Harry Potter' Font Theft

In the past few weeks, a number of Hollywood companies were served with cease-and-desist letters over the use of fonts on merchandise, albums and other promotional items. Last week, one legal threat became a lawsuit. NBC Universal, whose Universal Studios unit has licensed some Potter rights in connection with its theme parks, was hit with a $1.5 million suit from a company that took exception to the type of font used on Harry Potter merchandise.

The lawsuit against NBC Universal was filed in New York District Court by P22 Type Foundry. According to the complaint, NBC Universal used Cezanne Regular type face font software to create Potter merchandise including a "Hedwig Pillow," a "Dementor Cap," and a "Hogwarts Stationery Set."

Representing P22 in the lawsuit is Frank Martinez, a lawyer based in Brooklyn who previously sued NBCU in 2009 for $2 million for fonts being used by its cable financial network, CNBC. Martinez has now picked up new clients with specialty fonts and has been aggressively seeking compensation from alleged infringers, including a famous band over a best-selling album.

The latest lawsuit against NBCU might signal further lawsuits to come. Are there legitimate claims here? Let's analyze.

Fonts can't be copyrighted. Code of Federal Regulations (Chapter 37) says as much: "The following are examples of works not subject to copyright and applications for registration of such works cannot be entertained...typeface as typeface"

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Insider Offers Crossgrade Discounts on New FontAgent Pro Lion Release

 Insider Software today announced a cross-grade promotion for users of other Macintosh font management software, including Suitcase Fusion from Extensis. Users of competing products can purchase the new release from Insider of FontAgent Pro 4.2 for Mac at discounts of up to 40% off regular prices. The new version of FontAgent Pro includes auto-activation plug-ins for Adobe CS5.5, and 5.5.1., and provides compatibility with Mac OS X Lion.

Unrivaled Font Management and Support for Mac OS X Lion and Adobe Creative Suite 5.5

Built on Insider's unique FontSavant(TM) technology, FontAgent Pro always selects the right font for your Adobe documents - not just a close match or one that has the same name. FontAgent Pro offers performance that crushes the competition and has an array of features that are unmatched.

Robert Leeds, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Insider Software observed, "We have been receiving a flood of inquiries from designers who wish their font manager could do more and would like to move up to FontAgent Pro, but they feel trapped since they have already invested in a font manager. By offering them special pricing to switch to FontAgent Pro, we have made the decision a no-brainer."

font generator, font maker, font creator, online font generator, online font creator, create your own font, generate your own font, download fonts for free, how to make fonts

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New Firefox update to address Lion bug

Mozilla has announced an update for its Firefox browser for the Mac platform to deal with a bug in Apple's impending Lion OS, Computer World has reported. According to Mozilla, Mac Operating System X 10.7 (Lion) contains a bug that causes Firefox 5 to crash when displaying websites that use downloadable fonts. "We alerted Apple to the problem before the discharge of 10.7 but they did not fix the problem before 10.7 went to final release," Christopher Blizzard, Mozilla's Web platform director, said on the company's blog. "We've changed the font APIs that we're using to newer versions which appear to fix the problem."

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Kobo eReader Gains New Fonts, Adjustable Margins, Line Spacing

Not sold on the Kindle? If you're head over heels for the Kobo eReader Touch Edition, there's actually a good bit of good news to share. The company's continuing the update process surrounding the device, with a new v1.9.5 firmware update that allows substantial customization with new font, margin and layout options.  Below are highlights of the updates:

* Personalize Your Reading Experience by Adding New Fonts: The new firmware allows users to add their own fonts easily and quickly for total personalization.  Simply create a new Font directory on the Touch Edition using your laptop, netbook or desktop computer, then drag custom fonts into the Font folder.  Nook and Kindle don’t offer the ability to add fonts and personalize the reading experience in this manner.

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Touch Edition Gets Updated With Font Customization

We had mixed feelings when it came to Kobo’s Touch Edition eReader. Specifically, we felt that the device was “not really a better reading knowledge than other devices (though not a worse).” However, that feeling might change since the Kobo eReader Touch Edition is getting an update, which should bring with it some cool new customization features.

Basically the update will give users the ability to add their own fonts, and make new fonts on their laptop which can then be synced over to the Kobo eReader. The Kobo eReader Touch Edition is a beautiful simplistic device, so chances are a lot of Kobo owners aren’t necessarily what we’d call tech savvy. If you happen to be one of them and the idea of side-loading fonts seems scary, no worries. You’ll still be able to modify your Kobo’s font by choosing from the five fonts that will be included in the update: Amasis, Delima, Felbridge, Gil Sans, and Rockwell. That brings Kobo’s on-board font offerings to a total of seven fonts, across 25 different sizes.

The update will also bring line-spacing, margin, and justification control to the Kobo eReader Touch Edition, all along with the ability to turn off Kobo styling altogether. It’s worth noting that Kobo’s greatest competitors encourage and the Nook, don’t offer the ability to add fonts. The whole point of an eReader is to find an opportune, space-saving way to enjoy books, and customizable font’s sounds like a great way to improve the experience. Maybe the Kobo could be a “better” reading experience after all.

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Mozilla's browser-based pdf project 'close' to reality

Efforts to make a JavaScript-based PDF reader for Mozilla’s Firefox and other HTML5-enabled browsers appeared to gain more ground in July after its pdf.js project reached a “milestone."

Programmers Andreas Gal and Chris Jones said pdf.js said that version 0.2 of their project managed to render the Tracemonkey paper perfectly, dynamically loading TrueType and Type 1 fonts.

“This is the most dramatic demonstration of pdf.js’s biggest feature in 0.2: loading Type 1 fonts ... Dynamically loading Type 1 fonts into a web application was a big challenge," they said in Mozilla’s blog.

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Font Pain and Poetry: So Much Depends on a Curve

Font wonks fight. They champion some typefaces and sneer at others. They go ballistic if a system of signage is altered, as when Ikea changed its designated corporate font from Futura to Verdana in 2009. And they show off tribal symbols. A T-shirt that is depicted in Simon Garfield’s “Just My Type: A Book About Fonts” is adorned with nothing but the ornate ampersand of the font Caslon. This graphic, Mr. Garfield remarks, is capable of “occasionally eliciting a nod from another aficionado, like smug fans of a cool pop band before it becomes famous.”

Sometimes (as with Ikea’s typeface treachery) a tipping point will rock the world of fonts. “Just My Type” should be one of them. This is a smart, funny, accessible book that does for typography what Lynne Truss’s best-selling “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” did for punctuation: made it noticeable for people who had no idea they were interested in such things. Your friends’ eyes may glaze over when you begin to regale them with the font-related trivia with which this book is packed. (What is the Woody Allen movie credits font? Windsor.) If that should happen, recommend that they read Mr. Garfield too.

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