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lilsneddzlast Sunday at 11:00 PM2 repliesview on HN

Ouch, that was certainly not my intention. I didn't expect this to be shared around, and hadn't considered the best way to make it available. It's open, and I've shared it for free with every single person who has emailed me. I feel like this slower form of distribution is closer to the original intent of the font as I've been able to connect and chat with lots of incredible SF locals and Muni fans in the process. :)

I made Fran Sans for fun in my own spare time which was a lot of work. I do want to add that all fonts are inspired by work that came before it... yet at some point, the font becomes your own. Yes, Fran Sans is based on the Trans-Lite signage, however when I digitised it, I had to make a number of my own personal design decisions along the way which makes this work my own. Particularly the addition of different styles and characters that were never made for the original signage.

I hoped my intent came through in my commitment to researching and sharing this piece of local history that would have otherwise been lost as there was nothing to be found online when I started this journey.

Hope this clears up my intention, I'd love to send you a copy if you're interested, and I'm open to hearing your distribution ideas.


Replies

hamburglaryesterday at 1:03 AM

You just gotta get used to a knee jerk “you’re open sourcing wrong” reaction you’re gonna get from a community of people who are accustomed to it all being done in a certain way (namely, that it’s generally open and copyable without interaction with -gasp- humans). You’re doing fine and your responses have been perfect imo.

dirtybirdnjyesterday at 3:57 AM

I agree with the hamburglar (lol) you did awesome work and you owe the internet nothing. the 3d printing community is rife with "stl please" expectations that everyone wants to share everything and it should all be free. Give it away if you can, but I think its important to have some value to the creative work like this that is done.

> I've shared it for free with every single person who has emailed me.

Excited and waiting :) I think it's going to make really cool pen plotter art