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Looking for Berringer Aged Font

mmblarg

New Member
Got a logo that's using Berringer Aged for the company title and I can't find a free download
 
Last edited by a moderator:

shoresigns

New Member
MOD EDIT

Please remeber
File Sharing Is Not Allowed: Unless the file is your property to share.
Rule #9
https://signs101.com/threads/signs101-policies-outlined-tos-posting-policy-privacy-policy.149995/

Actually, linking to an external site that distributes copyrighted files illegally is OK on Signs101, as clarified to me by SignsSupport a while back. Unless the policy has changed?

Source: https://signs101.com/threads/looking-all-over-for-this-font.149152/#post-1398308
 

shoresigns

New Member
Which leads to the question; is it morally okay or justified to use a licensed file from one of these sites to help reproduce a logo that likely already had the license to use?
My answer would be no, it isn't. Whoever licensed the font in order to create the logo in the first place, their license does not apply to you, the sign company. Font license terms rarely allow for the client to share the font with you. In most font licensing scenarios, each company or individual has to purchase per-computer licenses for a font.

I don't understand why so many sign companies use pirated fonts. Just bill the client for the fonts. 80% of the time the client understands and gives the OK, in my experience. The other 20% of the time, the client asks us to pick a font we have in our library to use instead. We've never had a client insist on a particular font while refusing to pay for it.
 

bannertime

Active Member
I don't understand why so many sign companies use pirated fonts. Just bill the client for the fonts. 80% of the time the client understands and gives the OK, in my experience. The other 20% of the time, the client asks us to pick a font we have in our library to use instead. We've never had a client insist on a particular font while refusing to pay for it.

How is it any different than getting a logo that had been properly expanded into paths instead of text? I wouldn't need the license to print it then?
 

2B

Active Member

shoresigns

New Member
How is it any different than getting a logo that had been properly expanded into paths instead of text? I wouldn't need the license to print it then?

In the US, font software is protected by copyright, but the shapes of the letters are not. The font files (.ttf or .otf) that you install on your computer are the software, just to be clear.

The software is what allows you to set live text, so that is where you are morally and legally obliged to buy a license for the font. If you already have outlines of the letters, you don't need the software, but if you do need the font software, you have to buy it. That is where the legal line is drawn, and in the eyes of most font vendors, the moral line is roughly in the same place, with a number of caveats I won't get into.

Scenario 1: Client gives you vector outlines of their logo. You do not need to buy a font.
Scenario 2: You need vector outlines of the client's logo, but they only have a raster image. You must buy the font so that you can recreate the logo by setting live text and then converting it to outlines.

Of course in Scenario 2, often you might already have a license for the font, i.e. from a previous purchase or on a subscription like Adobe Fonts, or it might just be a free or open-source font.
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Scenario 2: You need vector outlines of the client's logo, but they only have a raster image. You must buy the font so that you can recreate the logo by setting live text and then converting it to outlines.

Of course in Scenario 2, often you might already have a license for the font, i.e. from a previous purchase or on a subscription like Adobe Fonts, or it might just be a free or open-source font.

Or you can use the tools within the software to trace the copy in question. This does depend on a few concerns with the raster file in question, but it is another option (depending on how good you are with said software as well).


TTF and OTF file types (as was already mentioned) are the areas of concern/protection. Convert to outlines/strokes of snippets of those files are not. They are shapes that just happen to look like font characters, that's it. It doesn't have the pros of using the TTF/OTF versions of those characters. Same goes with tracing the raster file as well (only concern here is if the person you are tracing that file for actually truly has permission to give you permission to copy that logo, but I digress).

Now, with freebies on font sites. Sometimes they don't actually have the ability to dispense those fonts, sometimes they are knock-offs that don't have the alternates or even the same kerning as the professional font (a lot more goes into font creation then people realize or based on some comments here over the years, value). Also, some of those "free" fonts only are "free" for personal use not commercial use (assuming that those fonts are even legally able to be distributed through that site from those "authors").
 

shoresigns

New Member
Now, with freebies on font sites. Sometimes ... they are knock-offs that don't have the alternates or even the same kerning as the professional font.
That's something people often don't realize when they're downloading commercial fonts from "pirate" sites. Sometimes you get the real, original font files, but quite often the fonts are "ripped" from another format, like a PDF file or a web font, and are missing characters, kerning, opentype features, and sometimes even the outlines are poorly traced from raster.
 
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