The 2019 Font Purchasing Habits Survey

Stephen Coles

Mary Catherine Pflug has posted this year’s edition of her survey for Monotype. Despite some reservations, I think it’s a valuable effort on the whole and can teach us all a lot.

For the type designers here, I highly recommend you share it with your followers so the results can be as comprehensive as possible. As Mary Catherine rightly states in last year’s results, this survey uses convenience sampling, and I’d love to see if a broader response pool produces different data.

Dave Rowland

I do wish there could be a different incentive than free fonts. In a survey about font purchasing, I'd expect that to skew the results pretty significantly. Maybe a MyFonts credit would be better, so the survey participants can put it towards font purchases that they want to make. But then that probably skews the survey more towards MyFonts users. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Drawcard

Would anyone know of a more recent update to this survey? Or any other similar surveys that are more current? Cheers!

DanRhatigan

The survey is back once again: https://www.tickbox.net/uc/survey_mod/504b/ospe.php

From the email that just went out:

Previously known as Monotype’s Font Purchasing Habits Survey, when we ran this survey in 2019, over 21,000 respondents provided insights into type foundries, changing habits in font purchasing, and the type and design industries at large.

We’re excited to re-launch the survey, and would love your help to cast a wide net for gathering insights. Please feel free to share this link with fellow type designers, graphic designers, or anyone interested in the future of fonts!

It should take 10-15 minutes of your time, and respondees in certain countries* can enter for a chance to win one of ten $50 Amazon gift cards. The survey is open now through Tuesday, September 24th.

Igor Petrovic

DanRhatigan said:

The survey is back once again: https://www.tickbox.net/uc/survey_mod/504b/ospe.php

Interesting, thanks for the heads up. Is it still essentially run by Monotype?

Thomas Phinney

Yes, it is being run by/for Monotype.

It seems likely they will share some data analysis of the results, as they have in the past.

Stephen Coles

DanRhatigan

Yes, Monotype commissioned Censuswide to run the survey, but it’s for us and we’ll share findings afterward. (I’m not yet sure of the roll-out plan for that.)

Stephen Coles

Sorry, I was just making a dig at their typography. 

DanRhatigan

Fair.