Hi,

I'm a student trying the demo version of FL8  before I buy it. 

My question is: can I blend fonts like the same way in FL5? Please can someone explain how to blend for example Arial with Gill Sans? Is it legal to blend two different fonts in order to get a new font? somehow the generated font will ressemble a bit to both fonts but it will look different theoretically... I might be wrong  :-/

Thank you.

Technically you can blend 2 fonts with FL8, just combine them to one with Font > Merge Fonts to Masters command and force-interpolate with Glyph > Match Masters command.

Hi,

I'm a student trying the demo version of FL8  before I buy it.

My question is: can I blend fonts like the same way in FL5? Please can someone explain how to blend for example Arial with Gill Sans? Is it legal to blend two different fonts in order to get a new font? somehow the generated font will ressemble a bit to both fonts but it will look different theoretically... I might be wrong  :-/

Thank you.

Welcome! Great question!

Hmm...I'm not sure how much you know about licensing.

Fonts You Can't Blend

When you have two fonts on your computer, you do not own them. However, you can use them according to a license. Fonts like Arial and Gill Sans are owned by Microsoft and Monotype.

Anything derived is owned by them. So if you blend them, they own it.

But even blending them is probably a breach of your license and is not legal.

Certain fonts allow you to change them for purposes of typography. For example, if a typographer wants a period to be spaced more generously in a document, he can modify the font for his own use. Most fonts do not allow this. Some Adobe Originals like Myriad's license allow you to make modifications.

But this cannot be sold or even distributed. (But of course you need to see the license and read it to see what is allowed. As far as legal documents go, font licenses (sometimes called the End User License Agreement, EULA) are pretty easy to read. Usually they spell out pretty clearly, things like "this font or the vector outlines may not be embedded whole or in part into any digital document, including but not limited to PDF, EPS".


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Fonts You Might Be Able to Blend

Other fonts (sometimes called open source fonts) are distributed according to licenses that allow you to do more:

Two main examples are (To see the link, please log in.) and(To see the link, please log in.). There's also the (To see the link, please log in.).

Many fonts with this licenses can be downloaded from Google Fonts.

However, be aware that many of these licenses do not allow you to sell derivative fonts (commercial use).

For many open source fonts, if you make a derivative font, you can only give away for free–this would be a share-alike license. Sometimes with attribution, sometimes not.

Reading through the Creative Commons licenses will help you understand the levels of licensing.


Use Your Own Talent

One thing you can do is imagine how you think that font would look, then use the great tools  in FontLab to make that a reality.

That way, you use your own unique imagination to create something interesting and new!


It's great that you started your FontLab journey!

Disclaimer: The information contained in this site is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter.