Typophile

Neil Bold

Jas0 votes

Hi everybody, I'm posting my topic because I've never sold a font yet and I don't know anything about licences. I've found in my cupboard some old letraset press-type fonts. I've decided to digitalize the Neil Bold by scanning it for a school magazine that I'm creating now. Then I realize that a lot of people was looking for this font on the Internet and they asked me if I'll sell it. The problem is that it was already digitalized by OPTIFonts but they aren't selling it anymore. There is also a "based on" font which is Alejandro Paul’s Mobley Sans but generally it stray far from the look of Neil Bold. Now I'm wondering that if none is selling it and if I digitalized it from the original letraset, do I have the right to propose my font to a foundry ?

Thanks in advance.

PDF icon neil.pdf
Tiffany Wardle0 votes

IIRC Monotype owns the rights to Neil Bold now. I could be wrong. But if someone does own the rights to it I'd steer clear.

paul d hunt0 votes

tiff, can you give a source for that info? i'm interested in finding out more about Neil Bold and it's origins as well.

{edit}
found a bit on the veer site in reference to Mobley:
http://www.veer.com/products/typedetail.aspx?image=UMT0000016#about

So this was originally a VGC face by Wayne Stettler.

Tiffany Wardle0 votes

So I guess the question now is, "Has Wayne updated his copyright or did someone buy them from him?"

Thomas Phinney0 votes

At least very recently, the rights to VGC fonts were still privately held (by some random investors and not by a type foundry).

T

Jas0 votes

I've heard about an american compagny who is asking some famous type designers to digitalize a huge data base of old fonts so maybe the neil bold is one of them...

The problem is that I can't find a way to contact someone from VGC : /

green_child0 votes

I just discovered a company that sells Neil Bold as Neilson:

http://www.retroadart.com/retrofonts.html#

Stephen Coles0 votes

wall clock with Neil Bold numbers - 0 bids, ends at noon (PDT)!

paul d hunt0 votes

And Canada Type has released their version of it:
http://www.canadatype.com/showfont.php?id=195

Tomi from Suomi0 votes

With this evidence; if you've made your own version of Neil Bold, and not simply done some copying and pasting, it seems you are in the clear. You just have to think of a new name.

James Montalbano0 votes

Back in 1978 I bought some Chartpak transfer lettering that was named Vector. The name of the magazine I was working on at the time. It seemed like the perfect set of letterforms for our logo. I found out a few years later that Chartpak's Vector was VGC's Neil Bold. So as long as you don't use the trademarked name I can't see a problem as long as you don't mind being a derivative pirate.

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