Type Business — TypeDrawers

Industry Letter to Copyright Office - Please Share

Stuart Sandler — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 19:03:56 +0000

Frank Martinez of the Martinez Group PLLC is known throughout the font industry as "The Font Lawyer" and for decades has been the champion for font copyright IP protection for fonts. I offered to share his request to this forum in the hopes that many of my fellow US based font creators will reach out to him directly to participate.

From Frank:
"I am working with Monotype on an industry letter (on behalf of US based font foundries) that we will be sending to the Copyright Office and for use in legislative lobbying. The purpose of the letter is to urge the Copyright Office to return to a policy of granting copyrights for font software and to inform the Congress how the loss of the ability to protect font software is harming the font industry."

Those wishing to participate should e-mail Frank directly at fm@martinezgroup.com with the name of the foundry/foundries and the name of the person who is authorizing the inclusion of the foundry name(s) as part of this industry letter - which I am participating in on behalf of all of my font foundries in support of this initiative.

DTL Van den Keere text italic?

Joshua Langman — Fri, 08 May 2020 15:04:28 +0000

Dear TypeDrawers community,

I'm a typographer and a book designer, and a longtime reader of this forum. I used to be active on Typophile, and I recognize many of the current contributors from there. I have a very specific question that I hope someone here can help with.

I’m interested in licensing DTL Van den Keere for a book design project, but I am unable to verify that the family includes an italic in the text cut. As you can see in the screenshots attached here, the relevant page of the specimen, entitled “Roman und Italic Text Regular” showcases the roman but has a blank space where the italic is apparently supposed to be. The various dropdown menus on the DTL sites (both of them) omit the text italic from the list of styles. I can find no sample of the italic in the text cut, nor even any confirmation that it exists. However, this style does show up in the online store for purchase. But I hesitate to purchase a font that I cannot first see.

I e-mailed DTL about this a week ago, but having heard nothing, I’m hoping maybe someone else can help me figure this out. I would be very happy to go ahead and license the face for this project, provided I can find a specimen of the text italic first.

Thank you to all for any assistance you can provide.

[I've categorized this as "type business," which is my best guess of topic, but feel free to move it.]

Josh

Font licensing violation, what's possible options for getting compensation?

Xiaoyuan — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 10:42:42 +0000

Hello typedrawers,

I'm new here, and today I just discovered my typeface is used by big stationary shop without any license purchased... [ here ]I have sent them an email and comment on instagram in a very respectful and friendly way, but they have been deleting my comments. So I'm here to ask what's your experience, tips in order to get financial compensations on this kind of things?

Thank you anyways!

Trade dress lawsuit for ice cream brands – question about fonts as logos

Adam Ladd — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 15:59:57 +0000

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/article/the-mistake-that-cost-rebel-creamery-238-million-and-pushed-it-into-bankruptcy-181438719.html

There are various articles discussing this recent event. Some expand on the point that it was the overall 'trade dress' that rendered the successful lawsuit.

If you look in comment sections on sites and social, a number of people just focused on comparing the 'fonts' part of the designs/logos—confused about what's ok or not, and if similar or not.

The case references the overall design executions/shelf presence and a lack of records to show a documented design process by the Rebel brand.

* A tangent, but it does make me consider again how fonts are handled with licensing and execution in terms of logo design/brand marks (e.g. permissions and how 'own-able' they can be).

Curious others thoughts on these matters.

^ a better comparison image from https://www.loeb.com/en/insights/passle/2026/07/court-awards-238-million-over-trade-dress-infringement-claims

Recommendations on building a foundry website

Igor Petrovic — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 23:08:06 +0000

What approach would you recommend for a simple foundry site: coding in HTML/CSS from scratch, CMS like WordPress, website builders, or something else?

A simple foundry site showcasing fonts with the usual type sampler and a few classic pages & functions (blog, about us, FAQ, licensing, newsletter subscription .etc)

Option A: Using external payment processing like Gumroad
Option B: Selling fonts directly from the site

Is wordpress a good idea to create a personal font shop?

Vasil Stanev — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 18:59:14 +0000

Hello all,
I'm new to web design and I plan to set up shop parallel with MyFonts 'cause I'm highly dissatisfied with them taking the lion's share of my sales (and probably also hiding some of the sales so they can pocket them, but that's another story).
I'm currently beginning to search for options to do the store on wordpress before I decide whetehr I should or should not pay a professional to do the job. It's going to have a blog so I can write granular type-related topics to get SEO traction after several months, a shop where clients can pay with a card, paypal, revolut, Wise etc., an About+contacts section, and also I'm gonna throw my graphic design portfolio there because every other designer I talk to says Behance is pretty much become unfashionable.
Does this sound like a good plan? Suggestions welcome.

