They cloned the first three letters of my last name too!
http://www.typophile.com/cgibin/show.pl?30/34598
AS

Is this really acceptable?
http://www.designnavigator.daimlerchrysler.com/html/magazine/html/m3_4_0107_e.html

And why does Microsoft, with all its money, resort to this?

Oh, I see: now you're mounting a campaign to restore the credit of your pet font house through the discrediting of others. Sure, that'll work, yeah.

Basically, you still don't get why people despise B, and why that makes total sense.

hhp

Hrant.

Your posts are showing signs of schizophrenia.

they say there's a fine line between genius and insanity.
i wonder if hrant's flirting with this line sometimes. ;^)

I might be slightly insane, but I'm certainly not a genius. On the other hand, I do have the common sense to recognize a rat when I see one. I've personally caught over 20 of them, some as big as Nigel's head.

hhp

"I might be slightly insane."

Hrant you have actually said something that I agree with you.

Microsoft, Agfa Monotype and Linotype are discussing the Segoe/Frutiger issue.

I think MS commissioned the new types in good faith: they certainly didn't ask for a Frutiger clone (indeed, they already license Frutiger Linotype for the MS Reader, and have no need for a clone). Agfa Monotype deny that Segoe is an intentional Frutiger clone, but most people I've spoken to seem to agree that, whatever AM's intent, the result is too similar to Frutiger for comfort. In this respect, I don't think it matters much, certainly not to MS, whether it is an intentional copy or not: the possible PR damage from something that large numbers of people think looks like a copy is reason enough to be concerned.

> the possible PR damage from something that large numbers of people think looks like a copy

?
You think the opinions of type designers really matter in the mainstream?

hhp

John

You raise some interesting issues but this is the third time this has happened with Arial, Book Antiqua and now Segoe. Do you really know that when Microsoft commissioned the new types in good faith that they did not realize what they would be getting?

Also from which sector(s) is the PR damage potentially coming from?

" Microsoft, Agfa Monotype and Linotype are discussing the Segoe/Frutiger issue."

And that's IT!!!

Hrant is right - "You think the opinions of type designers really matter in the mainstream?"


" the possible PR damage from something that large numbers of people think looks like a copy "

Maybe here. Typophile. But not the real world. (maybe - this is sad. But this is the true)



The Lord of The Ring

Frutiger is a much beloved typeface known and used by lots of professional graphic designers, many more of whom are now Windows users than when Book Antiqua hit the personal computer. MS are justifiably concerned about what might written about them in a wide circulation design mag like Print or Communication Arts, especially since negative stories tend to travel. Even the utter stupidity of the claim that Wingdings contains hidden antisemitic messages made it to the New York Times.

I happen to know for a fact that a lot of people at MS are very concerned about the Segoe/Frutiger issue, and are working to resolve it. I wouldn't be saying anything in this thread if all I had to offer was speculation. I work with these people.

John - I'm glad to hear that. As a former news editor and reporter (huge network, and more than 15 years) - this is a story without a story.

Try to clone a book/novel by Paul Auster. or a movie? - The next day you'll have a HUGE headline. But not with a typeface.




The Lord of The Ring