How is the font going to be used? What type of project? Say setting a flyer, you'll easily save $15 of time with a well spaced font, that you'd otherwise have to spend getting the freeware font to work.

Cheers, Si

PS Your myspace says you're self employed, so if "Immediate application of this would be presenting it to my boss with a proposal to purchase a font" is accurate maybe it's not font advice you need ;-)

$30 for one font or $150 for a family seems like a bargain to me. And you can get lots of great faces in that price range.

Here it is: assume that it takes at least 100 hours of design per weight. Get yer boss to 'do the math'!

—K

Many thanks for the input.

Currently I am both employed and I run a design business on the side. This particular circumstance applies to the occupation to which I am employed (prepressman).

I suppose more of an answer to my question would be, "Where would I find a collection of information explaining some of the processes and consideration when developing a commercial typeface?" I understand that I would likely be able to find that here, but I was wondering if there was a location in specific (a thread here, for instance) that someone had explained it in-depth.

Font prices, like everything else, are determined by market forces.

When Adobe began selling digital fonts in the late eighties, a two-font package (the smallest package they offered) was $145. This is $72.50 per font, or about $113 per font in 2005 dollars. Since then, font prices have dropped considerably. Today, most single fonts are sold for $20-$40 each. Purchased in multi-font packages, the price per font is even lower.

Incidentally, although it does take a lot of work to create a font, that's not what determines the price. A movie costs millions of dollars to make, but you only pay $8 to see it. The reason is that millions of other people will pay to see it, too. The font market is much smaller in comparison, probably in the tens of thousands of potential customers. Everyone else just uses fonts they get for free or bundled with software or whatever happens to be installed on their computers. Everyone who has a computer uses fonts, but only a small percentage actually buy fonts. These are mainly professionals, who understand the value a unique font can add to their work and consider the cost of a font just part of doing business, like using FedEx or buying equipment. For these people, font prices are not high at all.

Finally, the reason you see fonts everywhere is because, by nature, they are designed to be reproduced. There is no limit to how often a single font installed on a single computer may be seen on books, magazines, tv, movies, packages, websites, video games, etc. It just depends on the kind of work being produced on that computer. You just never know.

See also this:

http://www.typophile.com/node/15647

> He doesn’t see why, when fonts are everywhere, why one should have to pay $15+ for one.

This is an unfortunate mind-set that is pervasive throughout this new age of digital distribution. It affects all forms of intellectual property that has been made readily accessible on the Internet; music, literature, motion pictures, photography, illustrations, typefaces, and the list goes on.

I will make no attempt at giving an explanation to give to your boss or clients. But to put it simply AND mildly -- readily accessible DOES NOT EQUAL available for free!

The price of a font and the value of a typeface are two different things. What unfortunately has happened within the type industry itself, is that well-known reputable font development companies joined up with hardware/software development companies twenty years ago and began bundling libraries of type with PCs, Macs, printers, software packages, etc., resulting in the proliferation of the "fonts for free" notion and devaluation of font software.

This all happened BEFORE type development programs became available to run on simple PC/Mac platforms... so the excuse that cheap fonts and free and pirated fonts were the original cause of the problem -- it wasn't so.

The "bigger" foundries initiated the proliferation of "free fonts" and the smaller type developers of the past ten years are almost crippled by it. The current habit of novice and hobbiest type designers releasing their designs at little to no cost keeps exacerbating the problem.

I have no solution to what is already out there, but just because one particular typeface may cost $15 doesn't determine the value of ALL typefaces. Just like a pair of classic men's Gucci loafers will cost anywhere from 20 to 50 times more than loafers from Payless.

Added Value is the name of the game.

Firstly, there is perceived value: when everyone else is using the same fonts and your work stands out with special typography, that's worth something extra in the marketplace. To you, to your employer, to the client.

Having a library of non-standard fonts, and knowing how to use them, is a value that a designer/design firm brings to any client relationship. Note that Mr Cheese advertises his font library on his web site; it is a benefit of doing business with him.

Fonts that come bundled with applications or operating systems don't add value, because they are over-exposed.

Secondly, working with fonts acquired for a specific design project helps create design synergy, which is more productive than wringing your brain for the big idea that will add life to otherwise hackneyed-looking typography. Fonts have formal qualities which can be leveraged to drive design concepts.

"Free" fonts don't add value because they lack typographic sophistication: it's difficult to do good work with poor tools.

Fonts have formal qualities which can be leveraged to drive design concepts.

This is certainly true, very well put. Good comes from good; good inspires better.

why exactly typefaces cost as much as they do

What your boss lacks is perspective. When he (or she) travels on business, does he/she fly coach, or does he/she fly first class, or even business class? Is there a difference in price? Why do first class and business class cost as much as they do?

If the average businessperson were capable of writing clear, concise and forceful prose without resorting to the standard formula of bullsh*t-bullsh*t-buzzword-bullsh*t--buzzword, then the choice of the typeface used in a proposal or presentation wouldn't be such a big deal: the force of the ideas presented, not the bling used to present them, would carry the day. Unfortunately, the VAST majority of business proposals and presentations which I have seen follow the standard formula to the letter: all style and no substance. As a result, the average businessperson needs all the window dressing that he or she can get (regardless of price) to disguise his/her lack of originality, insight and content. I hope that this answer meets or exceeds your expectations.

Nick, have you considered a career in marketing?

