6 ms·

Subtle Sans: A Free (Pay What You Want) Font

159 points by chrisguitarguy 15y ago

superfamicom 15y ago
Very elegant! It's similar to Ostrich Sans but different enough to warrant having around. http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/ostrich-sans http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/ostrich-sans With so many fonts free, and some like Ostrich Sans completely open source, it will be interesting to see who would pay, and why.
- chrisguitarguy 15y ago
  I downloaded the font and donated. I like Subtle Patterns and what Atle Mo [1] is doing and wanted to support it. Chances are fairly good that I won't use the font for anything serious, but sometimes paying for something isn't about the product you get. 1. http://atlemo.com/ http://atlemo.com/
- Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
  Can I just say that for a site about typography, the primary font on that site is appalling at least in Chrome under Windows. Calluna is the offending font as far as I can see.
singlow 15y ago
"All the numbers you need: 123456789" - I guess zero is optional?
- chrisguitarguy 15y ago
  From the text below the slider: > You have A to Z, plus the Norwegian characters Æ Ø & Å, and numbers 0 - 9. All caps.
  - singlow 15y ago
    Sorry I just thought it was funny that the slide only gave 1-9 after making that statement. Nice looking font - thanks for posting it.
draggnar 15y ago
Subtle patterns is a great resource - stylish, modern, free - I get background patters from there all the time.
ploxination 15y ago
Seems really nice, just waiting for the swedish characters :) åäöÅÄÖ
mgcross 15y ago
The font looks great, but it would be nice if the headline and body copy were set in Subtle Sans to provide a live preview.
- goblin89 15y ago
  Judging by typeface design, samples, and description, the font isn't designed for body copy. Also, right now on the page font samples themselves play the role of “huge, super thin headline”—having more than one of these usually is not a good idea from visual design standpoint, so I wouldn't use it for headline as well with current layout. That said, it would make perfect sense to have headline set in Subtle Sans, but with larger font size and font samples moved to a less prominent place. By the way, the Download button actually uses Subtle Sans (not the best place for it IMO though). Typeface is important, but not as much as knowing how to use it properly. In this regard, typographic solution from Twitter Bootstrap brought a very nice change to the world of ‘developer-built’ websites appearance.
- tptacek 15y ago
  It's a display face. It doesn't even have lowercase letters.
digitallimit 15y ago
How do I install this for use on my website? I've never included fonts before, outside of the Google Web Fonts API which just asks I stick a link tag in the template. <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Oxygen http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Oxygen rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
- blueprint 15y ago
  This might help http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface/generator http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface/generator
benbjohnson 15y ago
Personally I am not a fan of "pay-what-you-want" products. It sounds very utopian but it neglects the cost of a guilty conscience. I try to derive a fair price in my head but it's still a balancing act between feeling like I underpaid and I'm a jerk or I overpaid and I'm a chump. Overall, pay-what-you-want feels more like marketing than a socialist ideal.
- corin_ 15y ago
  I suspect this is very similar to tipping - many people say that it's illogical, or that they hate it, or it makes them feel awkward... but personally I love tipping, it's something I am actively happy about when in America (not so much tipping here in the UK). Personally, if the service is terrible I'll leave no tip, if it's standard, as expected, I'll leave a generic tip (something like 10-20% in restaurants, depending on the total price), if it's great I'll leave a generous tip. I often feel good being able to thank someone by tipping well, and the only times I have ever felt bad about it were when I wanted to tip more but didn't have the change on me and there was no way to add the tip to a card payment. So I guess it's just different people prefer different situations socially.
  - darklajid 15y ago
    That's a good point that can support both your position - and the gp. I'm totally with you regarding tipping. Coming from DE this is something you're doing voluntarily, for good service and as much as you like. It's a 'well done' or 'thank you'. Now I'm in IL and here it is - for all intents and purposes - mandatory. The bill says 'SERVICE NOT INCLUDED' (yes, often in caps. Some waiters like to make sure that foreigners 'get it' by saying it again once or twice or using a marker to make it even more prominent on the bill). You are expected to give a tip of 10%. Service is shitty, food was crap? If you don't give the tip, people might come after you and discuss it. Since I loathe that custom I could understand if the gp has a similar mindset, feeling _forced_ to pay up.
twog 15y ago
You can check out http://losttype.com/ http://losttype.com/ for some awesome fonts with the same pay structure
huhtenberg 15y ago
What is this doing on the frontpage?
- SquareWheel 15y ago
