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Helvetica Now Variable
11–20 of 197 posts
Re: Helvetica Now Variable
#12Fantastic font, now infinitely malleable! Unfortunately it is expensive, and you can't just buy it and use it, you have to renew the license annually. https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mti/helvetica-now-variable?tab... And my use case isn't even covered: include in a web application that will be downloaded and installed by customers. My current choice is OpenSans https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Open+Sans
How does this work? Normally I download and install TTF files and install them on my computer. How are licensed fonts work? Is there some kind of proprietary installation?
Re: Helvetica Now Variable
#13Fantastic font, now infinitely malleable! Unfortunately it is expensive, and you can't just buy it and use it, you have to renew the license annually. https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mti/helvetica-now-variable?tab... And my use case isn't even covered: include in a web application that will be downloaded and installed by customers. My current choice is OpenSans https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Open+Sans
Look at Inter. Absolutely the best open source font I found. Also variable!
Re: Helvetica Now Variable
#14Fantastic font, now infinitely malleable! Unfortunately it is expensive, and you can't just buy it and use it, you have to renew the license annually. https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mti/helvetica-now-variable?tab... And my use case isn't even covered: include in a web application that will be downloaded and installed by customers. My current choice is OpenSans https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Open+Sans
> Unfortunately it is expensive, and you can't just buy it and use it, you have to renew the license annually.
Not even that. If you want it for a web page you have to pay in blocks of page views. In my mind that moves it from "eh" to "LOL no". These are licensing terms for people who want the name.
Re: Helvetica Now Variable
#15Well by gosh, I am old enough to remember Adobe Multiple Masters…
https://blog.typekit.com/2014/07/30/the-adobe-originals-silv...
…a technology which went absolutely nowhere.
Makes me glad to see Helvetica is now available as variable, as well as a non-trivial number of open-source fonts.
https://fonts.google.com/?vfonly=true&sort=popularity
(Still waiting for Roboto, though. Slab and mono are there, the main sans isn’t yet, which is too bad.)
Re: Helvetica Now Variable
#16If you're interested in variable fonts, the recent SF Design Week talk [1] from the folks at Google was pretty accessible! Maybe if enough folks ping them they'd be willing to put up a recording. [1] https://sfdesignweek.org/events/typography-in-the-variable-a...
Looks like replays and on-demand are available for $15 [1]. What were your favorite presentations from SF Design Week? I did not attend but I would purchase on-demand for $15 if there were a few interesting talks. [1] https://www.boomset.com/apps/eventpage/113863
I didn't realize it's all still accessible! The event list [1] includes abstracts. For me, personally, I was more interested in the conversations (e.g., [2]) than the various software companies talking about design.
I'd say if you're interested, treat it as a $15 "watch a few talks instead of going to a movie".
[1] https://sfdesignweek.org/category/?s&events
[2] https://sfdesignweek.org/events/cocktails-with-top-designers...
Re: Helvetica Now Variable
#17Helvetica Now is such a departure from what makes the typeface a classic that I think Monotype kept Helvetica in the name mostly for marketing purposes. To me CommercialType’s Neue Haas Grotesk is the absolute best digitalization of Miedingers original drawings.
Re: Helvetica Now Variable
#18Am I crazy for expecting fonts to be free? There are so many good options that I can use without paying a license fee. I can't imagine liking the tiny differences in a font so much that I would get myself locked into a yearly licensing fee.
Re: Helvetica Now Variable
#19Fantastic font, now infinitely malleable! Unfortunately it is expensive, and you can't just buy it and use it, you have to renew the license annually. https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mti/helvetica-now-variable?tab... And my use case isn't even covered: include in a web application that will be downloaded and installed by customers. My current choice is OpenSans https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Open+Sans
> Unfortunately it is expensive, and you can't just buy it and use it, you have to renew the license annually. Not even that. If you want it for a web page you have to pay in blocks of page views. In my mind that moves it from "eh" to "LOL no". These are licensing terms for people who want the name.
Typefaces should not be copyrightable. Print ones are not, it makes no sense that digital ones are.
Re: Helvetica Now Variable
#20Am I crazy for expecting fonts to be free? There are so many good options that I can use without paying a license fee. I can't imagine liking the tiny differences in a font so much that I would get myself locked into a yearly licensing fee.
Yes, you are crazy and perhaps even entitled to think that you deserve the fruit of all font creator’s labour for nothing.