Re: Fonts from the former fonts.openlilylib.org

[tisimst]

Andrew,

On Sun, Mar 27, 2016 at 12:39 AM, N. Andrew Walsh [via Lilypond] <[hidden email]> wrote:

A side note: it seems to me that one of Abraham's root causes for wanting to commercialize the substantial work he's done making engraving fonts is his own financial situation.

You have understood the situation correctly!

 

If this is the case, it might be worth considering some of the crowd-funding mechanisms that support development work. For example, though I've never used it before, Patreon ( www.patreon.com) allows groups to fund developers with a monthly contribution. One or two people chipping in might not amount to much, but a whole lot of people chipping in a bit might indeed make up a substantial supplementary income. (one of my favorite game mods is funded this way, netting the developer about €1k a month). 

My concern is that trying to build an income by commercializing fonts that have already been out in the wild for a while seems problematic both from the side of its viability as a business venture and from the licensing side (as well as the social side of a community that's been freely using a resource that now looks to become somewhat less free). Abraham, is this an option that you've considered? 

On the purely abstract level, I'm much more in favor of working from patronage rather than sales and licensing.

I'm really glad you brought this up. To be quite honest, I have considered it and I continue to wrestle with the idea. I am definitely willing to consider this. That way, I can technically continue to offer the fonts freely and the regular patronage covers any continued development as well as user support. In fact, I'd much rather do this if I can feel find a crowd-funding service that I feel good about. I have considered Patreon before, but before I jump into that, does anyone else have any other suggestion? If anyone has first-hand experiences with crowd-funding, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Best,
Abraham

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