Are printed specimens just fun objects or do they really help sell type?

Diana Ovezea

I always thought printed paper specimens are beautiful things and, as a typographer, I love designing them, studying them, criticizing them, and admiring the work that goes into creating them. As a graphic design student, I loved collecting them.

Realistically, they are expensive to produce and a lot of work to design, though. For those of you who BUY fonts, how do you make your decision? I am willing to guess that you decide online, not based on a specimen you might have received. From those of you who sell fonts over big platforms like MyFonts, FontShop, & co ... did making a printed specimen ever directly help sales? Better yet, do any of you still use the big FontBook?

kupfers

They certainly help to build a name and reputation. I think it is solely through their marvellous printed specimens (+ little videos) and not through their website that I consider using Typonine typefaces for instance. If printed specimens are made well, you keep them and they will lay around at the studio or stand on your shelf looking at you even when you’re not purposefully looking for typefaces. 

In the end, it may not matter too much where and in what medium you present your typeface well, but it definitely always helps to put typefaces into context, show sample text (in different languages) as well as sample applications. Maybe that works just as well with a mini site these days? Or downloadable specimen PDFs? (Typedesigners don’t like these too much anymore but I can tell you that print designers do : )

Kent Lew

Or downloadable specimen PDFs? (Typedesigners don’t like these too much anymore but I can tell you that print designers do : )

Yes! What the heck has happened to PDF specimens lately? Seems like hardly anyone makes them for new releases. I can understand not producing printed specimens except for special circumstances; the cost is quite prohibitive. But I, for one, always look for a PDF. And I am always disappointed when one seems not to be available. Online testers are not a substitute, IMO.

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Diana Ovezea

Or downloadable specimen PDFs? (Typedesigners don’t like these too much anymore but I can tell you that print designers do : )

Oh yes! I forgot about those. Yeah, this is what I provided with my last release. But I have no way of measuring whether this helped. I guess they are a good solution. These super fancy new mini-websites seem to offer almost too much tweaking options (which is fun, but a little gimmicky unless you need to check how a specific word looks in that typeface), and as a designer, sometimes I just need to see a well designed piece of text in use black on white on a paper, without having to design it myself.

PabloImpallari

But I have no way of measuring whether this helped

Adding a discount coupon to the Pdf? Just an idea

Nina Stössinger

What Indra said, but in addition, I will say that when selecting typefaces for (long, printed) text – for instance for a book – I have been very happy to consult actual offset printed samples, as the impression one gets from a laser printed PDF is only very approximate, especially regarding color/weight and texture. From an offset printed sample and (in the next step) my own PDF layouts it is much more possible to “extrapolate” what the actual result can look and feel like. So in such situations, having a printed sample will likely increase my chances of licensing the typeface.

Elizabeth Carey-Smith

I collect every type specimen I come across. I love them. They're also a wonderful way to show paper and ink (as in the highly illustrative House Ind specimens with French Paper Co.) But I would say that it's probably worth it to ensure it's really, really well-designed. A badly designed or boringly designed specimen is going to hinder sales more than help. Re: PDF specimens, I appreciate that FontBureau provides them, but I do wish they weren't so templated, and employed more interesting graphic design.

Chris Lozos

I appreciate that FontBureau provides them, but I do wish they weren't so templated, and employed more interesting graphic design.

Does that mean you are more likely to purchase a font that has better graphic design in the sample?  I agree that I am more likely to pay attention to a well designed specimen but I would buy type based on the quality of the type.

Nick Shinn

Diana, I don‘t think there are many type buyers here at Type Drawers.

However, warming to the subject, may I say that my foundry continues to publish the occasional printed piece—primarily for the goody bags of type and design conferences.

I don’t bother to try and figure out what effect they have.

I also take out ads in Eye magazine and Slanted, from time to time.

I continue to produce downloadable PDFs for each Shinntype release, at the 8½" x 11" size, as my primary market is North America.

Elizabeth Carey-Smith

@Nick Shinn 
I am! A user and a maker. 