Type games

Ofir Shavit — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 01:37:04 +0000

Hi,

While thinking about ways to market my multilingual typefaces, I decided to build a few small type games that would be fun on their own and also let people interact with the fonts.

The result is a page with five lightweight typographic games. It is still a draft, but I felt like sharing it.

Any feedback is welcome.

I’d also like to suggest a small portrait challenge using game 05 (Letter Canvas): make a portrait and post it here. Let’s see some creativity

Corporate rip-off of my design

Jasper de Waard — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:35:56 +0000

Hi everyone,

While in the UK recently, I came across a retailer with 100+ stores at prime locations that uses a poorly edited version of my Proza Display as their logo. A quick search showed that they also use it in some other contexts, but I'm not sure how extensively.

This is obviously a violation of my EULA, and in contrast to this hopeless case, I believe I am likely owed some money here. To be clear: this involves a different modification of my design (using a different weight of Proza Display).

I am unsure how to proceed. I have not contacted the retailer yet, as I am unsure what to tell them. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

In particular, I'd like to know:
- Recommendations for more legally-oriented people to consult with
- How I can potentially estimate the damages this has cost me
- Whether it is a terrible idea to offer them my design services (for a good price + part of the damages) as a kind of settlement.

I'm not dragging their name through the mud here until I've spoken to them, in case anyone is wondering.

Thank you in advance!

Jasper

Blatant rip-off: a story

Jasper de Waard — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 23:22:08 +0000

Hi people!

I saw a van with a logo that looked like it used my Proza Display. I like it when my typefaces are used. I was happy.

I checked their website and saw that my typeface had been butchered. I emailed the company to ask who designed this. Not so happy.

Designer got back to me. Told me I was mistaken. Told me I could not even recognize my own typeface. He had used an entirely different font called Xillian. Uhoh...

I compared the outlines of Xillian and Proza Display Bold. Some letters perfectly overlapped, some with a few tweaks, and some quite different (e.g. M and N, the most ugly ones). Overall: clear rip-off.

I googled Xillian. Turns out this dude is actually pretending that he made a typeface. And he's even selling the 'full version' (whatever that means) for $50.

It's so ugly. So badly done. So pathetic.

What to do, what to do...

Xillian: https://www.behance.net/gallery/135423081/Xillian-Font-Free-Download
Proza Display: https://bureauroffa.com/about-prozadisplay

Fontspring foundry support – anyone else having trouble reaching them?

Andreas Seidel — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:36:48 +0000

I have been trying for several weeks to get a response from Fontspring's foundry support (foundries@fontspring.com). Does anyone have an alternative email address or some advice on how to get in touch? Thanks in advance!

Gumroad?

Russell McGorman — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 01:51:25 +0000

How is it as sales platform for type?

Advice on Advertising?

theorosendorf — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 18:14:01 +0000

I’m starting a daily email newsletter on type. It’s growing steadily and I’m humbled by the interest so far. We plan to launch Winter 2025.

I have some questions (and slight ambivalence) about running ads. Above all else we want to honor reader sensibilities, but this thing also needs to operate as a business. So we plan to run some non-obtrusive ads under/after the content.

Here are my questions but would love any input on the topic.

Have you seen good examples of newsletters (or print zines) that include tasteful, relevant, useful ads that don’t alienate readers?

As a reader, what kind of ad placement or formats are you okay with?

Of course I have lots of ideas, but what kind of advertisers would you like to see in a newsletter about typography?

Also, if you liked the content but not the ads, would you pay $3/mo to not have ads?

Appreciate any insight. Especially from anyone who’s done something similar in this space.
🙏

Fontdue. No Paypal?

Supherb — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:54:25 +0000

I’m really frustrated right now. I genuinely loved the Fontdue platform, but after investing a lot of time and money into building my website, I later discovered that they don’t support PayPal for client payments in the U.S.

That’s a huge setback for me and honestly has killed my motivation to keep working on the site. From my experience, most people I know here primarily use PayPal rather than the other payment options available.

Does anyone know of a simple workaround to integrate PayPal with a Fontdue site? If not, are there any alternative platforms similar to Fontdue that do support it?

Thanks!

The Forge, a CMS built for type foundries

octavio — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:58:04 +0000

I’m Octavio Pardo and I run Ashler, a design and development studio focused on brand and digital craft. For years we’ve worked alongside type designers and foundries, helping shape their brands, build their websites, and translate the complexity of type into clear, high-performing digital experiences. That close collaboration has given us a front-row seat to a recurring problem: selling fonts online is still far harder than it should be.

