Re: Typographic copyright (was: Emory HTML claim)

At 04:54 PM 3/22/96 -0600, Mark Lemley wrote:

>

Most of the readable typefonts are either free or cheap. Fancy typefonts are for ad headlines, artistically stylish layout, and other uses that should fall under other creativity protection. If the designer uses specialty fonts designed and licensed by others, it usually costs only $150-200 US to buy the disk and right to use it. I guess you could reprint the King James Bible using something like oblique bold futura condensed, but I'd like to see anyone over 40 read more than a couple of pages of it. And, I doubt the published book of that particular version of the P.D bible would be a big seller.

Typeset works are supposed to be read, so they should be readable. Several readable fonts that can be used without worry are available. Readership studies have shown that certain typestyles are easier to read (serif is easier that sans-serif; all caps is more difficult to read), so any publisher, electronic or print, should naturally lean toward the same pool of readable body copy fonts. Simply making a book's several-hundred pages readable limits its "creativity" in typeface selection.

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Lorraine Gehring                           ReachOut Communications
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