@Chris Lozos 
I purchase FontBureau fonts regardless, but seeing the beautiful webtype specimens Nick has made have definitely persuaded me to look at those typefaces in ways I hadn't before. Obviously I'm always looking at the quality of the typeface.

I also use those specimens to show art directors and other not-as-type-savvy designers the versatility of a typeface. Good specimens, in conclusion, have definitely helped me sell licenses to clients.

Chris Lozos

I also use those specimens to show art directors and other not-as-type-savvy designers the versatility of a typeface.

Good point!

Diana Ovezea

I wanted to see a few other people's opinions, also type makers and type buyers.

For me personally, printed specimens reinforce a foundry's/person's credibility. I still think you need to be able to use your own type in a beautiful way, even if you hire outside designers. A foundry that creates beautiful specimens shows me that they appreciate typography as well as type design, which is a big plus, and it helps me trust them more.

Dyana Weissman

Back when I was in school, I loved collecting type specimens. It was a great way to share with other classmates, too: "check out this cool thing I got." Perhaps it's easier to share things online these days, but there is something to be said for having something precious in your hand, to endear you to a foundry. 

Stephen Coles

Micro/mini/brochure sites dedicated to a particular typeface or collection can be effective, but I think printed objects often stick in the human memory in ways that online promotion does not. More than once, while trying to recall interesting new typefaces, I immediately thought of the specimens I got in the mail or conference goodie bag, rather than any particular website. I imagine this is even more true for someone who isn’t as obsessive about following foundries online.

Veronika Burian

From a type maker/foundry perspective, it is hard to say how many font sales happen as direct result from distributing printed type specimens, but i think that showing typefaces in the environment they are meant for is really important for the type user. This also means that for webfonts a digital environment such as a mini site is a good idea. Of course, the printed specimen needs to be visually appealing to be effective, It does not need to show all details and the full character set—we have downloadable PDF specimens for that—but it needs to entice and show how the typeface appears in different sizes, settings, etc.
Apart from that, collections of type specimens are a nice piece of history :-)

Elizabeth Carey-Smith

@Veronika Burian Totally! It's the ephemera that's actually not that ephemeral!

collections of type specimens are a nice piece of history :-)

Josh Krämer

Re: PDF specimens, I appreciate that FontBureau provides them, but I do wish they weren't so templated, and employed more interesting graphic design.

I love interestingly designed specimen, but I think bland, templated specimen are actually more useful to evaluate a typeface and compare it with others. It may be ideal if a specimen contains both interesting and bland pages!

Nick Shinn

I’ve always been fascinated by type specimens as a literary form, when they become a kind of concrete poetry.

Alphabets to Order by Alastair Johnston of Poltroon Press is a brilliant treatise on this genre in the 19th century.

I addressed the subject in my specimen for FF Oneleigh of 1999 (which was printed), including a short essay on page 2.

attar

At Production Type, each printed specimen includes an essay (there are also simple black-on-white PDF specimens available for each typeface so as to make print runs before buying, which is a distinct thing). I'm told that the people who buy the printed specimens are dominantly not those who buy the fonts: they are people who like nice objects connected to design, or e.g. design students that seek information on the subject that the specimen tackles (it includes an exhaustive synthesis on their subject and also provides a bibliography for further research).
For the foundry, I think they're not just cool objects to produce but they also help reaching more people.

Stephen Coles

the people who buy the printed specimens are dominantly not those who buy the fonts

But these people are often influencers for those who do buy fonts.

Shoko Mugikura

I love interestingly designed specimen, but I think bland, templated specimen are actually more useful to evaluate a typeface and compare it with others.

What I find useful in any (print/web/PDF) specimen is if they show a realistic combination of styles such as continuous text with some words or sentences in italic/corresponding bold weights/small caps.

Many ‘templated’ PDF specimens fail to show this. They show strictly one style each, and it doesn’t help the buyer judge how the styles in a typeface work together.

We started producing printed specimens in 2011, and we see our recognition grow since. But as Veronica says it is hard to say how it directly relates to font sales.

