Comic Code – Monospaced interpretation of the most over-hated typeface

Re:Comic Code – Monospaced interpretation of the most over-h... by TheRealPomax on Friday July 26, 2019 @12:01PM (#20535776)

Honest answer: that's a bit like asking "why buy games when there are so many free games available?"

Modern fonts are vastly more elaborate pieces of software than what people tend to think they are [1], and you get what you pay for. If you just need 56 letters, get a free font. If you need full Unicode Latin support, with proper kerning between each of the thousands of possible pairs, with ligature substitution for hundreds of tuples, not just for one language but several, with compositional repositioning for languages that require it, and alternate glyphs based on initial, median, final, or isolated letter form, and so on and so forth, then dollars will get you what free cannot.

Everyone can make a motivational jpg, but you need to pay a skilled digital artist to create a unique well composed new work. In the same vein, anyone can make a font, but you'll need to pay a skilled typographer (or foundry) if you want a well designed, feature rich typeface.

[1] https://pomax.github.io/CFF-glyphlet-fonts/

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Re:Comic Code – Monospaced interpretation of the most over-h... by saidajigumi on Friday July 26, 2019 @12:29PM (#20535995)

Seconded. The company I work for is currently commissioning a custom family of fonts from a major digital type foundry... and it's a vast (and expensive) undertaking. Consider potentially important features like support for[1]:

    font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums

For fonts with the support coded in, this variant means numbers in tables will line up in your font without outright switching to a monospace font. Beyond good glyph design, as the parent mentions, there's a lot of work to craft a professional modern font esp. the more of the Unicode language space it spans.

[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/font-varian...

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Re:Comic Code – Monospaced interpretation of the most over-h... by LocalH on Friday July 26, 2019 @01:37PM (#20536567)

The fact of modern vector fonts being software is what makes most fonts fall under copyright law in the first place in the US. Generally, absent actual software in the font file, typefaces aren't copyrightable at all. Pure bitmaps of typefaces are pretty much free for everyone to use. But if you use a protected vector font to generate those bitmaps, then they become infringing. Color of bits and all that.

This is also a US-centric comment. Other jurisdictions have differing rules to cover fonts and typefaces. In the US, however, it is fully legal to lawfully acquire a physical font specimen, scan that font, and do what you wish with it.

Caveat: IANAL

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