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September 2022 NewsBeat 15 for you to start using. Finding free fonts online, from the far too many websites out there, isn't really a viable solution in most cases. My experi- ence is that they are poorly made, which affects letter and word spacing, output re- liability, and more. They often have limited character sets, and, the worst part, the free fonts are rarely available for commercial use (just for your personal blog posts). I've downloaded free fonts that didn't have punctuation. If you want to change faces, and may- be enjoy a little bit of a redesign, now is a good time. I recommend you explore the power of OpenType fonts (OTF) and incor- porate that into your design and workflow. Depending on your design changes, you may have to buy some fonts, but instead of paying to replace fonts that give you the same look you've had for three decades, maybe a refresh is a good thing here. I think it's worth noting that there is a lot of information out there about eco-friend- ly fonts. Switching to these fonts might reduce the amount of ink and chemicals used, allowing you to share the message to your community that you're actively trying to have an impact on the environment. Convert your Type 1 Fonts to Open- Type or TrueType Cost: $90 to $95 This one is tricky, but definitely a pos- sible solution. There are several font con- version options out there. There are two I can recommend. The other conversion tools are online and ask you to upload your PostScript font for conversion to True- Type (TTF) or OTF. Remember that Type 1 fonts are either Mac or Windows, not cross platform like TTF or OTF. The online conversion sites might work with windows files, but after too long testing the various options on my Mac, I couldn't get any of them to work and I gave up. So we're back to the two software appli- cations you need to buy to use, TransType by FontLab (www.fontlab.com) and FontX- Change by Fontgear (www.fontgear.com). It is beyond the scope of this article to teach you how to use these applications, but they are so simple that if I did write an article on how they work, it would be a short one. I downloaded the demo ver- sions for both to test and in minutes I had my converted font installed and working. Simple. The bigger issue, before you convert your fonts, is to find out if it's legal. Fonts are software, with licenses and rules you agreed to follow when you "purchased" them. These End User License Agreements, or EULAs, are generally ignored as we just click through when installing something. "Sure, why not," we say, then click okay. Some font foundries make it very clear they don't allow conversion, so that you will buy new fonts, instead. Using Nimrod as an example, I glanced through their EULA and found this: "6. Alterations to Font Software. You may not alter Font Software for the purpose of add- ing any functionality that such Font Soft- ware did not have when delivered to you by Monotype." What is your interpretation of that? I'm not your attorney or your conscience. In my mind, converting Type 1 to OTF is "adding any functionality" in that it will now be able to work with the upgrade. The best solution, before buying conver- sion software, is to contact the foundry and see what they think. If you want to test it out, both come with demo software that is free and will convert your Type 1 fonts for you. The limitation is that Aa is an empty space and Bb is Dd, Cc is Ee, Dd is Mm, and Ee is Oo. So as long as you can put out your paper without using A, B, C, D, or E, you can probably get away with using the demo software. Bargain. Before you decide on this path, however, please consider the following option. Buy the Font as OpenType Cost: Varies by font It would seem to be an easy solution to simply search for the font you have now that is Type 1, and find the OTF replace- ment, then buy it. I received an email recently asking about Nimrod, as they've used it for the past 20 years. A quick online search shows it for sale for $35 per face. It's important to know, before making a decision on which solution to pursue, that OpenType fonts can have more functional- ity than Type 1 or TTF. Simply being OTF doesn't mean it does. For example, Type 1 fonts can only have up to 256 characters. OTF can have up to 65,535 letters, glyphs, numbers, punctua- tion, dingbats, etc. So if the foundry that makes the font decides to take advantage of this, the new OTF version of the font you've used forever will have more options. It's also possible the new font, even though OTF, still only has the exact same character set as your old Type 1. OpenType has other capabilities, too, if the foundry built them into the fonts. Things like automatic fractions, ligatures, better super and subscripting, more num- ber height controls, alternate characters and more. So I coughed up $35 and bought Nimrod Regular to compare to the Type 1 and Type 1converted to OTF. In my opinion, it would be money well spent. Let's start with fractions. With this feature turned on in InDesign, if you type 11/2 it automatically becomes 1 ½ with the fraction numbers automatically becom- ing subscript and superscript,etc. Ligatures kick in automatically with certain character pairs, like a lower case f and l, for a word like flowers. The f and l are joined as a liga- ture for better readability. If you do anything with small caps, I found the look of the purchased OTF ver- sion superior to the Type 1 and converted versions. Wrapping up Cost: A couple of minutes of your time If I were faced with this situation with my paper, I would start with a quick anal- ysis to see where these Type 1 fonts are used. With this information, I would ex- plore to see if there are similar fonts I can use to substitute with the same look and feel. If the fonts are only used in standing heads, can I just create outlines and use the heads as art? I would also wonder to myself if it's time for a redesign of some sort. It doesn't have to be a complete makeover, maybe just some simple changes that fresh- en up the look a bit. If the Type 1 font is for editorial in any way, and I just can't change this time-hon- ored look, I would cough up the money and buy the fonts. OpenType is so cool in what it can do that I believe I would get my money's worth in improved productivity in the long run. And I did the math, finally, on a calcula- tor, and the cost of Nimrod Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic, for up to five users, is $140. I bought mine from Fonthaus.com. It took only minutes. Russell Viers is an international speaker and trainer who teaches production tech- niques for graphic designers. In addition to speaking live, he offers training online through is site www.digiversity.tv.

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