Hello Everyone! New in Typeface Creation. An "introductory question"

Michalis Gerontaris

Hi everyone.

My name is Michalis Gerontaris and I am from Greece but currently living in Brazil.
Before anything else, please excuse me for not putting my full name as a username -I saw the topic after I had created my account.

I am a freelance graphic designer and I started editing typefaces and fonts where they didn't support the greek alphabet and some of the portuguese glyphs and, without noticing, I realised I kinda loved this whole process! Now I am a typefan and I am slowly starting creating my own fonts.

However there's a lot of struggle for me as regards how legal modifying, editing and ultimately commercially using fonts is. And this is where I will need lots of help and guidance from all of you professional (or hobbyist) type designers!
As I start seeing how challenging and difficult creating a font can be and all the more I cultivate respect for all of this hard work, in no way would I like to steal another designer's "sweat and work".

So, as a first helping hand, could someone guide me regarding this question;
What is legal and what is not when it comes to modifying a font?
I mean there are some fonts where I don't like fome of the glyphs and characters and some others where (as I mentioned before) they do not support greek characters and/or portuguese glyphs, so I modify them. To what extend can such a font be modified and claimed from that moment my own?

(To moderators), if this question has been answered, please feel free to move this topic to the relevant thread, because I couldn't find one

Thanks so much in advance! Love to be here!

Chris Lozos

This all depends on the original font EULA [license] and there are scores of answers.  Also, it depends greatly on how you intend to use or market the result. If you are looking to design your own font from scratch, you have all options.  If you are looking to extend language coverage of an existing font, you have more limitations.

@JoyceKetterer might be a good person to ask

This might be a good place to start: https://typedrawers.com/discussion/comment/48274#

George Thomas

...please excuse me for not putting my full name as a username...

You can edit that in your profile.

Michalis Gerontaris

Thanks @Chris Lozos for all the info and your time! Will have a look on them.
Just fixed that @George Thomas!