The problem: selling type through generic e‑commerce

When a foundry tries to sell through generic e‑commerce, it usually turns into a patchwork of half-solutions: licensing forced into product variants, pricing logic squeezed into the wrong constraints, plugins piled on, custom code everywhere, and a buying flow that doesn’t match how people browse type families in the real world. The result is that you’re constantly adapting your work to a system that doesn’t understand it, and your website becomes a parallel technical project, which is exactly what it shouldn’t be.

A foundry doesn’t sell “files”

Because a foundry doesn’t sell “files.” It sells releases, specimen pages, updates, bug fixes, support, invoicing, VAT, renewals, and all the licensing edge cases that appear as soon as you have real customers. And when you try to handle all of that on platforms built for t‑shirts or online courses, you end up simplifying your offer just to make it fit the checkout, instead of building an experience that respects your business model.

What changes with The Forge

The Forge is built to change that dynamic. It’s a platform designed specifically for foundries: so licensing can match the way you work (your rules, your prices, your terms), and so the buying experience stays smooth and reliable when someone is ready to purchase. Because at that moment, performance isn’t a detail: it is part of the product. If the cart feels slow, sessions reset, tabs go out of sync, or checkout feels fragile, what you lose isn’t “a conversion.” You lose trust.

The Forge Mini (in progress)

Right now we’re building The Forge Mini, an entry version that starts with a solid base and lets you add customizations and features over time through an affordable monthly fee. The goal is to create a clear growth path: so a foundry can scale progressively without a big upfront investment, and once the project reaches a defined break point, there should be no reason to keep paying a monthly fee. If you want updates, you can join the newsletter to stay in the loop.

Learn more

https://theforge.ashler.design/

Do me a favor — test my website access

Igor Petrovic — Sat, 30 May 2026 22:28:29 +0000

I would like to kindly ask TD members to try opening my studio (foundry) website, and send me feedback, here or in DM. No detail testing needed, just if the website homepage is accessible without any warnings or errors:

https://nostalgicdolphin.com/

Alternatively, you can vote here, if it is easier than writing a comment or DM:
https://strawpoll.com/B2ZB9OqNBgJ

BACKGROUND:

I would avoid bothering you with non-type matter, but I am trying to solve the problem for two weeks now. I renewed my hosting at Namecheap, and seemingly, they put me on another shared server with a bad reputation. Then I started getting feedback from customers that they can't access the site.

I gave my best to solve the issue, with support, added Cloudflare, checked various tools, Google Safe Browsing and Sucuri (both clean), VirusTotal (showed some false positives, removing them one by one with reports), checked my site completely, and scanned it with Wordfence.

Now I need to mass test it, because I already thought twice I solved it, just to appear again. This is the only communication channel I am active on. I would understand if this is a noise thread (admins feel free to remove it in that case).

Thanks!
—I

Does someone here trade in Adobe, MyFonts or other similar stocks?

Vasil Stanev — Thu, 14 May 2026 21:37:42 +0000

Does someone here trade in Adobe, MyFonts or other similar stocks?

Tool for indie foundries: Finding where your fonts are being used on the web

Lars Schwarz — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:21:00 +0000

Hi all,

I've been building a tool for independent type designers — a way to see where your fonts are being used across the public web — and I'd like to share what I'm aiming at and hear whether it lines up with what you'd actually find useful.

A few principles that have shaped the direction, informed by the recent FontRadar thread and conversations with designers I've worked with in the past:

You keep the customer relationship. The tool never contacts anyone on your behalf. No emails signed in your name, no legal letters, no outreach campaigns you didn't approve. A license inquiry is a conversation with a potential customer — you're the right person to have it.

Discovery first, enforcement if you want it. Most of what gets found won't be infringement. It'll be real uses of your work — for your portfolio, case studies, social posts, or just the quiet pleasure of knowing. Licensing gaps are one signal among many, not the whole product.

No font uploads, no customer database required. The tool identifies your fonts from what's already on the public web — including subsetted and renamed versions. You never hand over your catalog or your sales data. If you want to cross-reference against legitimate customers, you do that locally.

Flat monthly pricing. A predictable fee covers detection and the dashboard. If you use the tool to sell a license to an infringing site, I take a small processing fee on that transaction only. No contingency cuts on recovered revenue, no percentage of settlements you handled yourself, no contracts that penalize you for growing.

Honest coverage. I'm actively crawling a large pool of domains, prioritizing sites with real traffic, and expanding coverage as the project grows. I find a lot. I don't find everything. I'd rather tell you upfront if your library looks like it sits mostly outside my reach than take your money on a bet that doesn't work out.

