I think every professional type designer I know uses this software.
I have trouble coming up with any other example of total domination of a market segment. Maybe Photoshop in its glory days, or Quark Xpress before that, but even in those cases, there were alternatives in (minor) use.
tribby 1 days ago [-]
It’s possible you have a small sample.. I have not noticed “total domination” myself. The type foundries I know and sometimes work with are split. Many use RoboFont. FontLab is less common, but there are some shops that have invested in it deeply enough they’re still using older versions, even. And others develop their own tools, like Fontra, to better address challenges in CJK type design
RoboFont is deeply tied to the Type & Media program at KABK in the Hague. And it has a long history, building off what came before - it is both font software and pedagogy. My memory on this isn’t perfect but I believe Glyphs and RoboFont were both proposals around the time the UFO spec was being formalized
asibahi 1 days ago [-]
Plenty of alternatives to Glyphs. FontForge and Robofont both come to mind.
sterlind 1 days ago [-]
please find me a single professional font designer who uses FontForge. just one.
I use FontForge because I'm a pleb hobbyist without a Mac, but it's like comparing yachts and life rafts.
msephton 19 hours ago [-]
You're a hobbyist...yet you know what individual software all other type designers use? That is impressive ;)
sterlind 2 hours ago [-]
again, you can easily prove me wrong by finding a single professional font designer who uses FontForge as their daily driver.
msephton 34 minutes ago [-]
It’s certainly a Herculean task, not because there aren’t *type designers who use FontForge, but because there are simply too many of them for me to even consider speaking for them all. However, I’m game.
Adobe’s Illustrator and Photoshop are unquestionably dominant in their own markets.
Yes, there are alternatives. Yes, there are people using the alternatives. No, the alternatives do not hold any meaningful percentage of the design software market.
Adobe sucks but no alternative comes even close to Photoshop and Illustrator.
thomassmith65 19 hours ago [-]
That's because Adobe acquires competitors who suck less than Adobe.
jeidjwidjwk 14 hours ago [-]
The reason is immaterial, the point still stands.
thomassmith65 12 hours ago [-]
Yes, my point (ie: that Adobe sucks and has to acquire its rivals to survive) is immaterial to your primary point (ie: there are no alternatives to some Adobe products).
I suspect you know some Adobe history already - like that a couple decades back Macromedia's product suite was set to overtake Adobe's. Others here may not. It's good for them (regardless of your primary point) to know that Adobe buys its competition.
The point I made in my comment was only material to (and in agreement with) the point you made in passing: Adobe sucks!
dcrazy 1 days ago [-]
Microsoft Excel after 1-2-3 (the previous dominator) and before Google Sheets? Word after WordPerfect (close to dominant) and before Google Docs? PowerPoint before Keynote?
Tomte 1 days ago [-]
Fontographer and later Fontlab were totally dominant, and they still have a huge market share.
1 days ago [-]
dcrazy 1 days ago [-]
Still no new Glyphs Mini, though. :(
florians 16 hours ago [-]
Quality Mac software
mohsinq227 8 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
Rendered at 21:00:42 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
I have trouble coming up with any other example of total domination of a market segment. Maybe Photoshop in its glory days, or Quark Xpress before that, but even in those cases, there were alternatives in (minor) use.
RoboFont is deeply tied to the Type & Media program at KABK in the Hague. And it has a long history, building off what came before - it is both font software and pedagogy. My memory on this isn’t perfect but I believe Glyphs and RoboFont were both proposals around the time the UFO spec was being formalized
I use FontForge because I'm a pleb hobbyist without a Mac, but it's like comparing yachts and life rafts.
Raph Levien (Inconsolata), source: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Inconsolata/about
Yes, there are alternatives. Yes, there are people using the alternatives. No, the alternatives do not hold any meaningful percentage of the design software market.
Adobe sucks but no alternative comes even close to Photoshop and Illustrator.
I suspect you know some Adobe history already - like that a couple decades back Macromedia's product suite was set to overtake Adobe's. Others here may not. It's good for them (regardless of your primary point) to know that Adobe buys its competition.
The point I made in my comment was only material to (and in agreement with) the point you made in passing: Adobe sucks!