[fsloth]

Mickey Mouse is just a character. Font faces can be considered critical technical components in the printing process.

If you are using a typeface to print a metric ton of publications, I'm pretty sure you would want it to be engineered to be fit for that purpose. And that the typeface definitions retains its' quality. I would not trust an open source process to maintain a standard of quality. Hence, you need an institution to maintain the quality. Which needs funding.

What is the "correct" price for the font foundries services is of course a different matter altogether.

[antidesitter]

> I would not trust an open source process to maintain a standard of quality.

On what basis?

[fsloth]

On a hunch. I may be wrong.

It seems to me that a font, suitable for printing, is a niche product with a very old history of proprietary providers and craftsmen.

It's this crafts aspect which makes the open sourcing a bit more difficult, IMO. I.e you need specialists to maintain a certain quality.

[pbhjpbhj]

And only rent-seeking craftsmen are capable of high quality work?

[fsloth]

The question is not quality, but predictability.

Mickey Mouse is not a very good analog to a typeface. The analog to Mickey Mouse would be a letter in an alphabet - an abstract concept, that, never the less, is immediately recognizable.

A typeface, then, is a specific set of instructions to a specific implementation of this abstract idea. I.e. with Mickey it might be a specification to a specific implementation of this character including the type of voice actor to use, how the character behaves specifically, how it moves, etc etc. I.e. a much more specific than just "It's mickey, it's ours, fuck off" type of obstruction of creativity.

Like I said, I have no idea if foundries and their license fees are necessary, but at least their clients know how to source a specific high quality implementation of their typefaces.

[antidesitter]

A font doesn’t require continuous maintenance.

[jrockway]

I mean... sort of. It seems like hundreds of new emoji are added every few years. They do not draw themselves.

Question is whether or not anyone cares.