It has been a while since I gave an update on what is happening in the world of Font Burner…

New Font Burner Support Forum
The biggest news is the new addition of a support forum to this site. The goal is that the forum will be a great resource for anyone struggling to get Font Burner working on their site. I am also looking to the Font Burner community to help each other out and share tips and suggestions. Click here to visit the forum!

If you have insight into common problems encountered when using Font Burner, please make a post and share your expertise with the community. Your contributions to the forum would be greatly appreciated! Additionally, if you are interested in being a forum moderator, I am looking for help there, too.

I wish I could say that this was entirely unselfish, but the truth is that I am hoping this will help reduce the amount of technical support I do via email. I have been close to closing the doors on Font Burner, but just can’t pull the trigger. It is a labor of love, and sometimes it really feels like labor! I feel really guilty when someone sends me an email with a question that I don’t answer. I apologize if you are one of the people I have neglected! Please forgive me. Hopefully the forum will prevent me from being as big of a jerk to people who use my service.

Wordpress Plugin Update in Devleopment
In other news, I am working on a new version of the Font Burner Wordpress plugin. While this release won’t introduce much (if any) new functionality, it is a major upgrade because it will address some of the performance issues happening behind the scenes. I am hoping to reduce the code size, and streamline how the Font Burner code is injected into the Wordpress header. It is pretty much a rebuild from scratch and that is why it is taking so long. Stay tuned for the official release of the new and improved plugin.

That’s the news for now. Thanks to everyone who uses Font Burner and makes this site a success! I really appreciate your support.

Posted on Saturday, November 7th, 2009. Click here to leave a comment.

I am proud to announce that each of the 1000+ sIFR fonts that power Font Burner are now available for download! You will now see a “Download SWF” link on every page that you can use to download all the free sIFR fonts available on Font Burner. To some of you that makes perfect sense, but for most of you, swf font files require a little more explanation. Allow me to fill in the blanks for you…

Font Burner is powered by over 1000 sIFR font swf files. Until now these sIFR font files have been silently working behind the scenes to bring rich typography to your website. This is perfect for the average person, but there has been a growing demand for the ability to download the actual sIFR swf files so that people can host their own fonts rather than just linking to the font on Font Burner. Before I get to far ahead of myself let me define a few of the terms I keep using.

What is a .swf font file?
An swf file is a shockwave filed, otherwise known as a Flash file. An swf can be anything from a video to a website, to animation. In the case of Font Burner, the swf is basically an empty Flash file that contains an embedded font. By using a technology called sIFR the swf font files are used to switch ordinary headlines into the font embedded in the swf.

What is sIFR?
SIFR is what powers Font Burner. SIFR takes a .swf font file and uses it to switch your headlines from default fonts to the font of your choosing.

Now that we have defined sIFR and swf font files you may be asking what you would do next. Well, this is admittedly an advanced feature that will appeal to people that are comfortable customizing javascript. One of the challenges of siFR is that it requires you to own Flash and be able to create a sIFR swf file. These obstacles are what inspired Font Burner to create an easy way to add sIFR to your site without any of the hassle that typically accompanies using sIFR technology.

Unfortunately, in Font Burner’s current state it can be somewhat limiting in that the color choices and customizations just aren’t possible yet. Some people just want the .swf font files and can handle the customization on their own. For these power users the ability to download free swf font files is all they are really looking for.

All the .swf files are free for download. However, if you use a Font Burner Font it would be appreciated if you gave credit to Font Burner as well as the font designer on your site. I hope you enjoy this new feature!

Posted on Sunday, June 21st, 2009. Click here to leave a comment.

I continue to be amazed by font comapanies that cry “Infringement” when they learn about sIFR. I have decided to make public all email correspondence with people who request to have their “free” fonts removed from Font Burner. Here is one from the protective folks at K-Type followed by my response…

On Jan 10, 2009, at 5:12 AM, Keith Bates wrote the following in an email titled “K-TYPE LICENCE INFRINGEMENT:”

Adrian,

I have not received a reply to the request I sent a few weeks ago asking you to remove my K-Type fonts that appear on your FontBurner site. Please remove them immediately!

