Tool for indie foundries: Finding where your fonts are being used on the web

Lars Schwarz
Lars Schwarz Posts: 118
in Type Business
Hi all,

I've been building a tool for independent type designers — a way to see where your fonts are being used across the public web — and I'd like to share what I'm aiming at and hear whether it lines up with what you'd actually find useful.

A few principles that have shaped the direction, informed by the recent FontRadar thread and conversations with designers I've worked with in the past:

You keep the customer relationship. The tool never contacts anyone on your behalf. No emails signed in your name, no legal letters, no outreach campaigns you didn't approve. A license inquiry is a conversation with a potential customer — you're the right person to have it.

Discovery first, enforcement if you want it. Most of what gets found won't be infringement. It'll be real uses of your work — for your portfolio, case studies, social posts, or just the quiet pleasure of knowing. Licensing gaps are one signal among many, not the whole product.

No font uploads, no customer database required. The tool identifies your fonts from what's already on the public web — including subsetted and renamed versions. You never hand over your catalog or your sales data. If you want to cross-reference against legitimate customers, you do that locally.

Flat monthly pricing. A predictable fee covers detection and the dashboard. If you use the tool to sell a license to an infringing site, I take a small processing fee on that transaction only. No contingency cuts on recovered revenue, no percentage of settlements you handled yourself, no contracts that penalize you for growing.

Honest coverage. I'm actively crawling a large pool of domains, prioritizing sites with real traffic, and expanding coverage as the project grows. I find a lot. I don't find everything. I'd rather tell you upfront if your library looks like it sits mostly outside my reach than take your money on a bet that doesn't work out.

I'd rather talk to the people who'd actually use something like this than keep building in isolation. If any of this resonates — or if there's something obvious I'm underestimating — I'd value hearing from you.

Happy to talk privately as well if you'd rather.

Lars

Comments

  • John Hudson
    John Hudson Posts: 3,659
    This sounds very similar to Font Monitor. Are you aware of that project, Lars? Do you think your tool will offer significant differences/benefits?
  • Lars Schwarz
    Lars Schwarz Posts: 118
    John Hudson said:
    This sounds very similar to Font Monitor. Are you aware of that project, Lars? Do you think your tool will offer significant differences/benefits?
    Hey John, thanks, never heard of it before tbh. I'll check it out and give you a "comparison" afterwards. What I can say already: 114K fonts doesn't sound much taking into account they refer to free and commercial fonts.
  • Dusan Jelesijevic
    Dusan Jelesijevic Posts: 79
    How fast is your tool?

    I'm in early stage of developing something similar, but just for myself – to look for our fonts only (not limiting a tool to look for other fonts as well, but that's not my primary intention now).

    Why I asked about tool speed... mine is super slow. And I'm not so happy with the results for now. But the plan is to work on it further, to try to make it more useful in finding more "in use" examples as that was my aim at beginning – to look for fonts in use examples. Since MyFonts/ Monotype disabled possibility to see customer's details, my "in use" sources got cut off.

  • Lars Schwarz
    Lars Schwarz Posts: 118
    Dusan Jelesijevic said:
    How fast is your tool?
    It scales and I'm planning to adjust depending on the number of users to balance the infrastructure costs.

    Wasn't aware of those MyFonts changes. GDPR related I assume? 
  • Moritz Kleinsorge
    Moritz Kleinsorge Posts: 33
    TypeType also just launched a similar tool like FontRadar:
    https://typetype.org/blog/ip-protection-as-an-art-typetypes-flexible-licensing-control-strategy
  • Lars Schwarz
    Lars Schwarz Posts: 118
    Moritz Kleinsorge said:
    TypeType also just launched a similar tool like FontRadar:
    Thanks Moritz, seems like I haven't been following developments lately :) I'll look into that, too. 
  • James Montalbano
    James Montalbano Posts: 143
    I used Takedown Czar many years ago:
  • Igor Petrovic
    Igor Petrovic Posts: 355
    While it is not necessary to have a ton of the same services, a few of them could make a constructive competition. Even if they offer the very same (requested) functionality.
  • Michael Wallner
    Michael Wallner Posts: 21
    I never knew this kind of tool existed—I love it. I can see myself using it, as Dusan described, to find “in use” items for a foundry page.

Categories