Documentation to include with fonts

Cory Maylett

Other than license agreements, do any of you include other documents in your font packages? I'm referring to things like installation instructions, promotional materials, contact information, explanations regarding the differences between the OTF, TTF and variable fonts that might be included in the package, etc.?

Paul Miller

For my fonts I include the fonts themselves, the SIL License text, the SIL OFL FAQ document, the fontlog.txt file and sometimes a small text file giving a description of the font and/or how it came to be made.

Sometimes I also include some promotional material (a poster of the font).

I assume people who download a font file know how to install a font.

Jess McCarty

Yes; customers who already know how to install a font or use/combine Opentype features won't bother opening up a PDF guide. For those who may not be aware, however, it's extremely helpful; reducing friction (and support requests), and engendering goodwill. Suddenly they realize there's a human on the other side of the typeface.

I think the more complicated the font (Opentype features, variable fonts, etc.) the more documentation and visuals will benefit both customer and foundry. If a user guide is designed correctly, it can almost function as Brand Guidelines for the font.

Nick Shinn

I used to include a specimen PDF in the packages, but now those are downloadable separately from my distributors.

JoyceKetterer

Much of how I conduct myself in business is based on the expectation people skim if they read at all and an overwhelmed person doesn't read.  So we try to keep everything to a minimum.  EULA only in the download file and all features and FAQ matter are on our website.  It probably helps that the only users who see font files got them directly from us - so we don't need to tell them how to find us.

Specifically with regards to installation guides, my guess would be that a user who doesn't know how to install a font file probably doesn't know they don't know.  Everyone expects to able to double click to install all software.  Most of the time for fonts that's fine.  There are specific use cases where going through a font manager isn't going to work but those seem to be few and far between.  I've a good feel for this because we don't even cover it in our FAQ and we identify only a few a year as technical support inquiries.   

Claudio Piccinini

Personally, I like to find a PDF specimen when I purchase a font license.
Clearly I can download it from the site, if available, but I like to keep them.

Arthur Reinders Folmer

For all my releases I make an extra specimen with a bit of story about the concept and creation, accompanied by pages filled with the full character set. Some of my fonts use a lot of private use area unicodes, so if the user doesn't have the software to access those, the manual serves as a good copy-paste source.

Next to that, it's also a bit of branding, giving the buyer more than just a fontfile with the transaction. (something to print, read or peek further into).

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Roel Nieskens

Anybody including CSS snippets and instructions for web use?

Matthew Smith

Roel Nieskens said:

Anybody including CSS snippets and instructions for web use?

When I purchased Blanco, Dave Foster not only included css files, but also included additional subset web fonts which was extremely helpful.

k.l.

Roel Nieskens said:

Anybody including CSS snippets and instructions for web use?

Yes.

JoyceKetterer

@James Montalbano   I understand the impulse to remove analytics but the only way I had the courage of my conviction to stop making pdf specimens was that I saw only 2% of visitors download them. I forget the percentage that uses the typer but it's one of the more popular features on the site and I think that has replaced specimens for most of our customers.  

Kent Lew

Being one of the 2%, I’m very sorry that the analytics have led you (and others) to forego PDF specimens. :-(

Theunis de Jong

A well-made specimen sheet is a showcase of what the font is capable of, and often it is a piece of art on its own.

Check out Sebastian Nagel's "Tierra Nueva" 24-page long specimen: https://fdi-type.de/download/typespecimen-tierranueva.pdf

and then especially this spread:



(in case you're wondering: yes, that whale is actually a glyph in the font, and so are the pirate ship, the ornate compass rose, and the mermaid. How do others point out to buyers that a font features a Mermaid glyph?)

Claudio Piccinini

JoyceKetterer said:

@James Montalbano   I understand the impulse to remove analytics but the only way I had the courage of my conviction to stop making pdf specimens was that I saw only 2% of visitors download them. I forget the percentage that uses the typer but it's one of the more popular features on the site and I think that has replaced specimens for most of our customers.  

Personally, I find the typer not much useful. Unless there is a PDF, I am pretty much put off from purchasing a license. I need to see the typeface in actual typesetting, even if it’s not a design specifically meant for extensive textsetting.

Claudio Piccinini

Theunis de Jong said:

A well-made specimen sheet is a showcase of what the font is capable of, and often it is a piece of art on its own.

Check out Sebastian Nagel's "Tierra Nueva" 24-page long specimen: https://fdi-type.de/download/typespecimen-tierranueva.pdf

and then especially this spread:

This reminds me of Gábor Kóthay’s Incognito, which was absolutely original with the idea of associating specific swashes behavior to Ovest, West, North and South (Occidens, Oriens, etc.)

JoyceKetterer

@Theunis de Jong  It's not like we make no visuals.  Have you seen the halyard micro site?  It was our first release without what I would call a specimen sheet and, perhaps, more like what you mean.  I just no longer make a downloadable printer friendly pdf thingy showing what the fonts do.  Still feeling neglected?

Claudio Piccinini

OT: Who feels the need to put "disagree" each time they see a sentence they do noto agree with? I think I never used it. Ugh.

Claudio Piccinini

Now, what is the point of putting "disagree" when I just raised a question (and not even a statement)?

Well, so I’d ask: what is the point of having a "disagree" button if there is no articulation for the reasons of the disagreement?

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JoyceKetterer

@Claudio Piccinini the disagree button replaced the flag button at some point.  It deducts points and the moderators can identify trolls.  Whoever disagreed with you question was probably trying to be cute since you're not a troll.

Claudio Piccinini

JoyceKetterer said:

@Claudio Piccinini the disagree button replaced the flag button at some point.  It deducts points and the moderators can identify trolls.  Whoever disagreed with you question was probably trying to be cute since you're not a troll.

Thanks for the explanation. So a strange way to be cute, I guess.
I can’t wait until I get troll status for whimsical reasons! :-D

Claudio Piccinini

James Montalbano said:

I've sent this out and sometimes people are interested in it. 

https://catalog.terminaldesign.com

Your specimen book looks very beautiful, I mean this as “useful” as well.

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