There is far more motivation for residents of a town to enter data from old analog records into digital form than get a bunch of random people to agree to build a fonts database. This is basically a very apples to oranges comparison. Throwing up other examples (FedEX history, Lotto operations, etc) is also pointless.
That is your opinion. FedEx would not exist, except for the FACT that the professor in the college business class told a student,
"This idea will NEVER work!" and he wrote a big, fat red F across the paper. To prove the professor wrong, he went out and DID IT. That is why FedEx exists. The LOTTO computers deal with trillions of bits of DATA, and they handle it, so why is this project such a bad idea? Because YOU won't make any money at it?
You complain about "commie-fornia" but float that kind of Marxist-sounding idea? Dude, you are dreaming of perfect Utopia if you think you could convince even a tiny fraction of the American public to voluntarily put man-hours of work into building some kind of fonts database.
I wonder what people like YOU said to the people who came up with the Make-A Wish foundation, or the GoFundMe website, or the GiveSendGo website? Certainly there were cynics who royally proclaimed,
"THAT WILL NEVER WORK!"
Most Americans couldn't care less about fonts. Hell, many people doing sign design work don't care about fonts. Just look at all the default squeezed and stretched Arial on so many signs, banners, vehicles, windows, etc.
"This is basically a very apples to oranges comparison."
People creating garage sale signs from scratch are far removed from people who need to MATCH fonts for various reasons.
There is a lot of things computers just cannot figure out. For instance consider a center line effect on lettering. Computers don't know how to create such an effect in an automatic way. The same goes for a proper "prismatic" chisel effect. There has never ever been a graphics program that has been able to do it correctly. When the inline goes far enough to the center of the letter stroke the joins of the letter blow the computer application's mind. It doesn't know what to do. Any proper looking centerline or prismatic/chiseled effect has to be built manually using subjective human judgment.
This "Font Project" idea sounds like a bad pitch from the TV show Shark Tank. What exactly are YOU bringing to the project, other than something that happens to not be a new idea?
I never said it was a new idea. I said it needs to be approached from a different angle, if the problem is to be solved.
What expertise do you have in graphic design, typeface design, sign design or any other niche in the visual arts industry?
Well, I admit that I certainly do not possess the level of expertise and professionalism required to post a photo of a boot stepping on dog crap.
You're apparently a new member of this forum yet you are talking down to me and several other people in this thread as if we don't know what we're talking about. Some of us here have been in the game a long time and know the realities of dealing with type.
I am not talking down to anyone. However, I do not purport to speak for everyone, as some people do. There are a lot of BORED young people with computers. A project that would finally solve the
"What Font Is This" battle would go a long way toward helping everyone. There could even be some sort of incentive to attract people to the project.
It is clearly evident that this covid hoax has ignited the short fuses of so many, and there is a lot of pent up anger out there. I see it in saliva-slinging posts every single day.
As to what a computer can figure out, a computer cannot think. The coding determines what a computer can do. So we need better coding. We need to find some talented coders who CAN teach a computer to properly chisel lettering, and so forth. To say a computer
cannot do a task while not giving it the instructions to DO the task is silly. With the right coding, this is all possible.
What is "Marxist" about wanting to solve a problem that has NOT been solved, despite the claims of some? If it HAD been solved, we would not see endless
"What FONT is this?" posts. A simple well-coded utility on every PC could immediately identify any font. Unfortunately, I did not pursue computer programming during the Windows vs MAC battles of the 1980s.
Joe
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That concept itself is a whole other can of worms. To the O.P., If you think you have a better plan.... get after it my friend, join the ocean of bigger whales. "Nothing gambled is nothing gained". Best of luck to you... count me OUT.
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