Font Grill - why

  • Why More Fonts?

    Some of you may think there are enough fonts and font services out there already. Why does the world need more fonts? Why am I adding to the glut of fonts?

    A similar question would be "Why do we need more songs or paintings?" Isn't there enough existing art already?

    Fonts provide both a utilitarian and aesthetic function. If you regard fonts as just another file for your computer, then keep reading for a compelling explanation. But if you see fonts as creative expression, then you probably did not ask "Why more fonts?" in the first place.

    Fonts can provide

    • Personalization
      With everybody using the same group of fonts, what is going to set you apart from everyone else? If there are 10 posters or flyers, and 9 of them use Comic Sans but yours uses your own handwriting, which one are people going to notice?
    • Emotion
      or unwritten meaning - the writing equivalent of body language or tone of voice. A plain font can provide that to some extent with the bold or italic view, but other fonts can add extra meaning, such as happy, whimsical, serious, or formal.

  • Why is Font Grill cheaper than other places?

    Other places give you more characters, which most people do not need. When was the last time you needed to type the symbol for registered trademark or the symbol for Japanese Yen? Why pay for something you are not going to use?

    On the other hand, if the standard set of characters is not sufficient, you are welcome to add individual letters or characters to your order for a small fee.

  • What about those online font generators that make the font instantly?

    That's a "what" question, not a "why" question, but I'll answer it anyway.

    It's true that those services are faster and cheaper. But, like most things in life, you get what you pay for.

    It's like having a computer read something aloud as opposed to a person read it. It's a lot smoother and flows better. Why do publishing companies hire people to read audio books instead of just having text-to-speech electronics do it? It would be faster and cheaper for them, right? But it would be lower quality.

    The same applies to fonts. The automatic generators will get the individual letters correct, but they won't know if the letters look right compared to each other or how they look when formed into words.

  • Why can't other people see my font?

    Fonts appear only on computers that have the font installed. If you have your handwriting font and type something using that font, it will display correctly on that computer. If you email the document to some friends, and those friends don't have your font installed, then they won't see your font.

    If you commissioned your handwriting font, then you are free to distribute the font to whomever you want. Or sell it to them - it's your font. However, if you purchased an existing font, then you are not free to distribute that font. You are free to distribute whatever you have created using that font, but the font file must be purchased by each person who, or computer that, is going to use the font.

  • Why does my computer switch to another font while I'm typing?

    If that happens, then you probably typed a character which does not exist in that font. The other thing that could happen if you type a character not in your font is that an empty rectangle appears, instead of the letter you were expecting. See this page for a list of which characters are supported in which font category.

    The standard font from the Font Grill contains just about every character on the standard American keyboard. Please note that if you do need characters that are not included, I can add them to your font. Extra characters are no problem - they are just not included in the standard price

  • Why the name "Font Grill"?

    Because all the good names were taken.