Nina Stössinger

I think “templated” specimens really mostly make it easy to compare the typeface with others that use the same template – ie, if you’re trying to decide between various offerings from the same foundry. If that’s not the case (which in my personal experience has been more frequent), and you’re looking at different templates, you might as well be looking at individual layouts -- which could be better at individually presenting the typeface in an ideal way.

Alex Visi

Found this thread while thinking about whether PDF specimens (the ones which show all possible sizes and weights etc.) are needed at all and if so – for what. And I’m surprised nobody mentioned just the number of clicks on the Download Specimen button on the website, which would be super easy to measure, and to some degree even relate to purchases, if an email is requested. Could anyone share some data or thoughts on that now? I think it’s still an interesting topic

André G. Isaak

Laura Worthington (for example) usually provides links to her .pdf specimens on MyFonts.com, but I've noticed that quite a few type designers have nice .pdf specimens available on their own sites, but don't provide links to these on resellers like MyFonts.com. If such specimens do increase sales, designers should probably considering linking to them as widely as possible.

Nick Curtis

Back in the day, printed specimen sheets also helped sell paper. It's possible that partnering with a paper salesperson night prove mutually advantageous.

Thierry Blancpain

A specific subset of people really want/need PDf specimen, but they will not make your typeface sell well on their own. It’s just an additional tool for certain designers to see and test the typeface before buying.

Scott-Martin Kosofsky

I buy fonts, Latin fonts, though I have made some in the past. The Hebrew fonts I use, which appear in much of my work, I make myself.

For us book designers—or anyone who handles lengthy texts—seeing text types put through their paces is essential for deciding on type purchases. We need to judge a type’s range of usable sizes, how it justifies in typical line lengths, how its color reacts with various leading, and most importantly get a sense of its internal spacing. A word space set to an inappropriate width can ruin one’s view of the whole thing, though it can be fixed easily. It has to be seen in print, and while I respect Nina Stössinger’s point of view, I feel it is possible to make a judgment based on laser prints made from PDFs—if you have the right kind of laser printer with real Adobe PostScript, one which you know from experience will deliver a result that is a reasonable predictor of how the type will look in offset printing. (I currently use a Xerox 6510.) Such specimens may be boring to some, but it’s what they need to be. 

Why make text fonts if you don’t show how they perform in texts? Indra is quite correct: print people want to see specimens. In the world of text, function supersedes style—which is not to say that style doesn’t matter, but to try to sell a text type in the same way one sells a display type is a serious mistake. Some potential buyers won’t take it seriously, they’ll pass it by. For me, at least, it is even more true for sans serif types than for, say, Old Style types. Perhaps it’s because there’s less to catch my eye in just a small number of letters. There are also too many of them—more than anyone can digest. Sites like MyFonts simply don’t work for text types, unless you’ve come to buy something you saw in print elsewhere.

These decisions cannot be made online, neither can they be made from cleverly designed printed pieces or PDFs that don’t show paragraphs and full pages. Book designers might not be the most prolific buyers of fonts, but if use is measured in linear meters, we are the most prolific users.

Thomas Phinney

Nick Curtis said:

Back in the day, printed specimen sheets also helped sell paper. It's possible that partnering with a paper salesperson night prove mutually advantageous.

I gather there is a long tradition of paper companies and type designers having co-marketing arrangements. I think entire books and specimen books have sometimes been sponsored by paper companies.

I am trying to think of one calligraphic type designer in particular, who passed away at least 5 years ago, maybe 10?….

Craig Eliason

Thomas Phinney said:

I gather there is a long tradition of paper companies and type designers having co-marketing arrangements. I think entire books and specimen books have sometimes been sponsored by paper companies.

I am trying to think of one calligraphic type designer in particular, who passed away at least 5 years ago, maybe 10?….

Doyald Young?

Craig Eliason

Online typetesters themselves won't obviate the need of somebody who wants to evaluate text fonts, but free trial fonts might. The latter are admittedly more of a hassle to convert into text than a ready-to-print pdf, but offer the benefit of complete customizability.