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Question about licensing

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Aug 09, 2011 at 11:19

Hi,
I've thinking of using a font [1] of zetafonts to design for my own company logo (a new company with no employees), my question is,
Can I use the Free non-commercial license or I have to buy the commercial one?
I'm not going to sell the logo or anything that's why I don't know if I can have the non-commercial one.

[1] http://www.zetafonts.com/submenu/124

Thank you for your help!


Aug 09, 2011 at 12:46

Anything that is non-commercial cannot be used for commercial use. So you will have to buy a license


Aug 12, 2011 at 19:35

Email the person/outfit who did the font to find out their conditions for commercial use of a free font. Explain to them how you are going to use the font. Letting them know about the one man company you are running might help your cause.

Not everyone who tags a font with a non-commecial license is after your hard earned money. You might even get the font for free.

Worth doing rather than worrying about it.

- 22


Aug 23, 2011 at 17:57

A logo of a company is a commercial use and it certainly not a personnal use.


Aug 30, 2011 at 15:14

I'd like to follow up on this question as I'm looking to do a similar thing.

It may be a stupid question but I'm new to this site. What if the font I'd like to use has no author listed? What exactly does that mean and do you know how I can go about contacting someone about it?


Aug 30, 2011 at 15:32

Als je nou eens begint met te vertellen over welk lettertype je het hebt dan kunnen wij uitzoeken of we de auteur kunnen vinden.


Aug 30, 2011 at 16:41

Ah ok.

It is Stonehenge in the Celtic section,

Thanks!


Aug 30, 2011 at 21:19

Stonehenge has no author. It is a badly made rip-off Casady & Greene's KellsFLF. Stonehenge lacks some characters, has no kerning, has no Panose information nor Unicode ranges and code pages.
A better made version of this font is the Gandalf created by Viktor Kharyk.
My advice, if you want to use a font for your company's house style invest the few $/€ and get the Gandalf, quality included. If you don't, in the end you will be sorry that you started off with low quality.


Aug 30, 2011 at 21:33

koeiekat said  
Stonehenge has no author. It is a badly made rip-off Casady & Greene's KellsFLF.

The letter Q is different. Stonehenge -> Rosslaire (serials)


Aug 30, 2011 at 22:09

Stonehenge vs KellsFLF: http://www.dafont.com/es/font-comment.php?file=stonehenge

On Rosslaire; B&P Graphics, Brendel Informatik, Softmaker and under whichever other name they have operated only have renamed copies of other fonts, like WSI, SSI, SSK only (sometimes) slightly changing one or two glyphs. A long, long story of type theft.

The Stonehenge variant is the worst one ever made.


Aug 31, 2011 at 04:47

The original is not from Casady & Greene, instead of year 1900's

http://cjoint.com/11au/AHFeRFO5hdy_1900.png


Aug 31, 2011 at 07:25

koeiekat said  
Stonehenge has no author. It is a badly made rip-off Casady & Greene's KellsFLF. Stonehenge lacks some characters, has no kerning, has no Panose information nor Unicode ranges and code pages.
A better made version of this font is the Gandalf created by Viktor Kharyk.
My advice, if you want to use a font for your company's house style invest the few $/€ and get the Gandalf, quality included. If you don't, in the end you will be sorry that you started off with low quality.

You should be careful when using the word "rip-off" without fully knowing the background of the font. If a font was created from a specimen sheet of a long gone metal type foundry, would you consider the font a rip-off if it so happens that it had already been fonted by commercial digital font foundry. Also is ripping off, applies only to free fonts? or can makers commercial fonts rip off a free font?

Which of the versions looks better, is very subjective. What is ugly to one person might be a priceless beauty to another. What you might consider inferior someone else might have a different opinion. Even if the font is not the best looking one available, if the person thinks that it is the font he/she wants for his/her needs, I believe that that particular font is the best font for that person regardless of what others say about it. And it doesn't have to cost money. There are many free fonts that are comparable to, if not better than, pay fonts. I am a fan of Claude's and I will say that Claude's fonts are one of those I am referring to.

Did Parachute Fonts rip-off Claude's Champignon with their Champion Script? Claude released Champignon long before PF put out their "rip-off".

- 22


Aug 31, 2011 at 14:55

toto@k22 said  

Did Parachute Fonts rip-off Claude's Champignon with their Champion Script? Claude released Champignon long before PF put out their "rip-off".

- 22

The first known attempt to decode Champion’s writing, was done in 1989 by the French typographic designer François Boltana.

http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/colan_0336-1500_1990_num_85_1_2244


Aug 31, 2011 at 18:50

Thanks for the info, Claude.

I wasn't serious with the Champion part.

Seriously, if that happened the other way around, some commercial foundries can make your day miserable.

- 22


Sep 01, 2011 at 16:24

@Claude
Yes, you're right. I was referring to the digital version. Sorry for the confusion.
Your remark about the Q made me curious so I have done a bit of Kells digging. The list is as usual not complete but you'll notice that the fast majority is copied/cloned name it whatever you like by notorious font copiers/cloners, including B&P and its brothers and sisters.

@Toto
As you can see in the link above there are only three original digital versions. Alas, the rest are rip-offs. And yes, also commercial versions can be rip-offs. Remember the Bitstream story?

On 'quality', when I say badly made I don't refer to the shape. That is as you say a matter of taste and has nothing to do with quality. Quality has to do with the technical aspects of a font. How well is it made, are there no (serious) errors and/or omissions. And that, indeed, has nothing to do with 'commercial' or 'free'.
Take your Lettre Dans Le Decor, nicely made and very clean. Cleaner than many, many commercial fonts but, on the other hand, why are the glyphs in random order? Why not sort them? That, imho, would turn a good font into a perfect one. See, not a word about lacking capitals and so, I know you had only lower case and numbers in the sample, because that has nothing to do with quality.

Have fun.


Sep 01, 2011 at 16:27

Thanks for all the help so far guys.

I've actually veered towards another font which I think fits even better what I want.

It's the Aon Cari Celtic one. I've contacted the author to get permission etc, but knowing nothing about fonts, can you tell me if this is a good one in terms of quality? And if not, is it based on one that has confirmed quality?

Thanks for any light you can shed. This world is a mystery to me and there's too much to learn to learn it quickly enough!


Sep 01, 2011 at 16:58

David F. Nalle and Elsner & Flake could tell us the name of the designer.


Sep 01, 2011 at 17:27

No need I think. The designer of the E&F Gandalf is Viktor Kharyk and the Scriptorium one is one of the other 2 original digital versions. http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/scriptorium/alba/

Edited to correct a stupidity

Edited 2 times. Last edit on Sep 01, 2011 at 17:33 by koeiekat


Sep 02, 2011 at 01:56

koeiekat said  
No need I think. The designer of the E&F Gandalf is Viktor Kharyk and the Scriptorium one is one of the other 2 original digital versions.

and Callifonts 55 (1992-95)


Sep 02, 2011 at 15:37

Thanks and done
Missed that one and there is still no guarantee that the list is complete. It will probably never be complete



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