20Apr Ascender Teams With Microsoft, Strips “Core” from Web Fonts

Ascender Teams With Microsoft, Strips “Core” from Web Fonts

Ascender Corp. and Microsoft have entered into in agreement allowing Ascender to distribute Microsoft’s fonts, including the Windows Core Fonts and the Microsoft Web Fonts, which up until about two-and-a-half years ago were available free of charge on Microsoft’s web site.

One of the benefits of this agreement, according to Microsoft Typography’s Simon Daniels, is that Ascender can now create derivatives of these fonts, for example, small caps for Georgia or intermediate weights of Verdana. Daniels believes that granting this privilege to Ascender rather than setting the typefaces loose via a free software license gives Microsoft some degree of control over the quality of these derivatives.

But now those law-abiding users who would rather avoid Microsoft products will have to shell out $110 for a license to use Georgia. Microsoft successfully injected these well-crafted fonts into the fabric of the web by offering them free of charge to the point where web developers now take their presence for granted. Pulling the plug on free distribution was one thing, but now, in a breach of unwritten Internet etiquette, they expect people to pay for what was once costless. According to Microsoft, the reason they pulled the fonts (and, assumedly, are now charging for their license) is to curb large-scale abuse, but it would be naive to believe individual users are off the radar.