I'd rather talk to the people who'd actually use something like this than keep building in isolation. If any of this resonates — or if there's something obvious I'm underestimating — I'd value hearing from you.

Happy to talk privately as well if you'd rather.

Lars

Optical sizes for icon fonts for the web

Vasil Stanev — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 05:40:42 +0000

Currently it dawned on me that icon fonts can be made to have optical sizes to help UX with desktop webpage resizing and mobile. There seems to be a Google font just for that but beyond that I couldn't find others (nor did I search tooo hard lol ) Has someone here done such a type of font, are there highly marketable, or not so much, or not at all? I am thinking mostly custom work for business clients that want things like their logo to be turned into a company font (I've done this, but only for a static font) + and added suite of icons for their in-house materials.

Monotype Exchange rates

Miles Newlyn — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:01:13 +0000

Does anyone have any thoughts on why Monotype prices have sterling:dollar parity? The exchange rate 1:1.35 is far from equal.

Commissioned Retail Font: questions/seeking advice

Brian Dove — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 21:46:58 +0000

Hey y'all,

First, if there is an existing thread on this topic, feel free to point me in that direction, but I couldn't find anything that helped with the exact scenario I'm curious about.

I've been contacted by someone interested in commissioning a typeface that they will use for their brand as well as sell on a few different platforms. Their budget is fairly low ($3-5k, scope is 7-8 weights with matching italics) so they are pitching this as a sort of "retail font collab" project (i.e. I get paid some $ for making the typeface, and also get some sort of royalty split and/or distribution rights). This is not a type foundry, but they do have one other typeface they distribute on a few platforms (another brand font, so I'd imagine it was a similarly structured project).

We haven't discussed details about rights, distribution, or royalties yet so I am here to see if anyone else has tackled a similar project. Curious about your thoughts on what royalty share and/or distribution rights seems reasonable for that budget, and any other advice on structuring this kind of project.

Thanks in advance!

Where's my 1099 at MyFonts?

Michael Wallner — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 21:16:39 +0000

I can’t seem to figure out where to find my 1099 tax form on MyFonts. I’ve reached out to them, but it’s been more frustrating than helpful, so I’m hoping someone here can help me.

Thanks

Announcing Type Advisor

Doug Wilson — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:48:03 +0000

ADVERTISEMENT

---

Working and being friends with so many type designers in the industry, I have noticed that often why you got into type design was, well, to design type. Not to make a website. Not to market a font. Not to figure out a social media strategy.

With this in mind, today I am announcing the launch of my new company: Type Advisor.

I’ve had a unique and varied career trajectory, but the one constant for the past 20 years has been typography. I’ve helped creatives at global companies choose the right type for the right audience at enterprise scale. I’ve worked with a dozen independent type foundries as well as the biggest distributors.

So I am taking my experience in design, advertising, filmmaking, writing, creative direction, and hard-earned type industry knowledge to create a service for creators and users of type.

I bring an outside perspective from actual users of type and a deep understanding of the ever-changing industry and now, you can utilize my expertise to make your life easier.

---

Perhaps you’re a type designer confident in your design skills but unsure how to market your fonts or where to best sell them for future growth?

I’ve got you.

Perhaps you’re a growing type foundry that has seen some modest success but understands you need help to get to that next level of sustainability?

I’ve got you.

---

If this is something that sounds interesting or if you just need an outside perspective from someone that intimately knows type but isn’t a “competitor” since I am not a type designer, please visit typeadvisor.com and schedule a free 30 minute call to discuss ideas.

Zero obligation, reasonable fees, and as much (or as little) type-nerd talk as you desire.

Commercial Support For Type

Scott Briggs — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 09:32:44 +0000

Hi All

After 10 year with The Northern Block as Head of Operations, I am starting up on my own helping Type Designers/Foundries with the commercial side of the business.

The aim is simple: help foundries handle licensing opportunities confidently and convert enquiries into well-structured, higher-value agreements.

Many foundries regularly receive licensing enquiries from agencies, brands, and software companies, but responding to those requests, evaluating the opportunity, and structuring the right commercial terms can take significant time alongside design and production work.

I will be operating on a retainer plus commission model, and I hope this approach will allow foundries to know they can access experienced licensing and commercial expertise without needing to build an internal business development or licensing function.

Areas where I will typically can provide support include:

• Assessing and responding to incoming licensing enquiries
• Structuring appropriate licensing terms for agencies, brands, and enterprise clients
• Supporting negotiations for extended or enterprise licences
• Advising on commercial positioning of existing libraries
• Helping formalise licensing agreements and partnership discussions

If additional support around licensing enquiries or commercial discussions would be useful, I would be happy to arrange a short introductory conversation; or you can email me
hello@font-license.com

Thank you all for reading!
Scott

Custom fonts that blend two existing typefaces — any other examples?