  I don't care for the fonts myself, but it's really cool to see more industries try out the pay-what-you-want model. It's starting to become large in gaming especially, and I really hope it does well. Lately everything seems to be going towards "micropayments", and that really scares me.
  - javajosh 15y ago
    What's wrong with micropayments? "If you're not paying for the product you are the product," and all that.
    - SquareWheel 15y ago
      For me it's because they're so often used in an exploitative way. I'll use gaming again as my example. Look at Farmville, or what seems like the majority of mobile games lately. It's so common to see "Pay $2 for mojo points" or whatever their pretend currency may be, and used to sell virtual items. Now that in itself isn't evil, but these items are often things to make the game less "grindy", and so developers are encouraged to add grind in the first place to maximize profit. The developer isn't focusing on making the best possible experience for the player anymore. That's true mostly with Farmville (buy a tractor to double your harvest speed), but other games take this on as well too. Another example: Companies want to sell over-priced map packs and such, and so will stop the modding communities from creating their own content. If there aren't user submitted maps the company can sell their own for far more. I used games as an example because it's the easiest for me to come up with examples, but I think this extends into other mediums as well. To me, micropayments change the focus of the publisher of that medium to look for profit where they didn't before, and that creates a worse product. This is a very loose idea I've had in my head for a while and I haven't put it all together like this before, I'm certainly not an expert on business models or anything like that. This post is purely conjecture on my part.
wildmXranat 15y ago
Neat looking font. I wonder how the price distribution will end up looking.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
voxmatt 15y ago
Very cool. This is only tangentially related, but I was surprised (and delighted) to see that Ideal Sans is available for free from Google web fonts. It is one of the truly top-tier fonts on Google web fonts; so if you're considering a sans... (I really don't have a dog in this fight; just passing along a deal)
- verbosus 15y ago
  Ideal Sans is a proprietary typeface by the Hoefler & Frere-Jones type foundry, and it is most definitely not available for free on Google Web Fonts. http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLineID=100042 http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLin...
  - tptacek 15y ago
    Ideal isn't even available on Typekit. HFJ is fussy about webfonts.
    - santry 15y ago
      According to Jason Kottke HFJ has their own webfonts service in private beta. He's using their Whitney font with this new service in his redesigned site: http://kottke.org/12/03/kottkeorg-redesign-2012-version http://kottke.org/12/03/kottkeorg-redesign-2012-version
      - tptacek 15y ago
        Frere-Jones (I think it was him?) recently gave a talk about HFJ's web font strategy. My understanding is that it's going to be idiosyncratic.
  - voxmatt 15y ago
    Whoops, my (really) bad! I don't know why I remembered this incorrectly. Google web fonts has Open Sans--not bad by Google web fonts standards, but no ideal sans. http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Open+Sans http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Open+Sans
calpaterson 15y ago
It's unhelpful that the demonstration contains precisely zero lowercase letters, and don't show what it looks like in a small size. Those are two big considerations when buying a font.
- jmreid 15y ago
  I'm guessing you didn't actually read the site? "CAPS AND LETTERS You have A to Z, plus the Norwegian characters Æ Ø & Å, and numbers 0 - 9. All caps."
  - calpaterson 15y ago
    Thanks, it's obvious that those characters are available. It wasn't talking about that. They aren't demonstrated. For someone telling me to "read the site", you didn't actually read my comment that carefully.
    - vineel 15y ago
      I think what jmreid is trying to say is that Subtle Sans doesn't have lower case characters.
taitems 15y ago
Just an FYI, the whole site looks naff in Windows because of the use of "Lucida Grande" and no font-stack degradation. Even a "sans-serif" fallback would have sufficed.
olivercameron 15y ago
This is awesome. Beautiful examples make such a difference. However, every time I try to buy it for $10, PayPal checkout says it'll cost $1.
- Strom 15y ago
  The PayPal form seems untested, because all the options have the same value of $1.
DanBC 15y ago
Thank you for this. If anyone from subtle patterns is reading it would be really nice if you could increase the contrast of the body text to the background. Mid grey on white is hard to read.
Matti 15y ago
Set the default price to $15, $20 or $30 instead of the $1 that it's at now. You'll increase the perceived value of the font while making a ton more money. There's no point in having the initial price "anchored in" at the ridiculously low price of one dollar.
mikeklaas 15y ago
Seems amateurish and affectedly geometric to my eye. Good effort, but not really suitable for serious use.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
reneherse 15y ago
Love the "R" in regular weight! I have no idea what the style is called, but drawing the right hand side of the letter so that it avoids intersection with the left-hand vertical stroke is my favorite way to do it. :)

