Comment by cyberpunk

Comment by cyberpunk 2 days ago

27 replies

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I remember trying to explain to some colleagues why I paid about 100 bucks for the font I use and why I wouldn’t share it with them and they just couldn’t get it.

(It’s Berkeley mono).

I don’t even know how many glyphs it is (it’s thousands) but for something I’m looking at for 6-8 hours a day, every single day and is the absolute peak of perfection (at least to me), 100 bucks seems like a fucking bargain to me.

shrug I guess these folks never sold something they made completely by themselves maybe.

Suppafly 2 days ago

>shrug I guess these folks never sold something they made completely by themselves maybe.

Not saying font designers shouldn't get paid, but they mostly aren't making things "completely by themselves", they are mostly making derivative works from things that exist, without any consideration for the original authors.

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  • kccqzy 2 days ago

    What do you suppose they should do to the original authors? Perhaps the original author is Claude Garamond who died in the sixteenth century? Or the unknown workers who carved the inscription at Trajan's column in the second century AD?

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    • Suppafly 2 days ago

      So you understand the issue, it's derivative works all the way down.

      Reply View 4 replies
      • xboxnolifes a day ago

        When people say "make completely by themselves", they don't mean that were not influenced by literally no prior works. Artists can say they painted an original work entirely by themselves without needing a pedant to mention that they were probably influenced by prior work.

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      • mikey_p 20 hours ago

        Clearly nothing based on Latin script can be original, which itself is based on the Etruscan Old italic alphabet, which itself it based on the Euboean alphabet — ergo, any typeface developed after say the 8th century BC is just a silly derivative.

        Everything is derivative, there is nothing new under the sun, and your argument proves nothing.

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      • jzacharia a day ago

        at a high enough level of abstraction, all creative work is derivative. wouldn't call it an "issue"

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        • Suppafly 20 hours ago

          >at a high enough level of abstraction, all creative work is derivative.

          Sure, but with fonts you have basically one level between the font they are 'developing' and the one they are copying from. There is work involved, but very little of it is creative work.

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homebrewer 2 days ago

The "peak of perfection" does not support even just European languages, not having full coverage even for Latin scripts. But it's a "love letter for the golden age of computing", and the golden age had massive problems with scripts for languages other than English, so maybe it's intentional.

https://usgraphics.com/static/products/TX-02/datasheet/TX-02...

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  • neilpanchal 2 days ago

    Hey, Berkeley Mono supports most Western European languages, can you tell me what's missing? I can add it. Btw, the tagline is about the aesthetics. :)

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    • testing1235 2 days ago

      Hi Neil, I'm not that person you replied to but in my projects I require Cyrillic glyphs for Russian and Ukrainian texts. Also when checking out your website just now, I wasn't able to add a Berkeley Mono App License module in your ordering system. I assume I need a App License to embed the font in my app? But I also can't seem to find any information about the app license itself on your site as well.

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      • neilpanchal 2 days ago

        Cyrillic is not supported so Berkeley Mono might not be suitable for your application. Are you building a Web app (Webfonts) or a Desktop/Mobile app (App license)? Please email me.

        Reply View 3 replies
    • niij 7 hours ago

      Your website is absolutely beautiful and so well laid out. The examples given really sell the font.

      For someone who has never really been a font nerd and has never bought a font—yet: all the add on choices are confusing. Ligatures, I get, but the other options feel overwhelming. Perhaps I'm not quite the market.

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    • EvanAnderson 2 days ago

      Is it a mistake, on page 4 of the linked datasheet, that "SemiBold" is shown for two different weights? I can't help but think that something like "DemiBold" was what the lighter weight was supposed to be labeled.

      Reply View 2 replies
      • neilpanchal 2 days ago

        Yes, that's a typo. Need to redo the entire datasheet and possibly find a way to automate it using reportlab or some other PDF library. Right now, it is in InDesign and it is a pain to keep updating it.

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        • tiagod 2 days ago

          I've been using Typst to generate PDF reports and it's pretty nice.

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  • wyager 2 days ago

    What percentage of monospace text on the internet uses random obscure glyphs? This isn't really a practical problem.

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    • scripturial a day ago

      Pretty much anyone coding in another language. Coders do sometimes buy fonts if they are into fonts and nice terminals.

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jmb99 2 days ago

> shrug I guess these folks never sold something they made completely by themselves maybe

Ignoring that they likely didn’t make it completely by themselves (standing on the shoulders of giants and such), it’s quite possible that those people don’t believe that a file should cost money. I’ve made a few things as close to “completely by myself” as possible and given them away for free, and those were physical objects - I lose it when I give it away! I have absolutely no problem giving away 1s and 0s for free, I can make as many copies of the original as I want with no additional effort.

Of course we don’t live in a world where everyone can follow their passions without needing money in return for sharing the result with the world, so it’s fully understandable people want to sell their art. It’s disingenuous and reductive to assume that anyone who doesn’t want to pay for art has never made anything completely by themselves, though.

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kstrauser 2 days ago

Same for me, same font, same logic. The author put a lot of hands-on work into making something I stare at all day long. I even just bought a license for a friend for his birthday because I love it.

But I'm not sharing my copy with anyone else. This isn't insulin or something. They'll be just fine without it.

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edm0nd a day ago

how does that work? you set this font to be used by all your computers and devices?

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shadowgovt 2 days ago

Never really considered it, but taking a quick glance: yes, I'd pay $100 for that too, especially as my main font for programming interface.

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