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Introducing Font Proofer!

peternowellpeternowell Posts: 9
edited February 3 in Type Design Software
After 3 years in the making, I’m thrilled to launch Font Proofer: a tool for typeface designers to test their work-in-progress fonts. For too many years (decades?) the process of making, editing, and reusing proof documents has been tedious, error prone, and reliant on an unwieldy assortment of tools and scripts.
Font Proofer has already been used by a small group of designers and foundries for the past year, and it’s rapidly improving (see the public roadmap). There are tutorials and learning resources available, and I’ll be hosting some upcoming webinars.
One of my main goals is for Font Proofer to become a sustainable, community-supported project. I’ve self-funded its develop­ment so far, inspired by the overwhelming enthusiasm in response to my demos at TypeLab and ATypI Tech Talks—while aware that sustainability is rare in our small industry. Too many font production tools end up abandoned. I want to ensure that Font Proofer can exist for many years to come—not scraping by as a side project, but as a well-maintained, constantly-improving tool that you can depend on.
I can’t wait to hear what you think!
Peter

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Comments

  • PabloImpallariPabloImpallari Posts: 683
    edited February 3
    Great Tool Peter! Looks fucking awesome! Congratulations!
  • peternowellpeternowell Posts: 9
    That means a lot coming from you, Pablo! 🙏🏼
  • Thierry BlancpainThierry Blancpain Posts: 190
    Grilli has been working with the beta tool for a while and I just wanted to comment that it’s been super helpful and useful to our workflows. Thank you!
  • John HudsonJohn Hudson Posts: 2,645
    Congratulations on the launch. Looks very interesting.

    Disappointed that it doesn’t work on Big Sur.
  • Miles NewlynMiles Newlyn Posts: 205
    This looks great Peter, I'll be signing up.
  • peternowellpeternowell Posts: 9
    edited February 3
    Thanks, @Thierry Blancpain! Grilli’s input has helped shape the tool in exciting ways, and it’s a joy to see it helping your projects!
  • peternowellpeternowell Posts: 9
    @John Hudson I agree, but I had to make some tough choices about which APIs and developer tools I used to make this. Otherwise it would have taken a small team to even get this far, and the ambitious product roadmap would be out of reach.

    Personally I found the upgrade from Big Sur to Monterey was pretty seamless, even for an older Mac.
  • PabloImpallariPabloImpallari Posts: 683
    edited February 3
    Peter, if you also want to add kerning tests to it at some point in the future, I can help. I think I have something for you.
  • peternowellpeternowell Posts: 9
    Awesome! Send it over @PabloImpallari! [email protected]
  • jeremy tribbyjeremy tribby Posts: 149
    Congratulations on the launch Peter, I know this has been in the works for some time! Just downloaded the trial and looking forward to kicking its tires
  • peternowellpeternowell Posts: 9
    Thanks @jeremy tribby! Can't wait to hear what you think!
  • Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.)Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.) Posts: 211
    I'd love to try it, but I'm not a friend of the subscription model. 
  • Stephen ColesStephen Coles Posts: 969
    You can try it for 2 weeks for free. Determine if it's worth a subscription after that.
  • peternowellpeternowell Posts: 9
    For anyone curious to learn more about Font Proofer, I’ll be hosting some free webinars starting tomorrow! I’ll go over the essentials, workflow tips, and answer your questions. You can sign up here:
    https://calendly.com/peternowell/font-proofer-webinar
  • Aaron BellAaron Bell Posts: 88
    @peternowell This looks fab! Out of interest, might you be able to do a webinar in the middle of the day? I'm in PST and 6am / 7am is too early, and 5pm too late.
  • peternowellpeternowell Posts: 9
    @Aaron Bell Sure thing! It’s been hard to know which days/times would make sense for various time zones. I can add a 2 PM PST time next Thursday, Feb 16. Contact me directly if that doesn’t work for you and we’ll figure out a time that does.
  • John HudsonJohn Hudson Posts: 2,645
    2 PM PST time next Thursday, Feb 16.
    Perfect. Will you post the webinar link here? Or?
  • Aaron BellAaron Bell Posts: 88
    @peternowell That'll work great. Thanks!

    @John Hudson Here's the link:

  • John HudsonJohn Hudson Posts: 2,645
    Ah, thanks Aaron. I had seen the calendar link previously, but hadn’t made the mental step to realising that it was a kind of booking system. Doh!
  • Rob BarbaRob Barba Posts: 83
    Looks at it...

    Looks great!

    Requires Macintosh...

    Le sigh....

    I'd be happy to test and purchase a Windows version.  But alas, I can't really use this.  Best of luck, though; it looks gorgeous.
  • Claudio PiccininiClaudio Piccinini Posts: 666
    It looks interesting, felicitations on the achievement. But personally, like Oliver, I am totally against subscription models.
  • John HudsonJohn Hudson Posts: 2,645
    I am not opposed to subscription models on principle, but I think they need regular, significant, and frequent content updates to justify.

    Font Proofer looks like a useful tool, and the website indicates a lot of future feature plans. Is it worth $240 US per year? I don’t know yet.
  • James PuckettJames Puckett Posts: 1,913
    $240 a year sounds expensive but if it saves one hour of work a month I’d say that’s probably worth it.
  • John HudsonJohn Hudson Posts: 2,645
    Looked at that way, yes.

    Eagerly anticipating the webinar on the 16th.
  • peternowellpeternowell Posts: 9
    That's a good point @James Puckett. Most of the type designers who have used Font Proofer this past year have found that it saves them, on average, an hour a week. Some weeks more, and some weeks their work might not involve much proofing. That means the tool typically pays for itself multiple times over every month.

    And I agree about the frequent updates, @John Hudson. The tool today is only 1/3 of what it has the potential to be, and a subscription incentivizes those ongoing improvements. I've tried to set everything up so the ambitious roadmap can become a reality if there are enough designers who join me on this journey.

    If Font Proofer was only going to improve incrementally over the next year or two, a fixed cost could make sense. But imagine buying iMovie today, then in a year or two it evolves into Final Cut Pro. If you have a perpetual license, does that mean you should pay the Final Cut Pro price now? No way. I can't sell what doesn't exist yet. That pricing model just doesn't fit a product during a growth spurt. And it doesn't incentivize improvement.

    I know that doing things differently can be uncomfortable, but the status quo for font tool pricing is simply not working most of the time. Most toolmakers can barely justify the time to work on their project. Font Proofer is an experiment to try some new approaches to sustainability, and if you believe in the vision and roadmap, I hope we can make that future a reality together. :smile:


  • John HudsonJohn Hudson Posts: 2,645
    I participated in one of Peter’s webinars yesterday, and was impressed by what I saw, both in terms of how the Font Proofer tool works, and in Peter’s explanations of where he wants to take it and his ideas about sustainable tool development.
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