I've been using CG Omega to write my re****ts in MS Word for about ten years
now, and I'm looking for a better alternative for both on screen and HP
laser printer.
From reading and searching this group, I understand that CG Omega is
actually a copy of Hermann Zapf's Optima, so this is one alternative. I
also understand that Zapf Humanist 601 is another alternative.
I have two questions that I hope someone can help me with:
1. Are there differences in quality between different fonts with the same
name?
I'm thinking mainly of things like hinting and kerning here. I notice
that
there are a few different sources for a font with the same name, and the
font files are not identical.
For example, the TrueType CG Omega that I currently use has version
"Version 1.3 (Hewlett-Packard)", is dated 4th March 1998 and "contains 385
glyphs and no standard kern pairs". I think this came from an HP printer
software disk. I have found another version on a free fonts website that
has version "Version 1.3 (ElseWare)", is dated 11th January 1995 and
"contains 406 glyphs and no standard kern pairs".
My worry is that with multiple fonts with the same name, and no obvious
place to go to to check the font's ancestry and quality, how do I know
which is the "best" font, and which may be a cheap copy (OK, in the case
of
CG Omega perhaps they are all cheap copies, but you get my point).
Is it a case of always going to the owner of the font to be sure of good
quality? So Adobe for Optima and Bitstream for Zapf Humanist?
Coming from a software background, I'm a bit surprised that there is not
better version control for fonts, and digital signatures to prove that
they
have not been altered.
2. Licencing
Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but here's my understanding:
It seems that CG Omega is essentially free as it's available for download
from HP and is available on several free font websites. I also cannot
find
anywhere to buy it from.
Optima seems to be only available as a paid-for font. No free downloads
apart from obviously dogey sources which don't look legal to me.
Zapf Humanist seems to be between the two. It is available paid-for from
places like MyFonts, but it's also offered at free font websites and is
included on many font collection CDs.
If I buy a copy of Zapf Humanist or Optima from somewhere like MyFonts,
does my money go to the right people (I'd like to think that Hermann Zapf
would get some of it), or am I just paying a middle-man?
If I download Zapf Humanist from a free fonts website, am I committing
piracy, or just getting a bad-quality knockoff font (or maybe both)?
No one I've spoken to seems to care much about font licensing. However as
my re****ts are part of a chargable service I want to make sure I stay on
the right side of the law.
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