Recently, on an old post, I got a question:
“Might come off as a silly question, but I need answers. I was formerly employed by a large company as a designer. I have left the company to start my own freelance design business. I still continue to do design work for my former company. Do I need to purchase a set of fonts in order to legally do my work as a freelancer? What is a good set to buy? Or is it better to buy them on an as needed basis? Any recommendations would be appreciated.”
And my response:
Thanks for reading – and no, that’s not a silly question.

As far as the legality – I have to plead a little bit o’ ignorance on that. I will say – it is ALWAYS better to have your own, fully licensed copy of ANYTHING you have on your computer. Fonts included.

As far as having a bunch of fonts, – really, it all kind of depends on your needs. If you work with a lot of fonts, or plan to work with a lot of fonts, then you …

I’ve spent too much time (not billable hours, mind you) trying to find a slightly weird font that I’ve used in some job. It’s not a typical font – and it’s not a typical foundry.

It’s something specialized that I can’t remember. And, to top it all off, I’ve converted the font to outlines to make it easier to fill and manipulate. So, when I open the file – no font warning telling me what it is…

I’m boned and I have to spend an hour rolling through Suitcase and the 8 billion fonts I have.

But – there are ways.

There are options to find that font (I detailed What the Font here), but they assume you’re using fairly normal fonts from a big-name foundry. The easiest and most time-effective thing to do is to know what the font is at all times.

So – a few simple solutions to remember the fonts:

1. Make a folder. Name that folder the font you used.

2. Make a note document (Word, TextEdit, whatever) that contains a list of the fonts used and keep it in the folder with the files for that job.

3. This is what I normally do – before you convert the font, copy …

One of the banes of my existence as a freelance graphic artist has been trying to track down weird fonts. You routinely get logos or layouts that have the fonts converted, and they’re invariably something obscure or tacky or from a strange foundry.

If you’re like me, you’ve got thousands upon thousands of fonts from every manufacturer out there, and rolling through them all can take a long, long time – and make you crazy because of the subtle variations.

But – a great tool has come to the resuce: What the Font from MyFonts.com.

You scan the offending font and upload it to their server, answer a few questions and it gives you several fonts that it most likely is. The better your input is, the more precise the answer is. Plus, once you’ve got your answer, it gives you links to the font manufacturer so you can buy the font if you need to.

Best of all, it’s free and it’s fast. It’s not always dead-on, but it’s the closest thing I’ve seen to the perfect tool. Very nice, very slick.

Now, if it would just revoke the design license of folks that use Comic Sans, …

I’ve found that the freelance life requires me to laugh. A LOT.

I think I’ll create a list (lists are a good way to keep track of things – there, that’ll serve as my info for today) to keep track of the things I should do when stresses set in.

Cable Modem Dead: Read an Al Jaffee comic.
Bad Customer Interaction: Big Lebowski
Hard Drive Malfunction: The Young Ones Box set in it’s entirety.
Losing Out on a Bid: Seinfeld or Simpsons
Client Requesting Comic Sans:

Seriously, people – we’ve got to do away with Comic Sans. I wish we had one of those Men In Black memory eraser things so we could roam the globe and eliminate every copy of Comic Sans, then wipe free the memory of such an offending font.

Sadly, I have more than 5 copies installed. Just in case…

Hmm – maybe tomorrow we talk font management.