App for instaling fonts on iPhone or iPad.

Ermin Međedović

Does anybody have any experience with AnyFont?

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/anyfont/id821560738?mt=8

Mark Simonson

I've used it. It's a bit cumbersome, but it works.

SiDaniels

Peter Lofting pointed me to this explanation...

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/featuredarticles/iPhoneConfigurationProfileRef/Introduction/Introduction.html

search for "font payload" - and with that I'd like to be the first to welcome iOS to the realm of "real OS" :-) and I'm convinced this technology will be used to install properly licensed fonts, and not to copy Calibri onto iPads :-/

Ermin Međedović

Thanks Mark.

Simon, although I want this app just for testing my own fonts directly, but yes EULA should handle installation like this.
On the intro video for app. it was Cambria but all C fonts from Clear Type are great works.

Patrick Griffin

Ermin, if you want to test your own fonts on iOS, here's something a customer pointed out to me:
http://thehelpful.com/iosfonts/

Mark Simonson

Interesting, but that looks even more cumbersome than AnyFont. I suppose if you want to save a couple bucks...

Ermin Međedović

Thanks Patrick, but as Mark said, it doesn't look friendly. I'll give a try to AnyFont.

Mark Simonson

The only thing I don't like about AnyFont is you can only install one font at a time. Works nicely with DropBox.

Kent Lew

Looks like that iOS Font Maker is just creating a base64 encoding and wrapping it in a mobileconfig plist. Seems like we should be able to pythonize that same process and make a UFO script. Then email the mobileconfig to yourself.

Laurence Penney

From today at MyFonts you can install any font – a new purchase or previously downloaded package – from MyFonts onto your iOS 7 device and use it in apps with a font menu such as Pages and Keynote.

More details:

http://meta.myfonts.com/post/80802984786/install-fonts-from-myfonts-on-ios-7-devices

SiDaniels

Epic!

Jackson Showalter-Cavanaugh

From today at MyFonts you can install any font – a new purchase or previously downloaded package – from MyFonts onto your iOS 7 device and use it in apps with a font menu such as Pages and Keynote.

Does "any font" also includes ones with EULAs that don't allow this kind of usage? Is there any language anywhere that might explain to customers they might, at the very least, need to purchase another seat? Was there every any plan to run this new feature by foundry partners?

Kent Lew

EULAs that don't allow this kind of usage?

Hmm. What exactly is this kind of usage? Is it the same as that allowed by a typical desktop license? It’s not app embedding, right? It’s not web embedding. It’s not OEM.

It’s installing at the system level, isn’t it? And the lines between the iOS and the Mac OS X, between “mobile” devices and “desktop” devices are blurring further every day, it seems.

Is it that existing EULAs don’t allow installing on mobile OSes, or is it that previously mobile OSes didn’t provide for font installation?

But Jackson’s right: It does seem like this should qualify as an additional seat for those licenses that are seat-delimited.

Jackson Showalter-Cavanaugh

What exactly is this kind of usage?

Exactly. It's similar to a desktop license but it's also something new that, as far as I have seen, isn't clearly outlined in most EULAs. It could easily be confused with mobile app embedding. And there is no mention at all about # of users/seats/devices. Some licenses allow users to install fonts on secondary laptops, some charge for an extra set. And so on.

Mostly I'm just frustrated, but not surprised, that MyFonts would launch something like this without either giving their foundry partners a heads up or even briefly mentioning that customers should check their EULAs.

SiDaniels

I agree with Kent, even the most antiquated font licenses were operating system agnostic - they talk about CPU's and printers, and more recently users and devices.

In the OpenType era who wants to have to revise a EULA every time a new Linux distribution or other operating system is released? "This font is only licensed for use on Android Fruitcake 8.0.1" no thanks.

But yes MyFonts might have avoided controversy by simply including "(license permitting)" in the blurb. But then I'm sure we'd have found something else to complain about.

Deleted Account

"This font is only licensed for use on Android Fruitcake 8.0.1" no thanks.

But "This font is only licensed for use on Android Sugarless Fruitcake 8.0.1", is fine?

And now, there should be nothing left to complain about.;)

Patrick Griffin

It would have been nice if MyFonts informed us beforehand, so that whoever wants to clarify or nullify such use in their EULA could do it before the rollout, but this may be a storm in a teacup here. Phones and tablets can be understood to be part of the CPU/computer realm, and they are. Look at the way the fonts will be used on those devices. Pages, Keynote, Notes, etcetera, just like on a desktop computer, so it's not really a major shift in how fonts are used.

Si, a question for you: Does the Microsoft Windows EULA allow the use of Calibri on Windows NT?

Stuart Sandler

Actually, seat licenses are at this point in history are just a bad idea . . . We switched to User licenses (with a max device limit) 4+ years ago knowing this was coming down the pipeline. Also, you may think about ditching location licensing since it'll only become less relevant over time.

SiDaniels

Patrick as far as I recall the answer to your off topic question is no. Fonts supplied with Windows and Microsoft apps are generally part of the software that supplied them and copying them to other machines is not allowed. However, I think that as an NT user you probably could have received Calibri as part of the Office Compatibility Pack which was issued around the same time as Calibri became the default font in Office. If not, a year after it's release Calibri was available from Ascender so an NT user could have got hold of it legitimately.