That makes sense. I was thinking that people who are drunk slur their speech when they talk, but not when they type.

The only German I know is Schnell!, for when the guy who lives in the basement isn't shoveling the coal fast enough.

Menhir meant better when he said besser. He wasn't drunk, just French.

ForeverAri921, AJ's e-mail address was mv.dings@tiscali.co.uk, but I haven't had any correspondence with her in almost six years, so the address might now be inactive. Even then, she didn't have any contact information for Karla.

Twenty-nine of the WillyMac fonts are available on DaFont, http://www.dafont.com/willymac.d527. The entire collection of 55 WillyMac fonts can be found at Fontspace http://www.fontspace.com/willymac, but she didn't upload them herself.

Fonts with a JI prefix are usually by Jeri Ingalls, (Jeri's Fonts). There's no mention of Nearly on the Luc Devroye page: http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-32181.html

There is a font called JI Nearly available on one of download sites on the shit list.

Jeri Ingalls did a lot of dingbats and letterbats, and a few standard alphabet fonts about 10-12 years ago. From the read me docs I have, they were Free for Personal Use, but the commercial use terms aren't mentioned.



Fonts with a JI- prefix are from Jupiter Images Corporation. I have quite a few of them. They appear to be knock-offs, for the most part. JI-Schrod:



Looks an awful lot like Fontdinerdotcom: http://www.dafont.com/fontdinerdotcom.font?text=JI-Schrod&back=author

"Too much ♦marijuana♦ makes someone think he is funny".

~bobistheowl

@Jay0973: Diogenes is a Free font. All of the Apostrophic Labs fonts are free. If you want the specific terms of use, here they are: http://www.myfonts.com/foundry/Apostrophic_Labs/

"The fonts from Apostrophic Laboratories are freeware and can be used as they are in any context without permission from Apostrophic Laboratories, except to produce material that is racist, criminal and/or illegal in nature." .

(You could have easily found this Myfonts link yourself, on any search engine).

I think the only other condition is that you must read the read me text document, and from an earlier post of yours, you've already done this.

You can use the following guidelines for other fonts:

If the font is identified as Free, you can use commercially, without asking for, or receiving permission from the designer. If the designer has contact information in DaFont, they would likely appreciate receiving an e-mail with an image of how you used their font, but that's just common courtesy, not a mandatory requirement. The user DOES NOT have the right to modify a Free font, nor can the user rename the Free font, and claim that it is their personal creation.

Most fonts made prior to 2008 were either Free or Commercial, with a small number being Shareware, (similar to Free for Personal Use, but with a small fee, usually $5 - $10, for a commercial use license).

If the font is Free for Personal Use, the definition of personal use, and the licensing fee, will vary from font to font, and may be dependent on the type of commercial use for which the font is to be used. For example, If a film studio wanted to use the font for movie titles, they might pay a higher fee than someone who wants to print a flyer for an Indy rock band that plays gigs for beer.

If the font is Donationware, you need to pay something to the author, or to some agency designated by the author, but the amount is variable, and determined by the person who is using the font commercially.

If the font is Public Domain, consider it to be the same as a free font, with, (often), the additional option for the user to have the right to modify the font, (ie: you could create additional glyphs, perhaps with an accent added to an upper or lower case letter).

If the font is Commercial, you have to pay a fee before you can download the font, and the terms of commercial use should ALWAYS be clearly and specifically defined.

If the terms of use are not clearly spelled out in one or more files contained in a download .zip from DaFont, you NEED to contact the author ONLY IF the font is Free for Personal Use or Donationware.

One other general rule, regarding the DaFont forums: You should generally disregard advice from any poster who uses smilies in lieu of text. You should pay more attention to posters who use bold text, for emphasis.

As you probably already know, smilies are for teenage girls sending text messages to each other on mobile phones. For some reason, people from Europe think smilies are cool, like wearing a thong swimsuit at the beach, regardless of their level of physical conditioning. No doubt, they are probably the same people still doing the Mexican Wave at concerts and sporting events.


~bobistheowl

Link to the Font Identification forum in English: http://www.dafont.com/forum/?f=1

En Español: http://www.dafont.com/es/forum/?f=1

DaFont can be read in English, French, or Spanish, by selecting the link in the upper right corner of the browser window. Each of the three languages has a separate discussion forum, but the Font Identification forum is common to all three. The language of choice affects the parts of the page not posted by forum members.

