Interestingly, all top 18 are display faces.

“Interestingly, all top 18 are display faces.”
That does not surprise me. I think people are much more into the “gotta hava new...” with display faces. They also are cheaper and more likely to be noticed in use.

ChrisL

Amazing that people are still into those grungy faces! It is just to easy to make your own…

A very simple way to differentiate yourself is with type. To most — and this is conjecture — all they see is the display stuff. They don’t understand that the type which isn’t sterotypical display can just as strongly differentiate as that which is. I don’t think it is a negative thing, just a real situation.

> “Interestingly, all top 18 are display faces.”
> That does not surprise me.

But then how does that jive with the top-N lists of some
other font houses consisting mostly of neutral sans faces?

hhp

But then how does that jive with the top-N lists of some
other font houses consisting mostly of neutral sans faces?

It depends how you calculate a sale, I think.

For instance, say that Foundry X has a standard EULA, which is good for 10 workstations. Foundry X only has two fonts in its library, Script Face 123 and Grotesque 567. Foundry X sells 100 transactions of Script Face 123 and 50 transactions of Grotesque 567 per month via its online store.

Technically, Script Face 123 is the foundry’s best seller, right? Not necessarily. Lets say that all of the Script Face 123 transactions were with the standard, 10 user license. But half of the Grotesque 567 transactions were for more workstations… anywhere from 11 to 11,000.

Now Grotesk 567 is the foundry’s best seller, because it licensed the most workstations in a single month, even though it had less single transactions via the store.

You should always ask yourself which numbers you’re looking at in top-N lists.

Many foundries have also created parallel top-N lists, i.e., one for text fonts, and another for display fonts.

”...how does that jive with the top-N lists of some
other font houses consisting mostly of neutral sans faces?”

You also have to consider customer base of the foundry. Do customers who frequent Veer go there because they are looking for display or script faces more than customers of LinoType go there for text or sans faces? I am not saying that this is true, I am just posing the question. Personally, if I were looking for a sans, I would be more likely to look at FF than Veer or P22. If I am looking for something pushing the envelope, I would more likely look at Storm than at LinoType. Maybe size ane age of foundry matters too. It would be interesting to see breakdowns by foundry and how they measure (taking in Dan’s comments).

ChrisL

Here are Linotype’s current top sellers.
http://www.linotype.com/8-37-8/fontcharts.html
These lists are based on real data. There are two categories of 20, text and headline. At least 16 of the headline fonts are scripts (and if Papyrus and Old English can be considered script fonts, that 18 of 20 are scripts). I wouldn’t say that Linotype’s customers visit the website only looking for sans serif fonts, or even for serious fonts at all. How different is the headline top 20 from a list at Veer? Maybe Veer’s fonts were designed more recently, and maybe Veer’s customers go in for a more grungy look. I’d be interested to know where Veer’s customers come from, too, i.e., what percentage of the customer base is North American versus other continents and countries. I’d bet the the “rough look” is more in at certain places than others.

Compare the current top seller list with another Linotype Feature: 2005’s favorites
http://www.linotype.com/8-2628-8/favouritefonts2005.html
Year round rather than up-to-the minute. The “business fonts” don’t differ too much, but the “casual” ones do. Not as many scripts here. At other parts of the year, it seems that other types of display type were popular, too. Which fonts sell most when might have something to do with what fonts are marketed when. I bet that MyFonts.com would witness similar trends.