Raven — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:16:21 +0000

Recently saw the release of Nebula Sans, a custom font for Nebula TV that serves as a close alternative to Whitney ScreenSmart, but the drawing is based on Source Sans 3. It's also released as an open source family.

This got me thinking — are there other examples of a custom typeface where the brief is essentially "take the drawing of Font A and adjust it to resemble Font B"?

I don't recall seeing this kind of dual-influence acknowledged so openly in type documentation before. Would love to hear if others have come across similar cases.

AI.com was reportedly sold for 70 million USD.

Typedesigner — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 08:41:16 +0000

AI.com reportedly sold for 70 million USD.

Just two letters: AI.

As a type designer, I find this fascinating. Two characters, maximum meaning. The combination lends itself naturally to distinctive lettering, bold logos, or refined monograms.

It’s also worth noting the historical context: the AI.com domain was originally registered in 1993, when the internet was still in its infancy.

Sources: DomainNameWire, ICANN

Your experience with Lemon Squeezy...

Tural Alisoy — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:47:28 +0000

Hello. What is your experience with Lemon Squeezy? Has anyone used it? I want to use it to sell my fonts.

Embroidery fonts

Yves Michel — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 15:46:17 +0000

Hello,
While searching for my fonts on pirate sites, I found one of my fonts on a site, used for embroidery by a small business, under a different name.

I searched sites with theses BX fonts and found many well known fonts, sometimes under names different from the original TTF or OTF ones. I understand some very expensive software convert TTF to BX.

Are those BX fonts retailers authorized to sell them without paying for a licence? And I didn't see them mentioning the original designers.

fontke.com - Evolved piracy!

fabrizioschiavi — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 08:32:49 +0000

Do you already know this strange “distributor”?
Every user is incentivated to upload fonts to obtain credits to download other fonts.
I don't believe some of you authorized this kind of “distribution” in this way but if you looking for one of your fonts you’ll see it on the results of your search.
Take a look at https://en.fontke.com/

How we can stop something like that?

Need a Foundry Website? Font Bros Has You Covered!

Stuart Sandler — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 17:10:48 +0000

Oftentimes we’re asked the question, “What value does a distributor bring to the table for the percentage they keep?” Sometimes it’s eyeballs, sometimes it’s handling license upgrades, but rarely is it something tangible that can really help foundries.

Building and maintaining a foundry website takes a lot of work, from adding new fonts to ongoing maintenance, and it’s an ongoing expense - especially for smaller foundries who would rather focus their efforts on creating fonts instead of running a website.

We felt there was a better way to help foundries and created our free “Powered by Font Bros” websites for any Font Bros foundry who wants their own site. We’ve spent a few years in development and testing and have slowly been rolling this out with select foundry partners, and we’re pleased to announce it publicly.

Here are a few we recently launched:

Your “Powered by Font Bros” foundry website automatically pulls all of your font listings from your library at Font Bros and dynamically builds your very own branded site that automatically updates whenever you add new fonts or make changes to the listings in your Font Bros Foundry Portal.

Visitors can browse your fonts, test them out with a live “Test Drive” feature, and then click over to Font Bros to complete the purchase. These sites will be in a constant cycle of upgrades as we continue to release new features, so they will automatically get new features as we roll them out!

So what’s the catch? There is no catch! We want to help our foundries generate more income and help them focus on creating more great fonts instead of running their foundry website.

There’s gotta be a catch… How much more will you guys take out of my royalty? ZERO! You get the exact same 65% from EVERY online sale and license we negotiate on your behalf. There is no charge for the setup or hosting of the website, but we only allow the purchase links to go to Font Bros.

Ready to get started? We'd love to hear from you!

An informal research poll regarding type designers

Igor Petrovic — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 23:58:03 +0000

I have a premise I would like to explore: that a typical type designer is a younger child in their family, meaning they usually have older siblings.

I made a very informal poll to see what the numbers look like:
https://strawpoll.com/e7ZJarP8Mg3

The poll isn’t scientific. For example, by family logic, there are naturally more younger siblings than oldest children. I’m just curious about general trends, not trying to draw firm conclusions.

This idea ties into broader questions about how family structure might influence personal and social choices. Relevant research seems to find no strong correlation, but I notice some patterns in everyday life. For instance, I’m a younger child, and many of my closest friends are too.

An important note is that this isn’t about stereotypes. It’s just a fun, informal look at a possible pattern.