@Jay0973: Diogenes is by Apostraphic Labs: http://www.dafont.com/apostrophic-labs.d128 They made a number of freeware fonts around 2000. As far as I know, all of their read me documents are anecdotal stories that have nothing to do with the terms for commercial use.

In the case of Diogenes, the story you described is relevant, to the name of the font. Diogenes of Sinope was an eccentric Greek philosopher from the 4th century BC. Legend has it that he used to dress like a hermit and walk around with a lantern in the middle of the day, 'looking for an honest man'. His image appears in the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot card deck:



which I used for my 2007 font, GypsyTarot-MajorArcana http://www.abstractfonts.com/font/12704

~bobistheowl

Buy a commercial license. All of Billy Argel's fonts on DaFont are trial/ demo versions, meaning that:

There are restrictions on how you can use them, (most likely, printing and embedding are not allowed; you could use them in an app like Microsoft Word to see the text display, but you might not be able to create a .pdf document, for example).

I think Billy has given up font making, and returned to doing skateboard designs. koeiekat may be able to provide you with contact information. As far as I know, he's no longer answering correspondence at the contact info/ site info displayed in his DaFont profile or in the 'Note of the Author' section on the details pages.

@ttttela: Try http://www.fontspace.com Many of the fonts available at DaFont are also available at Fontspace, and there are also many great fonts available on one of these sites, but not the other. Some type designers only submit their work to DaFont, and others only to Fontspace. Since Fontspace has no evaluation process, you'll also find some truly horrible fonts over there.

@ Menhir: I think tttela has already reviewed the fonts available at DaFont, and is looking for sites in addition to DaFont.

It's also not especially well made. Notice how the height of flat topped glyphs is inconsistent, as is the base line, and the width of vertical strokes. It's a free font, and probably as good as the author could do, when he made it.

Limiting embedding may have been the default setting in Fontographer 4.1 - I'm not sure. Without changing the embedding settings, you probably can't print the font, or allow it to be seen in an electronic document, by someone who does not have the font installed. I think you probably knew that; I wrote it for the other people reading the thread who didn't know.

~bobistheowl

You should provide a link/ links to the specific font(s) you're talking about. If you're seeing these jagged edges and pixelation when used on a telephone, the chances are good that there are no problems with the font itself. If you have these problems when you try to use the font on a computer, You may need to change your font smoothing settings in your System preferences. It's also possible that the font(s) you're talking about was/were poorly designed by amateurs, and the edges are rough because there are too many nodes on the contours, (ie: instead of one long, smooth line, there are a series of shorter lines, with roughly the same slope). Such a font may look OK at a few point sizes, but it will deteriorate, if the image is enlarged, or made smaller.

Without knowing exactly what font(s) you're talking about, there's no way to offer you specific help. You really should have included that information, and links to the fonts, in your first post.

http://www.dafont.com/starstruck.font

Most likely, this font was sumitted to DaFont by someone other than its author. According to the information on the details page, it was submitted "before 2005", and details in the font file suggest that the final version was generated on March 19, 2002. There is no designer information included in the Font Info, and embedding is not allowed.

In 2002, almost every font fell into one of three categories:

1) Commercial - a license fee was required to both download the font, and use it commercially.

2) Shareware - A small fee, usually around $5, was required for commercial use. This information was usually included in the header.

3) Freeware: Personal and commercial use of the font was allowed, without payment to the author.

The prevalence of 'free for personal use' fonts is a relatively new phenomena. Most non-commercial designers used to offer their work as freeware, to give back to the Design Community for the freeware fonts, designed by other people, that they collected and used. They often did this anonymously, with no designer information contained in the font file itself.

There is a reasonable chance that Starstruck might be a clone of an earlier font. It may also be a 'semi-original' design - To me, it looks like someone took an existing font, and added flourishes.

The embedding settings will probably limit the ways that you can use this font. If you know how to change them, you'll likely have no problems using it commercially. Someone might claim to be the author, but how would they prove it?

