Question about new font collections

[jeffp]

The person in this typophile thread (http://typophile.com/node/1492) seems to know a bit about softmaker collections that are supposed to come out in the future, including new fonts and features. Is there any truth to this, and if so, what? Will there be new collection in the (near) future to follow up Megafont and Infinitype. Megafont 2 XXL is now almost 10 years so it seems a good time to come with a new product. would love to know when and if it will happen...

Could you tell me some about your connection with Fontsite inc, if there is any?

Would love to know from Mr Kotulla personally as well, as the person in this thread seems to know him, or pretends to do.

thanks

[martin-k]

The stuff written over there is complete baloney. It looks like "Derek" who has been posting made-up stuff about SoftMaker to Topix.com -- see http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3At ... +softmaker -- got a new nick and continues with his wild phantasies.

Read this about Derek and you may understand the situation better: http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/forum/case/160396/

Of course, it doesn't take a genius that new versions of MegaFont and infiniType will probably be called 3.0 and 4 respectively. We are actively working on new collections, as can be seen in our product timeline:

http://www.softmaker.com/english/timeline_en.htm

And, yes, at some point (no fixed date yet) there will be new MegaFont and infiniType packages.

[jeffp]

OK, thanks, I thought it was strange. Just wondered about the font names he mentions that are not on MF2XXL? Will there be new fonts on there, or can you give some insight into what new features will be considered?

Could you please still answer my question on Fontsite Inc?

And about the timeline, whatever happened to Infinitype 2??

[martin-k]

Ah, I see that infiniType 2 went missing. I'll update it when I get around to it.

FontSite is simply a licensee of SoftMaker. They only have a subset of our collection.

The font names he mentioned are simply made up. Future MegaFonts and infiniTypes will of course contain more fonts than their older brethren, and include OpenType layout tables.

[jeffp]

Interesting!

I wondered why they offer a version of Univers, called Urbano, but Softmaker, to date has not offered it. If they are SM licensee, howcome SM does not offer this font?

Not to attack anyone, I am just trying to understand the connections, so I understood who licensed what from whom. As I understand it now, SM licensed fonts (outlines?) from URW (now URW++), which SM has sold under partially different names, expanded character sets, etc. Do you still work actively with URW++ on font deveopment, or do you develop your fonts fully separate? FontSite offers a simular if smaller collection, which you say is licensed from SM, but they offer these as OpenType fonts with full features, like smallcaps, fractions, etc. The do have less language support though. I have licensed fonts from both and compared them, and wondered if Softmaker and FontSite work together in creating future OpenType versions of all softmaker fonts?

[martin-k]

We have fonts that we haven't yet put in font collections, and Urbano/U... is one of them. We do have Ultimate Serial, a font in the style of Univers.

SoftMaker does its font development independently from URW++ and FontSite. The outcome might sometimes be similar, but the relationship is strictly one of licensor/licensee.

We already have OpenType tables ready for all the fonts we licensed from URW and URW++, but only some (script fonts, blackletter fonts) have been released so far.

[jeffp]

Great! Can you give any indication when these fonts will be released? Will they also be released over at MyFonts?

[martin-k]

Great! Can you give any indication when these fonts will be released? Will they also be released over at MyFonts?

No timetable yet. Yes, they will also be at Myfonts.