> why exactly typefaces cost as much as they do

There are several issues at play here, and as an ex-type-and-font marketing person, I haven't seen much innovative or inspiring progress in increasing the perceived value of typefaces as design tools.

What I mean is, the typeface as it stands on it's own DESIGN merit, and not on font technology (OT, addition of alternates, special characters, integration with software capabilities, etc.).

Though I am not currently employed to do any type marketing, it remains a personal mission of mine to increase the value of type as designs and typography as practice. Hopefully, by the time TypeCon 2006 comes around, several of us will be willing to take on new, innovative and inspiring approaches to offset the fonts have little value mind-set of the general type using marketplace (the Great Unwashed).

I've hashed out several TONS of --
- Type helps the message
- Type makes you stand out
- Type grabs the reader
- Type can influence the mind
- Type makes it SEXY
etc.

Time for something truly new!

This same "battle" is faced by designers, illustrators, photographers, etc. Placing a true measurable value on creative and design arts is tough, and at the end of the day some people just won't get it, no matter how hard you try...

If it's a high quality font, a lot of work goes into it. I think this piece I wrote on font quality might help you educate your boss on the topic.

http://blogs.adobe.com/typblography/2005/12/quality_in_type.html

Regards,

T

Thomas,
I just visited your blog. Good piece of work. I will have to remember to go there more often.

ChrisL

"I need assistance in developing a concise statement of why exactly typefaces cost as much as they do. "

Since typefaces don't all cost one thing, it's hard to concisely say why they cost what they do. Your boss should understand the relationship between pricing and availability/functionality. Many fonts are free, or come with OS, Applications, or other acts of bundling, and through their wide availability, they are not likely to produce distinctive enough communications for some users. So, less widely distributed fonts may cost $1,000 or more when installed on a network in order serve the particular taste and function of a readership, and none other, and thus be disctinct from the free font crowd.

If he don't yet get it, tell him he can get free clothes at any number of locations in every city in America. So, ask him why he buys clothes.

I'd like to state this more eloquently, but at the moment, the cold remedy pills I took own most of my brain cells today.

• It is easy enough to equate uniqueness and rarety with value. Being "different" is worth something, but misusing distinctive type designs will make most readers turn away from the page as much as any over-used typeface.
• Based on the wannabee factor, ITC was able to set the type buying/specifying market on fire with eye applealing use of type in U&lc. But the truth is you can dress your date like Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt (take your pick) and the common person will still not turn any heads when walking into a restaurant. There is something more to unique typography than just picking typefaces.
• The "workhorse" typefaces are oftened malaligned based on the fact that they have so much utility and stand up under rigorous missuse no matter how many thousand users set jobs with them. But a designer/typographer with unique skills and vision can make Gill Sans look like a $2000 suit.

I hate to keep repeating myself, but tired old reasons to buy type isn't going to improve marketability any more than Wonder Bread's slogan Builds bodies twelve ways does for white bread these days.

A free workhorse typeface can still be made visually interesting--

If you tell perspective font buyers that unique well designed typefaces will make their work stand out from the crowd, you will need to show them, plus give more specific reasons why one particular typeface or family will work better in certain uses than others without resorting to marketingspeak.

You may not be able to convince penny-pinching business people, but you can convince graphic designers that typefaces can add great significance to a piece, just as important as professional or stock photography. The difficultly is in qualifying such claims.

Yet many women buy perfume (and men, cologne) strictly on the hopes of becoming more alluring to others without any guarantees from the perfumery... and cheap perfume has unmistakable connotations.

Norbert, did you buy those cold remedy pills over the counter???

> Norbert, did you buy those cold remedy pills over the counter???

Yeah... but I misread the directions. It read take 2 pills every 6 hours, but I've been taking 6 pills every two hours! Nighty night folks. :-\

Yeah… but I misread the directions. It read take 2 pills every 6 hours, but I’ve been taking 6 pills every two hours! Nighty night folks. :-\

An inspiration to us all.

Thomas: what a great article. Thanks for spending the time to write the piece. I know how long writing can take and it's a pretty neat thing that you can do it at least partly in professional capacity.

Norbert: "...but tired old reasons to buy type isn’t going to improve marketability any more than Wonder Bread’s slogan Builds bodies twelve ways does for white bread these days." Wonder Bread is really good with peanut butter banana and bacon grilled like a cheese sandwich. But that notwithstanding, tired old reasons to buy type isn't going to improve marketability is a useful standpoint.

From a business case point-of-view type is cheaper than logos and effective logos are usually part of an ID system and using unique/appropriate type in a consistent fashion is way cheaper than an ID system. So really compared to other marketing tools, type is relatively cheap.

Type is ubiquitous. So keeping the business case point of view, one can argue that type is insanely economical because you can, and do, use it with relative impunity and people see way more of it than almost all of your other communications and they see it more often. So seen in this light, type is probably one of the most economical marketing expenses ever.

Here's a new one: good type is a great design device, and so if you are doing print communications of any kind, type is more economical and flexible than photography and custom artwork. Present it as a design challenge to the designer in a creative brief. No photos. Just type. Type also reproduces very well in a single colour. Lower copying costs in short run office printing and lower costs in large run press publications.

You can also do object lessons: Take a business letter and remove all the spaces and cpas and punctuation and set it in Courier. Then add spaces, then punctuation, then other adjustments until you have a formatted document. The change the courier to something else like Dolly and something like Frutiger and add some nice leading and spacing. Put them all in a row and say "That's what type can do."

Is this the kind of thing you're talking about?

Jon