I don't tell people how to change embedding settings in forum posts. Some of the other DaFont forum moderators, the ones who are also designers of Free for Personal Use fonts, will bite my head off, if I do. Limiting the embedding of a font is a way that a font author can restrict the use of their font beyond typing text in a Microsoft Word doc. A lot of FFPU fonts are strictly advertising for the licensed version. They allow you to type a text sample, but not much else. It's common for older freeware fonts to have embedding restrictions, but a legitimately purchased licensed version should be able to be used without restriction.

That varies from Faith to Faith. The sacrifice by fire of an unblemished kid goat, calf, or suckling pig, while considered old school by most, is surprisingly well received, and may lead to Divine Favour within a fortnight, particularly in battle. The key word is unblemished; examine your sacrificial animal closely, and make sure it has not been surgically altered, (ie: no gelded, spayed/ neutered, animals, should ever be used, only breeding stock).

While illegal in most countries, the sacrifice of an unweaned infant child will still appease most Elder Gods, especially if you are requesting permission to perform an act deemed illegal, blasphemous, or sacrilegious under more than one criminal or religious code.


In all cases, you should be kneeling, or in some recognizable posture of submission. I think that's they only universal requirement.

I hope this helps!

~bito

I would probably value Menhir's opinions more, if he ever makes a font. I find his opinions too extreme, as when he suggests that permission is required to use a free font, or his Draconian definition of commercial usage. My opinions are more in line with those of koeiekat and Toto@K22, as far as this thread goes.

What we do see, however, is that there is not a cut and dried definition of personal use that can be applied to all fonts that carry the Free for personal Use license description. What matters is:

"How does the author of the font you want to use define personal use?"

That should be set out in the licence, or read me. It ought to be included in the font header, as well, because no one can assume that all of the author's intended files will always be included with the download. There are hundreds of fly-by-night font download sites that never receive any submissions, they just mine Dafont and other legitimate sites for their content, and frequently strip a .ttf file from the download .zip, and only offer that. All of my fonts are free, so I'm not overly concerned about that for my own work, but other authors should think in terms of adding at least a rudimentary explanation of terms of use to the header. Don't include an e-mail address in the header, though, or it will appear in search engine results, and lead to many spam e-mails for generic Viagara, and penis enlargement pills.

@winty5

If there's an old cemetery near where you live, take some photographs of the lettering on tombstones from the same era. If you can find several, you might be able to complete a full capitals alphabet. Trying to interpret the letters chiseled into rock as flat black and white glyphs could be a whole lot more interesting to look at than any of the fonts you've made so far.

I doubt you will be able to locate Karla, author of the WillyMac fonts.

There are 55 WillyMac dingbat fonts, all made in 2001-2002. They were originally available at http://www.willymac.us/fonts/dingbat-fonts.html , but that site was closed in Spring, 2003. From June, 2003, they were available through the Moss Valley Dingbat Links (or MVDL) at Dingbats-UK. Dingbats-UK went offline sometime in 2008 or 2009. Since 2003, they have been posted on a number of other font download sites.

My information comes from AJ, the former Webmistress of Dingbats-UK, who wrote the read me for the download from that site.

Go to the details page of any font on Dafont by clicking the banner. In the Custom Preview field, where it says 'Type your text here', type your text. In the Size list box, select Tiny, Small, Medium, or Large. Click the Submit button.

jordansj, I didn't see anything wrong with that font. Perhaps you might get better results, if you change your font viewing settings. These are the instructions for Windows XP. You should be able to do the same thing in a similar way with Windows 7:

1) Right-click My Computer, and select Properties to open the System Properties dialog box, (or open the System icon in the Control Panel). Click the Advanced tab, then click the Settings button in the Performance section. One of the items on the list is 'Smooth edges of screen fonts'. Click on the box to the left of that, to either enable or disable, then click OK to make the change, and close the dialog box. You can change this back later, if you want to.

2) Right-click the desktop, and chose Properties, (probably called Preferences in Win7), or click the Display icon in the Control Panel. Select the Appearance tab. Click the effects button, to open the Effects dialog box. In the section 'Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts', open the list box, and change the setting - the two choices should be 'Standard' and 'ClearType'. Click OK to confirm the changes and close the Effects dialog box. You have to close the Display Properties dialog box separately.

These instructions are courtesy of Toto@K22.