbol
All the Uppercase letters: registered symbol
All the numbers: trademark symbol
Re: Howzit Done? The Tutorial Section
Rik the vfb file is looking very good. Font Audit does not show any suggestions and the glyphs look good on screen and paper.
Re: Howzit Done? The Tutorial Section
Thank you Gary. Sharing is the fun part of life. Years of life offer the other things. ;)
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The Thorny Issue of the ©
The thorny issue of the ©
Please, please…please read this if you’re even remotely interested in making your own fonts.
There was a time when font creation software was expensive, and the copyright issue was therefore a background issue.
But in 2012, you really, really need to understand and obey the rules, because anyone with $100 software or even a demo version of font creation software can get themselves in a world of trouble in they don’t understand the letter of the copyright law.
One of the “wink, wink, I won’t tell anyone” infractions of typeface building for about 20 years is to design a font, for example, that looks exactly like ITC Banco, but you call your version “Bankrupt” or some such, and distribute your typeface. In theory, you can do this, even though it’s a little sleazy on the ethics and artistic sides of things, but your backside is covered only if your characters were drawn by you, by hand, and you didn’t copy a character, node for node, into your typeface.
Example? Here:
Attachment 87576
Clearly, the size of the “look-alike” typeface is different than the original ITC font, my version has no hints or guides, and my version has control points at different areas along the outline. There are other differences a font expert can detect; my point is not about how you can fool a customer or a courtroom, however.
Now, first, my legal expertise is nill. However, in 1995, Bitstream, Adobe, Emigré, and 2 other foundries sued the pants off SWFTE fonts and won. Why? Because whoever made their typefaces had no regard for the work of others, and just copied commercial fonts, node for node, size for size, renamed them, and believed they could get away with it. It’s legal to make a font that looks like someone else’s and use your own name (because font names can be copyright), but it’s not legal to simply rename a typeface, or use the original author’s characters.
Naturally, the area gets grey when your capital “T” looks-control point for control point- like a commercial original, because there’s only 8 control points with straight paths in-between. This case provides inconclusive information about copying, but other fonts with curves will most assuredly show where someone has designed—or duplicated—an original curve.
I thought I’d offer this before novices begin their font-making career. The internet provides a New Age of Counterfeiting, unlike in previous years. Don’t play that game. Already, PIPA has been mostly defeated in the US, but ACTA has been passed by the EU, there are massive protests, and the act itself is a lot of reprehensible right-wing baloney supported by the motion picture and record industries.
Don’t give these jerks another reason to push mind-control on the internet. Keep creating original content.
My Best,
Gary