159 points by chrisguitarguy 15y ago

Very elegant! It's similar to Ostrich Sans but different enough to warrant having around. http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/ostrich-sans http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/ostrich-sans With so many fonts free, and some like Ostrich Sans completely open source, it will be interesting to see who would pay, and why.

chrisguitarguy 15y ago
I downloaded the font and donated. I like Subtle Patterns and what Atle Mo [1] is doing and wanted to support it. Chances are fairly good that I won't use the font for anything serious, but sometimes paying for something isn't about the product you get. 1. http://atlemo.com/ http://atlemo.com/
Tyrannosaurs 15y ago
Can I just say that for a site about typography, the primary font on that site is appalling at least in Chrome under Windows. Calluna is the offending font as far as I can see.

singlow 15y ago

"All the numbers you need: 123456789" - I guess zero is optional?

chrisguitarguy 15y ago
From the text below the slider: > You have A to Z, plus the Norwegian characters Æ Ø & Å, and numbers 0 - 9. All caps.
- singlow 15y ago
  Sorry I just thought it was funny that the slide only gave 1-9 after making that statement. Nice looking font - thanks for posting it.

draggnar 15y ago

Subtle patterns is a great resource - stylish, modern, free - I get background patters from there all the time.

ploxination 15y ago

Seems really nice, just waiting for the swedish characters :) åäöÅÄÖ

mgcross 15y ago

The font looks great, but it would be nice if the headline and body copy were set in Subtle Sans to provide a live preview.

goblin89 15y ago
Judging by typeface design, samples, and description, the font isn't designed for body copy. Also, right now on the page font samples themselves play the role of “huge, super thin headline”—having more than one of these usually is not a good idea from visual design standpoint, so I wouldn't use it for headline as well with current layout. That said, it would make perfect sense to have headline set in Subtle Sans, but with larger font size and font samples moved to a less prominent place. By the way, the Download button actually uses Subtle Sans (not the best place for it IMO though). Typeface is important, but not as much as knowing how to use it properly. In this regard, typographic solution from Twitter Bootstrap brought a very nice change to the world of ‘developer-built’ websites appearance.
tptacek 15y ago
It's a display face. It doesn't even have lowercase letters.

digitallimit 15y ago

How do I install this for use on my website? I've never included fonts before, outside of the Google Web Fonts API which just asks I stick a link tag in the template. <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Oxygen http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Oxygen rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>

blueprint 15y ago
This might help http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface/generator http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface/generator

benbjohnson 15y ago

Personally I am not a fan of "pay-what-you-want" products. It sounds very utopian but it neglects the cost of a guilty conscience. I try to derive a fair price in my head but it's still a balancing act between feeling like I underpaid and I'm a jerk or I overpaid and I'm a chump. Overall, pay-what-you-want feels more like marketing than a socialist ideal.

corin_ 15y ago
I suspect this is very similar to tipping - many people say that it's illogical, or that they hate it, or it makes them feel awkward... but personally I love tipping, it's something I am actively happy about when in America (not so much tipping here in the UK). Personally, if the service is terrible I'll leave no tip, if it's standard, as expected, I'll leave a generic tip (something like 10-20% in restaurants, depending on the total price), if it's great I'll leave a generous tip. I often feel good being able to thank someone by tipping well, and the only times I have ever felt bad about it were when I wanted to tip more but didn't have the change on me and there was no way to add the tip to a card payment. So I guess it's just different people prefer different situations socially.
- darklajid 15y ago
  That's a good point that can support both your position - and the gp. I'm totally with you regarding tipping. Coming from DE this is something you're doing voluntarily, for good service and as much as you like. It's a 'well done' or 'thank you'. Now I'm in IL and here it is - for all intents and purposes - mandatory. The bill says 'SERVICE NOT INCLUDED' (yes, often in caps. Some waiters like to make sure that foreigners 'get it' by saying it again once or twice or using a marker to make it even more prominent on the bill). You are expected to give a tip of 10%. Service is shitty, food was crap? If you don't give the tip, people might come after you and discuss it. Since I loathe that custom I could understand if the gp has a similar mindset, feeling _forced_ to pay up.

twog 15y ago

You can check out http://losttype.com/ http://losttype.com/ for some awesome fonts with the same pay structure

huhtenberg 15y ago

What is this doing on the frontpage?

