Designed very quickly by Bradtastic Brad Chin on the iPad using Sketchbook Pro. Copyright © 2010 — don’t steal art… even bad stuff.
Typography represents language directly; it’s the art of setting type. Modern fonts are so convenient; even restricted to less than one dozen web fonts at the turn of the millenium, the average person could detect distinct differences between Times New Roman and Helvetica/Arial.
Fonts make words come alive.
Great text can sit on a page, dull and boring — distasteful even — and still have great power, meaning and purpose. The difference is, set properly, words on a page become more; attaining and almost ineffable quality, something similar to the magic that happens when a great script is given to an incredible actor.
Finding a font could be considered similar to finding an actor to play a part — the role remains even without a star. A stand-in could work just fine — laymen might not even notice. Art, however, demands more.
Writing as a tradition, a prime element of culture and history, even on a blog.
Reading The Cult of the Amateur changed my stance on blogs and blogging as a pastime for the masses. Publishing, due to its inherent cost, was limited before the computer revolution. Type was carefully set, text was proofread, words were carefully chosen and fonts were limited.
Our time now is one where free font making software can be downloaded by any amateur and a plethora of sub-par, incomplete and broken fonts can be purchased for next-to-nothing. Many fonts are given away — worse, many are stolen.
Piracy of any artistic endeavor diminishes our future. Artists need to make a living just like everyone else; when music is stolen, movies are torrented or fonts are downloaded and traded illegally, many creatives stop creating. The quality of art descends holistically. These damaging actions aren’t usually malicious or intentional, but the consequences remain.
Piracy, specifically of fonts. (too broad a subject in general)
The completion of a proper, complete, well-crafted OpenType font (the best format, in my opinion) is quite an achievement. It takes careful craftsmanship, refinement, testing, modification… and finally it can be published. It might take a typographer one year to create a single font set — the letters and ligatures themselves are art. Using the font without paying for it is akin to stealing an image and using it, or relabeling a piece of music to claim ownership over another’s music, lyrics, and voice. It’s disheartening to see stolen art used for commercial purposes, and it’s absolutely pitiful that so many people are unaware of it.
Most people believe that they have the right to earn a living, especially here in America or in other major nations, but the anonymity of the Internet makes it easy to take from others for personal gain.
For the beauty of it.
I hope that others take a moment to appreciate language and the written word, especially in this age of video and high-fidelity audio. Keyboards are replacing pens, but when are keyboards going to be replaced? Eventually, we’ll speak to our computers to issue commands — beyond that, our thoughts alone will carry out machine functions. I cherish the opportunities I have to enjoy the beauty of a printed page, and I hope devices such as the Kindle encourage others to keep print from becoming a thing of the past. I have handwritten journals that will likely survive intact longer than the hard-drives of my current computers — there’s something wonderful about that. In its essence, typography represents our history as we want to remember it and present it.
American newspapers generally use serif fonts — European publications tend toward sans-serif. This simple difference of type-style represents large cultural differences… so elegantly.
Proper punctuation, spelling and grammar shouldn’t be cast aside. Our keyboard shortcuts, slang and 140-character limit “tweets” are changing English in ways difficult to predict. These trends will spread to other languages, and communication will adjust — it will advance, or dissolve. Language should adapt and change, but personally, I like a language with rules and etiquette.
A simple way to support type.
First, make sure you buy your fonts legally.
Obviously, don’t steal fonts. There are many ways to buy fonts, on-and-offline, but not all sources are legal. Buy from reputable sources. If you find a font discounted more than 40% — beware. If you’re looking for some really great stuff, check out Linotype and Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Also, a favorite of mine, Adobe offers an amazing collection called Font Folio 11. [all Bradtastic Approved!]
Don’t let others use your fonts.
Basically, don’t let other people steal fonts. Most fonts aren’t “purchased” — they’re licensed — meaning the creator or foundry maintains rights over the font, and when you “buy” it, you’re buying the rights to use the font. The license agreement will likely specify what you can and can’t do with the font.
Spread the love.
Share this with others; hopefully there are people out there who like writing and reading, and enjoy nice-looking type. Explain why it’s important to respect the rights and work of the typographers and artists who spend so much effort, energy and money to create these wondrous letters, and tell them what the rules are.
There’s also a great, simple way to share new and amazing fonts online — Typekit. I won’t go into too much detail here — there’s an about page — basically, the type designers are paid, and Typekit code allows splendid, unique fonts to display on most major browsers as highlightable, regular text. The days of using images for fancy fonts are over; they’re even figuring out how to get this tech to work on mobile browsers like the iPad and iPhone. For an example of Typekit in action, check out Bradtastic Defined, my very personal site. I need to re-familiarize myself with coding first, but I’m planning on implementing Typekit fonts on all of my sites.
Please, share your thoughts; comment, ask questions…
and definitely share your favorite fonts with me!
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