Right... Steve Job designed Microsoft.

John Downer is right, MyFonts is the Wal-Mart of type. We just have to groan and smile when the deposits go through.

I totally agree that myfonts is the Wal-Mart of type, but the Myfonts.com website is just so much better than fontfont.com and the alikes.

What are the best alternatives then?

Myfonts is the market square of type and is largely responsible for the existence of hundreds of independent foundries, many of which do not have direct retail sales.

I don't know when John Downer made that comment, but I suspect it was before Emigre fonts (his publisher) were distributed by MyFonts.

If you're criticizing a distributor for a manufacturer's ad copy, you have absolutely no understanding of how retail commerce works.

Myfonts is the market square of type…

That was my point in invoking the Wal-Mart comparison.

James, a big box multinational corporation is not a community space.

Right, Nick. MyFonts is more like the farmer's market of type. Pretty much anyone can bring along their produce, rent a table, and sell what they have. The seller, not the market organiser, is ultimately responsible for labelling the chard as kale.

Just passed on the typo to MF.

If MyFonts were like Wal-Mart, they would be telling big companies like ITC things like, "We want you to make some changes to Avant Garde and Futura. The t's of all sans sold through us need to have a tail." And ITC would do it. Because if they want to stay in business, they have to.

As a former employee still on good terms I'm obviously biased, but I'd also agree that Nick & John Hudson's analogy is much more accurate than John Downer & James'.

Also note that any erroneous font articles are publicly correctable (though subject to a review from the MyFonts team before going live).

Yup.

I'm sure John Downer said it as a glib off the cuff remark but calling it a "Walmart" is not only harsh, it presents a false and more benign image of Walmart than it deserves .

If MyFonts were like Wal*Mart there would be a landing page where you'd be greeted by a friendly senior citizen.

:o)
... Who are there because they were laid off by some company that stared outsourcing production to China so they could sell their stuff at Walmart. :o)

If MyFonts is the Walmart of type, then what is vllg? The Whole Foods?

I see the description over at MyFonts has been revised to read, “Universketch is an homage to my favourite font Univers when at design college. Univers is a neo grotesk font by famous Swiss typeface designer Adrian Frutiger.”

Mission complete.

My fonts are like a college student's refrigerator of type. Nobody has access to them except me, and some of them haven't been touched in a while or have developed growths... some are meatloafy-composites and others are aged cheeses...