A fair compensation for adding Cyrillic set to other designer's typeface

Igor Petrovic

My friend asked me if I would be interested to add a Cyrillic set to one of his existing typefaces.

We agreed that the set should be "classic Cyrillic" covering 8 most used languages:

А В Е К М Н О Р С Т Х Ј П Џ Ц Ш Щ Ж Ъ Ы Ь Б Њ Л

Љ Г И У Ф Д Ч Ћ Ђ Я Э Ю З Й Ё Ў І Ї Ѓ Ќ Ѕ Є Ґ Ү Ө

а в е к м н о р с т х ј п џ ц ш щ ж ъ ы ь б њ л

љ г и у ф д ч ћ ђ я э ю з й ё ў і ї ѓ ќ ѕ є ґ ү ө

We will pick sans-serif typeface, uprights only (no italics for now), and probably something with two masters. I guess that it makes sense to pick a best-seller typeface since Cyrillic is already a limited audience.

But we don't know how to compensate each other for this work. How this is usually done, percents, or one-time payment, how much?

Also, is it a good idea to sell Cyrillic only font version (without Latin glyphs in it) so the people who want Cyrillic don't have to pay "pro price". Since the set is smaller they might get it even cheaper than the default, what do you think?

What other things we might want to consider here, thanks!

Hrant Հրանդ Փափազեան Papazian

I personally can't offer much insight into pricing here, but I can tell you that excluding Latin will typically cripple usage (and separate language versions is confusing). Especially for Cyrillic, because one place it's not a "limited audience" is for European Union typesetting, where it's required...

John Hudson

Regarding pricing, you need to decide who will own what rights as part of the contracted work (and, yes, there should be a contract, even though you are friends—especially if you want to remain friends). Is the friend hiring you to add Cyrillic support to his fonts, and then he will sell licenses and keep the income, or will he pay you royalties on license sales, or will you have the right to sell licenses yourself? All these arrangements are possible and among the kind of agreements that usuall accompany this kind of work.

Regarding character sets, we offer script-specific subset versions of our large, multiscript fonts, but all the subsets contain a Latin sub-subset of A-z (i.e. basic English alphabet with no diacritic letters). That provides a reasonable lower price option for users who are only going to be working with Cyrillic text, while possibly occasionally setting an English word here and there. If someone is working with text in multiple scripts, then they should license the full version.