You can go here:

http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLineID=100041

and click "test drive" to try the font. If you want to try it in a layout, take a screen shot of the result. This should be enough to decide whether you want to buy the license. Someone else can feel free to correct me, but I do think that asking someone else to typeset something for you in a face you don't have is, at the very least, "ethically grey," even if it's just for a mockup. But a screenshot of the trial on the H&FJ site should work for this purpose.

Quite so.

In any other situation, I would be more than happy with a site's font preview (MyFonts' implementation is exceptional, and House Industries allows for enabling ligatures and alternate characters). However, H&FJ has one of the most restrictive and featureless font previews I have used. If I am going to plunk down $200 for a seat of Forza, I better know pretty well whether or not it is going to work perfectly. At any rate, if this is the best I can get, then I guess I'll try to work with it.

I always use H&FJ's font previewer when I get stuck on a glyph when designing things and then see what their solutions were.

I like being able to turn on or off features, though, and changing the size.

Why not contact H&FJ themselves and see if they can provide a preview that serves your purpose?

The online testing tools are great for this type of thing.

That said, isn't "asking someone to typeset a word for me in a font I don't have" pretty much what the typesetting industry was? I purchase tools to set type. People pay me to set said type. I send over some form of printout/film/etc?

aluminum: that was more or less my opinion on the matter. No matter, I will do the best I can with what I have, I suppose. Thanks all.

You can also use Eurostile :-)

and the spirit of thanksgiving
spread itself all over the land...

-bowerbird

Just as a sidenote: I feel that some people here are a little bit too much on the procedurial side. I do not own Forza myself (I seriously use Eurostile instead...), but if I did, I would send him his word right away, as a kind gesture; I really don't see where is the problem. He's not stealing the type (though he could), he just wants to check it in a good way but doesnt want to put 200 bucks away with a little risk, and I totally understand that.

And about asking H+FJ for a favor, forget about it. Last year I asked them for a photo and some sketches of Gotham for my (then) upcoming book (that is still the bestselling typo book in France btw), and I am still waiting for an answer. They are insanely great type designers, though, among the best. But when it comes to "thanksgiving spirit spreading"...

d.

Providing a modest PNG, GIF, or JPEG would not be any different than the kind of image posting that goes on here at Typophile everyday.

But I would draw a line at sending outlines in EPS or any other format. That’s what gets into the ethically gray area.

That’s my opinion.

bstrom:

It seems that the majority of typophiles agree that there's nothing wrong with this; David's point about image posting is a good one, as is kentlew's distinction between raster and vector images. In light of this, I stand corrected; however, I unfortunately don't own Forza, so can't help you out. Best of luck, though.

Josh

So, anyone have Forza who can make a quick PNG?

It basically looks like nobody bought Forza anyway :-)

http://typophile.com/node/76705

;)

hey bstrom did you get the problem solved, if not contact me I'll see what i can do.

Hi Brendan,

We're working on revised TestDrivers among other things these days, so any constructive thoughts you have would be very welcome. In the meantime, since none of the characters you mentioned have ligatures or alternates, I'd hope that the existing TestDriver we have will help you out. Thanks for considering Forza for your project.

J

p.s. David:

Sorry we weren't able to contribute anything to your book. We get a lot of requests but have limited resources, and unless we can contribute something that actually makes the book better, there's really no point.

J