Yup, these all look like auto-traces of real fonts, with the usual weak pun names. "Alps" is an especially bad Helvetica, with the traps of the "M" filled in, and a rather ugly "a".

It's too bad they didn't rip off a Centaur, because it would have gone well with my "Digitization quality" comparison in another thread, for comic relief if nothing else.

Another very unappealing feature of the collection is the abundance of "Thin" and "Wide" variants, which are, of course, Smooshed�.

My review: just another collection of hundreds of cheap TT fonts, now with OpenType�! Save your money.

Auto-traced?
Raph, you're far too charitiable!
Auto-tracing would actually require effort.
These bad boys have been weight gained, stretched
and re-named.

These guys will be on the wrong end of a really painful lawsuit.

Clearly we see Estro, Handel Gothic, Benguiat, etc. which leads me to believe with names like Hanzel Gothic, which is so close to the original that chances are they must be aware of the originals and wouldn't have rolled out such a significant offering without licensing the original designs from the rightful owners . . .

I'm afraid I mistyped earlier . . . Upon closer inspection of the Broadway Rip Off font called Brando, they are indeed simply re-scanned, retraced, versions and you can rest assured they may as well cease distribution or claim bankruptcy now . . .

Stuart :D

Well I hope they didn't rip off any of your designs, guys and gals. I only looked at the PDF called classic. It was all I could bear to see.

They all appeared to be 1990 vintage or there abouts . . .

BTW, nice 'Stove' top Daniel :D

Yup, lots of poor quality knockoffs. There's a version of Lithos in there. Offhand, it looks like a trace job; if they did pirate the outlines, they deliberately added points and messed things up in an attempt to disguise the fact.

Wasn't there a guy who posted to Typophile a few months ago who asked for contributions for his forthcoming "commercial" font collection? Prior to that, he had done a CD with a bunch of knock-off fonts for sale dirt cheap in the late 80s early 90s era.

I wonder if this is the same guy? He said he was a software developer who also like marketing fonts.

ChrisL

I found the thread I mentioned above. I can't tell if it is the same guy or just the same mindset in some other guy.
<http://www.typophile.com/forums/messages/30/38336.html?1088304042>

No, that would be this thread:
http://www.typophile.com/forums/messages/30/27295.html

"There is no way I would include any fonts from any developers without getting permission.

If anyone needs to see the "permission", I will gladly provide it.

thanks
macXware "

So based on that, I would say he has permission to make these fonts. no?

Permission from "the developers" who themselves knocked off other peoples' fonts?

He sure as heck doesn't have permission from Adobe to do a knockoff of Lithos (along with mangled stretched and squooshed versions).

T

I should add that their previous collection of 1000 TrueType fonts was very different in content. They looked like mostly shareware or otherwise low-end display stuff. They weren't knockoffs of well-known typefaces from major type foundries.

T

So here's the knock-off thread now
At the Apple Store in SF we were joking about wether the contents of that cheesy designed box would be original rip-offs or just copies. I'm really surprised that these folks get away with it so easily. Looks like a promising business model.

Just like these guys: http://www.livetypecentral.com/cgi-bin/livetypecentral.cgi/resultsprod_livefonts.html?id=okFwnvb7 taking outlines of existing fonts and animating them. Gives the whole motion lettering business a bad name / taste.

fj

Not to get off the subject, but, Stuart, I saw Stovetop being used in an Oscar Meyers Baloney commercial, very cool.

FYI, Looks like they figured out the stuff wasn't legit . . .

http://www.macxware.com/press092104.asp

Stuart :D

PS: Yep, saw the Oscar Mayer commercial and campaign. I'll be adding something to the FD site about that spotting. . . .