Speaking of MyFonts.com, here is their best seller list, which is updated daily:
http://www.myfonts.com/bestsellers.html
What better way to get instant feedback on who is buying which fonts. Like Linotype.com, two Linotype fonts top this list as well, Zapfino and Neue Helvetica. From today’s top-50, 22 are scripts, 18 are sans serifs, 5 are serif faces, 3 are “other” (sorry for the over-generalization here), and two are ornaments/symbol fonts. The sans serifs licensed here are not so different from the sans serifs licensed at Linotype.com

FontShop keeps charts as well. I like these, because FontShops operate locally. It isn’t easy to visit another country’s FontShop, i.e., if you are in Germany, you have to enter in a FontShop USA’s URL twice before the site will even open, because of automatic re-direct.
Here is FontShop Germany’s Top 25:
http://www.fontshop.de/sukr.php3?ch=%2Fprodtips.php3%3Fns%3D10%26sns%3D1%3Cbr%20/%3E
Of the 25, only four are scripts—exactly the bottom four (the best, P22 Cezanne, comes in at place 22). Only 2 serif faces on this list. Of the top 25, 7 come from FontShop Internation or Font Shop (one is only labeled “FontShop”; I thought that all FontShop fonts were from FontShop Internation (FSI)?). 17 are from other foundry’s. Like I already said, I really like this list, because it seems to say a lot. Namely, Germans who license fonts from FontShop like sans serifs. They don’t necessarially prefer FSI’s own typefaces, but they still buy from FontShop, rather than going to another site like Linotype’s or Monotype’s or MyFonts, where many fonts are even cheaper because of exchange rates and taxes and other things. Does the lack of script strength say anything about German tastes? Maybe Germans don’t like script fonts as much as Americans do? Maybe they do like them, but get them at Veer, or for free from Free Font download sites?

Does the SF site, FontShop.com, have a top seller list, too? They have really pretty e-mail newsletters.

Monotype’s Fonts.com website has a Top Ten:
http://www.fonts.com/FindFonts/Top10.htm
Of these 10, there are no scripts, just 9 sans serifs and 1 serif.

Dan,
Man, you really jumped on that one! Thanks for doing the research on a lazy Sunday! Maybe you should somehow wiki this stuff? GOOD WORK!

ChrisL

It’s Sunday? :-/

> There are two categories of 20, text and headline.

The question is, what’s the relative sales amount of the two lists?
Is the showing of two lists perhaps a way to present a more varied
picture than there really is?

hhp

Maybe you should somehow wiki this stuff?

Yeah, I thought about that, too. Here you go: FAQ Best Selling Fonts

TP may stand for typography but I am glad you got your wikiup Dan :-)

ChrisL

Best seller lists are more revealing about single-font trends, and scripts tend to be single.

For instance, at Myfonts, a single sale of a large font family to a multi-user licence would not register on the top 50, but if they did things by dollar value, or multiplied the number of fonts in the package by the number of licences users, then it probably would.

Veer promoted my new typeface Nicholas last year, with a full page in their catalog, and with a front-page main banner ad online. It’s a serif design (the category trailing scripts and sans), and I think we’re both happy with the resulting sales, although it didn’t make the top 18 (BTW, why not 20, was #19 unmentionable?)

> being only one sale, it didn’t even crack the top 50.

They don’t account for any multiplicity
in the licensing when they do the stats?

> why not 20, was #19 unmentionable?

Maybe there was a large statistical drop between positions 18 and 19?
But that’s unlikely I guess.

hhp

They don’t account for any multiplicity
in the licensing when they do the stats?

They might allow for some; I’m not sure how they do it, and I shouldn’t really say, due to supplier-distributor confidentiality.

> why not 20, was #19 unmentionable?

To be completely honest, we only featured 18 top typefaces, because our thumbnail display grid is divisible by 6. It makes for a tidier presentation. I suppose we could have bumped it up to the top 24 faces, but then it would open up the discussion to ’what happened to number 25?’

> They don’t account for any multiplicity in the licensing when they do the stats?

Our stats do not include additional licensing numbers. The top seller lists that we publish include only unit sales, not multi-seat or multi-device licensing.

Phil’s Fonts top selllers in 2005

http://www.philsfonts.com/newsletter/news0106.html - bottom of page

Really no surprises in the top 10. Of course promotions help create ranking.

Ralph

Thanks Ralph! and howdy neighbor (I live in Falls Church).

ChrisL