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Creating a Custom Version of Akzidenz Grotesk for In-House Work?
Posted by blankenship in
10 Jan 2012 — 7:34am
10 Jan 2012 — 7:34am
We* use Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk as our house font for print, signage, etc. and Standard CT as a close approximation for Web Fonts. It's gotten a bit crazy how much time we have to spend kerning and tracking and pushing and pulling Akzidenz on a daily basis, especially as we continue to grow, add new designers, etc.
We've got the in-house skill and software to do a custom version that would address the kerning pairs, occasionally wonky tracking and some of the baffling character inconsistencies between weights. The time-savings and brand consistency we could get from an altered version is compelling. We would use it, but never sell it.
My question is, is this legal?
If not, how/who would we approach to get licensing to tackle this and how much would it hypothetically cost?
*I'm the Design Director for an in-house team handling print and web collateral (7 designers and devs, ~200 projects a month ranging from fliers and small print pieces to annual reports and a fairly expansive website). We're not huge, but we're not small, nor is the reach of our communications pieces, e.g. we're not exactly under the radar, and we always want to be above board legally in our dealings.
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10 Jan 2012 — 7:46am
It depends on the EULA. Adobe's, for example, permits it.
10 Jan 2012 — 8:06am
If the EULA is the guide:
10 Jan 2012 — 8:24am
Just send Adobe a letter telling them you want to adapt the font for your own needs and state that pending their answer you consider their consent given. They probably won’t answer and you have a pretty solid agreement (even if it is onesided…).
10 Jan 2012 — 10:59am
Joshua, if it's Adobe, and it's internal, don't worry.
I once did this sort of work on Garamond Premier Pro*
after getting explicit permission from the manager of
their type group**. And I wasn't even internal, I simply
had a legit copy of the font myself (thanks to winning
InDesign in an Adobe subsite naming contest :-).
http://typophile.com/node/15321
* I was commissioned to add 20 compound characters to
six styles for a particular flavor of Sanskrit transliteration.
** http://typophile.com/node/47313?page=1#comment-471704
hhp
10 Jan 2012 — 11:13am
But Berthold isn't Adobe, right?
10 Jan 2012 — 11:28am
No, and They happen to be an extremely sue-happy font house,
so be careful. I was under the impression that Adobe sells the
Berthold fonts (at least the big-name ones), and you only have
to respect the EULA of where you bought a font, but now that
I checked, my memory was jogged: Berthold pulled their fonts
from Adobe a while back.
So I think your best strategy would be to switch
to an Akzidenz look-alike with a permissive EULA.
hhp
14 Jan 2012 — 2:08pm
Why don’t you use Theinhardt?
http://optimo.ch/typefaces_Theinhardt.html
I really admire Akzidenz Grotesk too and Theinhardt is like the contemporary version of Akzidenz Grotesk which offers everything one needs.
15 Jan 2012 — 12:12am
Yes, Theinhardt is a good alternative, but for your custom, you'll need to contact the foundry first :
"If you need to customize a Optimo font, we would be pleased to send you a quote. Please contact us for more information."
http://optimo.ch/information_Licensing-Usage.html#