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Font Smuggler – Copy hidden brand fonts into Google Docs

brianmoore.com

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Re: Font Smuggler – Copy hidden brand fonts into Google Docs

#81

Post by shiroiuma »

Someone wrote: post #10
vrganj wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did we go from owning the software we run and being able to just modify things as we see fit to "You have to give Google a lot of money so you can have your own font in your own presentation"? Where did things go this wrong?

If you want to drink your own wine in a restaurant, you have to pay for that, too. This isn’t much different; there still are plenty of non-Google options for creating presentations to choose from that do allow using your own font.

>If you want to drink your own wine in a restaurant, you have to pay for that, too.

Depends on the place. Tons of restaurants in New Jersey encourage you to bring your own wine bottle and don't charge a "corking fee".

Re: Font Smuggler – Copy hidden brand fonts into Google Docs

#82

Post by dhosek »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #70
dhosek wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legally, typeface designs do not receive protection (which is based on idiotic declarations like “you can’t copyright the alphabet”) but digital font files are considered programs and thus are able to be protected as IP.¹ You can try to justify the theft to yourself but somewhere there’s an individual (or on some occasions many individuals) who spent a long time making decisions about how that typeface should look an…

>there are plenty of perfectly legible typefaces that are completely free for you to use. Legally based off the carefully considered positions of philosophers of law like Thomas Jefferson, and others just as renowned, who actually created modern copyright law in the United States, because they weren't trying to set you up to be rent-seeking degenerate scribblers for the next umpteen millennia. >but digital font files…

You think a bitmap is a program?

I do not argue with idiots.

Re: Font Smuggler – Copy hidden brand fonts into Google Docs

#83

Post by wvh »

vrganj wrote: post #9
dijit wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh thanks! I looked but I missed that. So, I need to be super rich? Thats sad.

Why did we go from owning the software we run and being able to just modify things as we see fit to "You have to give Google a lot of money so you can have your own font in your own presentation"? Where did things go this wrong?

We ignored Richard Stallman?

Re: Font Smuggler – Copy hidden brand fonts into Google Docs

#84

Post by 47282847 »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #64
rafram wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fine, I’ll take the bait. If this is true, then why isn’t everything in the world Arial/Helvetica?

Because people are stupid enough to worry about many things which don't matter. This includes, but is not limited to, font choices.

Interesting how you seem so sure about what matters to other people, when the reality is that anything matters that people say matters to them. If people care about fonts, they do care about fonts.

If I follow your train of thought to its logical conclusion, nothing matters. Which is correct, but sort of pointless to state. On top of this nothingness, we typically stack personal preferences.

Re: Font Smuggler – Copy hidden brand fonts into Google Docs

#85

Post by miguel-muniz »

iamcalledrob wrote: post #35
detritus wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of interest, did you rename the font prior to use? I'm curious how they found it. You can also just stick them in a font-editor and re-export "as your own font" with some minor tweaks. Not that you should, of course.

You really should pay, especially for work by small foundries. Making a typeface takes a tremendous amount of work. The financial upside is extremely hard to justify. I think non-designers underestimate the amount of effort required by an order of magnitude. I put it in the territory of building indie games. Potentially years of your life go into it, and it's a huge problem if everyone pirates your work.

I do a bit of graphic design for friends and family and am more than willing to spend like up to $100 on a nice typeface from smaller creators. It's just unfortunate many professional typefaces from the big foundries will charge you thousands of dollars for an entire family with strict usage limits. Like I'm just trying to make some holiday cards...

I get that they're trying to make their ROI back from enterprise customers who can justify paying thousands a month for their specific corporate font, but I would like to see more personal use, project based pricing that's affordable for hobbyist use

Re: Font Smuggler – Copy hidden brand fonts into Google Docs

#86

Post by xigoi »

ryandrake wrote: post #76
detritus wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually a designer, have paid for many fonts - including licenses for websites - have made a couple myself and have a good idea how hard they are to make. That said, a certain corporation's bought up a load of fonts made over the past x decades and is making a tidy sum selling old rope again and again without adding anything of value, or funding the original designers/converters, so I'm quite happy to illuminate…

Fonts are (simplifying greatly) just code, right? I wonder when AI models will be able to cleanroom-clone the general look of a font without violating the copyright on the official version's underlying code.

An important part of a font is kerning. I’m guessing that LLMs would be really bad at kerning because they don’t have visual intuition.
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