The Knockoff Economy by Raustiala Kal Sprigman Christopher

Author:Raustiala, Kal, Sprigman, Christopher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2012-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 4.1 Helvetica vs. Arial

As this shows, Helvetica and Arial are not identical. They are certainly alike enough, however, that if the general rules of copyright applied, Arial would almost certainly be judged “substantially similar” to Helvetica—and therefore illegal. But copyright does not apply in the world of fonts. Its absence has allowed the wide proliferation of subtle variations on popular fonts. The ordinary consumer may overlook these variations, but for the graphic designer looking for just the right font for a particular job, they are invaluable.

Another familiar, yet very different, font is Times New Roman.* Times New Roman was designed to be highly legible using the crude newspaper printing techniques prevalent in the early 20th century, and to take up less space than comparably legible fonts.

Here is a sentence set in Times New Roman.

The impression this font gives is entirely different from Helvetica’s. Where Helvetica is clean and modern, Times New Roman is stately and suggests solidity and credibility—exactly the impression that a “newspaper of record” wishes to make. It is not surprising, then, that there are many variations on Times New Roman. A popular example is Georgia, a design commissioned in 1993 by Microsoft. Georgia is adapted from Times New Roman but with wider serifs. Again, Georgia is similar enough that it would almost certainly break the law if copyright law applied to fonts. The absence of copyright, however, allows designers to imitate fonts like Times New Roman and create subtly different, but overall very similar, families of fonts.

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