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How to educate a font customer....
Posted by ahleman in
30 May 2012 — 10:03am
30 May 2012 — 10:03am
I got this plaintive e-mail from a confused font customer, and am trying to craft a diplomatically informative reply. Any ideas?
"I would very much like to use the font on a banner for my jewelry booth at a local market, but the largest size that My Fonts offers is 72 pt. Would it be possible to purchase larger sizes for my own limited use? And if not, what would be the best way to enlarge what I already have? "
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30 May 2012 — 10:20am
Funny. But since he's prepared to pay you can give him the good news: "My fonts work at any size, up to one million point - no extra charge!" :-)
hhp
30 May 2012 — 10:48am
Be careful what you promise: InDesign’s maximum value is 1296 Pt. Browsers have a limit, too.
30 May 2012 — 10:55am
"Dear ______,
The maximum 72pt size on the MyFonts website is only the maximum preview size. The point of the preview is to give you an idea of what the font looks like, not to provide artwork for e.g. the kind of usage you describe. If you purchase the font through MyFonts, you will receive (downloadable from the site once your payment has been processed) a scaleable outline format font that you can install on your computer and then use to create as large a banner as you want, limited only by the output device (printer, vinyl cutter, etc.) or the software you use to create the banner.
Sincerely..."
30 May 2012 — 11:01am
PS. You may find yourself having to field further questions about how to download and install the font once purchased, and then support queries about how to use it. This can be frustrating, but I've come to value very highly my 'naïve tester', a man manages to get himself into all sorts of problems trying to install and fonts. His troubles help me understand the myriad ways in which someone can get confused and break things that I didn't think could be broken. It is also salutary to reflect that within his area of expertise -- which clearly isn't fonts -- he is an obviously intelligent and respected scholar.
30 May 2012 — 11:25am
You might also point out that most software has a drop-down window that only displays a limited set of font point-sizes, but the user can usually enter other values manually.
- Herb
30 May 2012 — 12:08pm
> I've come to value very highly my 'naïve tester'
A few years ago I was designing some business forms for a large corporation. We tried to make them as clear and easy as possible. Before printing we passed them out to a bunch of ordinary folks and ask them to fill them out. We were surprised when stuff we thought was perfectly clear was sometimes misunderstood. The test ended up being very useful.
30 May 2012 — 1:31pm
> I've come to value very highly my 'naïve tester'
Everybody should have one! Mine is an otherwise very agreeable fellow, but when I hand him over some newly written test software and peek over his shoulder, he invariable makes me squirm uncomfortably from the word "go". Behind his back, I'm always feverishly jotting down notes.