Can fonts by Dieter Steffmann be sold with added glyphs?

Vasil StanevVasil Stanev Posts: 759
edited May 2018 in Type Business
Hi guys,
Steffman's fonts are the type I would like to add Cyrillic to, and wrote to him about an year ago, but no reply. His site says (I read German) that his eyesight is failing and all his fonts are available for free, but only for private use.

If he can't approve my request because he can't see it, what are my options? The versions I come across the web have very muddy Beziers and I am wondering if there are no cleaner versions around. What is the legal status of these fonts? Cyrillization would be a ton of work - I would like to be able to sell.

Thank you.


Comments

  • Paul MillerPaul Miller Posts: 273
    I can not speak for Dieter and I am not speaking for him but in my experience in the past his policy has been to approve his fonts for derivative work ONLY where the derivative work will be available for free and where the author of the derivative work has no intention to make any money from it.

  • Micha MirckMicha Mirck Posts: 19
    I looked at some of his fonts and most of them look like other fonts (See Nougat and Dynamo Bold) 
    I found this link https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Dieter_Steffmann_fonts saying; 
    Also, the originals Dieter Steffmann modified before re-licensing were not necessarily public domain as he thought.
    It might be a good idea to check if the font(s) that you want to modify are not known under another name and are protected by copyright and/or trademark
  • Dave CrosslandDave Crossland Posts: 1,389
    Agree with Dan
  • Vasil StanevVasil Stanev Posts: 759
    Pretty shady stuff! Better keep my hands off it altogether then.
  • Pretty shady stuff! Better keep my hands off it altogether then.
    Yes, I think it might be better to make your own fonts from scratch.
  • If you are looking for the name, you will find it here. (Kaiser Gothic)

    https://books.google.ca/books/about/24_Celtic_and_Medieval_Display_Fonts.html

    Celtic and Medieval Alphabets: 53 Complete Fonts

    By: Dan X. Solo

  • Michel BoyerMichel Boyer Posts: 120
    A working link: Kaiser Gothic, Dan Solo.
  • Solo may have made the first digitization, but the design is older, see Kaiser-Gotisch. Steffmann did little more than renaming Solo’s version. Helzel made another different digitization.


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