SquareWheel 15y ago
I don't care for the fonts myself, but it's really cool to see more industries try out the pay-what-you-want model. It's starting to become large in gaming especially, and I really hope it does well. Lately everything seems to be going towards "micropayments", and that really scares me.
- javajosh 15y ago
  What's wrong with micropayments? "If you're not paying for the product you are the product," and all that.
  - SquareWheel 15y ago
    For me it's because they're so often used in an exploitative way. I'll use gaming again as my example. Look at Farmville, or what seems like the majority of mobile games lately. It's so common to see "Pay $2 for mojo points" or whatever their pretend currency may be, and used to sell virtual items. Now that in itself isn't evil, but these items are often things to make the game less "grindy", and so developers are encouraged to add grind in the first place to maximize profit. The developer isn't focusing on making the best possible experience for the player anymore. That's true mostly with Farmville (buy a tractor to double your harvest speed), but other games take this on as well too. Another example: Companies want to sell over-priced map packs and such, and so will stop the modding communities from creating their own content. If there aren't user submitted maps the company can sell their own for far more. I used games as an example because it's the easiest for me to come up with examples, but I think this extends into other mediums as well. To me, micropayments change the focus of the publisher of that medium to look for profit where they didn't before, and that creates a worse product. This is a very loose idea I've had in my head for a while and I haven't put it all together like this before, I'm certainly not an expert on business models or anything like that. This post is purely conjecture on my part.

wildmXranat 15y ago

Neat looking font. I wonder how the price distribution will end up looking.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

voxmatt 15y ago

Very cool. This is only tangentially related, but I was surprised (and delighted) to see that Ideal Sans is available for free from Google web fonts. It is one of the truly top-tier fonts on Google web fonts; so if you're considering a sans... (I really don't have a dog in this fight; just passing along a deal)

verbosus 15y ago
Ideal Sans is a proprietary typeface by the Hoefler & Frere-Jones type foundry, and it is most definitely not available for free on Google Web Fonts. http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLineID=100042 http://www.typography.com/fonts/font_overview.php?productLin...
- tptacek 15y ago
  Ideal isn't even available on Typekit. HFJ is fussy about webfonts.
  - santry 15y ago
    According to Jason Kottke HFJ has their own webfonts service in private beta. He's using their Whitney font with this new service in his redesigned site: http://kottke.org/12/03/kottkeorg-redesign-2012-version http://kottke.org/12/03/kottkeorg-redesign-2012-version
    - tptacek 15y ago
      Frere-Jones (I think it was him?) recently gave a talk about HFJ's web font strategy. My understanding is that it's going to be idiosyncratic.
- voxmatt 15y ago
  Whoops, my (really) bad! I don't know why I remembered this incorrectly. Google web fonts has Open Sans--not bad by Google web fonts standards, but no ideal sans. http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Open+Sans http://www.google.com/webfonts/specimen/Open+Sans

calpaterson 15y ago

It's unhelpful that the demonstration contains precisely zero lowercase letters, and don't show what it looks like in a small size. Those are two big considerations when buying a font.

jmreid 15y ago
I'm guessing you didn't actually read the site? "CAPS AND LETTERS You have A to Z, plus the Norwegian characters Æ Ø & Å, and numbers 0 - 9. All caps."
- calpaterson 15y ago
  Thanks, it's obvious that those characters are available. It wasn't talking about that. They aren't demonstrated. For someone telling me to "read the site", you didn't actually read my comment that carefully.
  - vineel 15y ago
    I think what jmreid is trying to say is that Subtle Sans doesn't have lower case characters.

taitems 15y ago

Just an FYI, the whole site looks naff in Windows because of the use of "Lucida Grande" and no font-stack degradation. Even a "sans-serif" fallback would have sufficed.

olivercameron 15y ago

This is awesome. Beautiful examples make such a difference. However, every time I try to buy it for $10, PayPal checkout says it'll cost $1.

Strom 15y ago
The PayPal form seems untested, because all the options have the same value of $1.

DanBC 15y ago

Thank you for this. If anyone from subtle patterns is reading it would be really nice if you could increase the contrast of the body text to the background. Mid grey on white is hard to read.

Matti 15y ago

Set the default price to $15, $20 or $30 instead of the $1 that it's at now. You'll increase the perceived value of the font while making a ton more money. There's no point in having the initial price "anchored in" at the ridiculously low price of one dollar.

mikeklaas 15y ago

Seems amateurish and affectedly geometric to my eye. Good effort, but not really suitable for serious use.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

reneherse 15y ago

Love the "R" in regular weight! I have no idea what the style is called, but drawing the right hand side of the letter so that it avoids intersection with the left-hand vertical stroke is my favorite way to do it. :)