I was initially rather surprised that someone who purports to be helping font designers would not even credit each font foundry whose fonts are being used within FontBurner.

More importantly with regard to K-Type, you are failing to acknowledge or publicize the terms of our Licensing Agreement which allows K-Type ‘Freebies’ to be used without a licence ‘for personal use only’.

The great problem with FontBurner is that although you are supplying this software free, it will be utilised by commercial concerns who will assumed that you have commercial clearance to use our fonts. You have not sought or been granted such permission. Indeed, the K-Type Licence Agreement, clearly visible on our website and available in the documentation within all current versions of K-Type fonts, clearly states that ‘Freebies used for commercial purposes must be licensed at the same rate as Pay Fonts’. Furthermore, K-Type fonts used within software products such as you are offering, need to be covered by an Enterprise Licence.

I trust you will quickly remove our intellectual property from your web site and FontBurner product and will advise me as soon as this is done. I attach a full list of K-Type ‘Freebies’ below.

Failure to comply with this instruction will result in legal action.

Keith Bates

K-Type Freebies (Free for Personal Use)

3×5
Alex
Anna
Collegiate
Dalek
Designer Block
Digitalis
Flatpack
Future Imperfect
Gommogravure
Greetings
Insecurity
Kato
Klee Capscript
Lexia Readable
Magical Mystery Tour
MailArt
MailArt Graphics
Mailart Rubberstamp
Mandatory
Max
Ming
Norton
Pix-L
Ray Johnson
Roadway
Sans Culottes
Snippletweak
Subway Ticker
Susanna
This Corrosion
Victor Moscoso
Wanda
Waverley

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On Jan 10, 2009, at 12:02 PM, Adrian Hanft wrote:

Keith,

Somehow I missed your email from a few weeks ago. It either got filtered as spam or I missed it over Christmas when I was using my phone for email. Apologies.

Font Burner tries to make it simple for anyone to use freely available fonts on their websites. Since we have so many fonts in the system it is currently a little hard to credit the font designers as well as we would like. Hopefully we can improve that in the future because we really do respect font designers and thank them when they share their property freely. While we believe that it is within our legal rights to post any and all fonts on Font Burner, we try to respect the wishes of font owner such as yourself who ask us to remove a font. So, as a courtesy to you, I have turned off the following fonts within the Font Burner system:

Future Imperfect
Greetings
Lexia
Mailart rubber stamp
Mandatory
Susanna
This corrosion

As a point of clarity, I am curious how K-Type views sIFR in general? Do you restrict the use of sIFR completely with your fonts? I assume you realize that any time a sIFR file is posted online technically anyone could link to it and use it on their site, commercial or otherwise. If you demand that Font Burner remove the sIFR files off our server you are basically saying that it is illegal for anyone to use your fonts in sIFR even if they have purchased the font. That’s just something I want you to think about and I would be curious to know your thoughts in that matter.

Also, I want to alert you to the fact that I will be posting all our correspondence publicly and unedited on the Font Burner blog. I think it is important that all our users are aware of issues like this. Thanks for your email and let me know if there is anything else I can do for you.

Adrian Hanft

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I have yet to hear back from Keith, but when I do I will post it here.

Posted on Saturday, January 17th, 2009. Click here to leave a comment.

I recently added a couple great new fonts to Font Burner. (If you want to follow the latest fonts added to our system be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed.) Here is a little more about the latest additions…

Museo
This beautiful slab serif was designed by Jos Buivenga, maker of several of the best free fonts online. Check out josbuivenga.demon.nl for several premium fonts. There are several weights of Museo available for free from myfonts.com. I like this one because it is really readable without losing any character. Click here to see a sample.

Cuprum
This san serif was designed by Jovanny Lemonad and can be downloaded from dafont.com. I don’t know much about it, but it is a simple and easy to read sans serif. I am definitely a fan of this one. Click here to see it in action on Font Burner.

Both of these fonts were recommended to us by readers. Thanks! If you know of a great free font that is absent from our archives, please visit our support forum and request to have your font loaded into the system.

Posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008. Click here to leave a comment.

I am proud to announce the release of a brand new Wordpress plugin built just for Font Burner! The plugin is called Font Burner Control Panel and it allows you to easily add any Font Burner Font to your Wordpress powered site. The plugin lets you control the color and size of your headlines in addition to just choosing the font. That was the “missing link” of Font Burner since you used to be limited to black, white, and gray and the default sizes. The plugin also gives you a preview of your site so you can instantly see what your new headlines will look like.

Visit the plugins homepage or download it from the plugin directory at Wordpress.org. If you use the plugin please give me any feedback that you have. We hope you enjoy this new tool!

To do list:

• Allow different color for different headlines (H1 can be a different than H2)
• Alignment options (right, left, center, justified)
• Different fonts for H1, H2, H3, and H4)

Posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008. Click here to leave a comment.

Font Burner was created so that there would be a really simple way to add rich typography to your website. You shouldn’t have to be a professional web designer to use fonts other than Times, Verdana, Arial, etc. on your site. I knew that font designers and font companies would be hesitant to this idea, but I had a (perhaps naive) optimism that the value of the growth of typography online would win over the industry players. I might have been wrong.

Since the launch of Font Burner last April I have had several conversations with Font business people and I can’t point to a single person who has shown any interest in embracing sIFR. At best, they are willing to turn a blind eye to the use of sIFR. At worst, they expect an additional payment for a special sIFR license.

Think about that for a second. You legally purchase a font. You can use it freely anywhere you want. In advertising, on television, in a book, on the side of a plane, in your logo, anywhere. But if you want to use this font on your website, stop the presses! Oh, no! If you want to use the font that YOU PAID FOR on your website you will have to purchase an additional license. That is ridiculous. It is greedy, plain and simple.

This type of restrictive stance is a symptom of an industry that is only interested in turning a profit. This became even more clear to me when I had some correspondence with a representative from a relatively unknown font distribution website. I won’t give them the satisfaction of a link or mentioning them by name.

I was approached by this company because they wanted to know if I would be interested in promoting their free font of the month. At first I thought it would be a mutually beneficial partnership. I would promote their free font of the month and in exchange they would let me use the font within the Font Burner system. But when the details of how the arrangement would work were explained, the obvious one-sided arrangement became apparent.

The company had no interest in letting me use their free font on Font Burner. In fact, they don’t allow the use of any of their fonts with sIFR to anyone without an additional license. Yes, you heard that correctly. You would have to buy a license to use a sIFR version of a font that they are GIVING AWAY FOR FREE! To quote:

We would not want our free font of the month posted to your site, either temporarily or permanently. Thus we were hoping that you would simply promote the free font, and link over to our site for users to download it.

Can you believe that? They expect me to promote their products and send traffic to their site without getting anything in return. They expect something for free in one breath and then in the next they refuse to loosen their restrictive policies in the slightest bit! I can’t use the very font that they want me to promote on my site without being in violation of their license! Unbelievable.

I will end this post with my response to this unscrupulous solicitor:

Thanks for clarifying your license restrictions. Unfortunately, I can’t endorse a company that takes such a limiting stance in regard to sIFR. I don’t agree with requiring additional licenses for using sIFR. If you purchase a font I believe you should legally be able to use it on your website without having to pay extra for that “luxury.” Frankly, I think you have more to gain from making it easier for people to use fonts online than by restricting them, but you guys have to run your business however you feel comfortable. Thanks again for contacting me, and keep me in mind if the licensing atmosphere loosens up at (campany name withheld).

Posted on Saturday, October 25th, 2008. Click here to leave a comment.

The goal of Font Burner is to make it as easy as possible for people to incorporate rich typography into their websites. All the fonts found on this site use sIFR, a system for converting fonts into a form that can be used online. It can be a bit hard for a newcomer to get it to work the first time and it can be expensive if you don’t own Adobe Flash. I wanted to point you towards a couple sites that help overcome those obstacles. 

The first site is called sIFR Generator. It is an online tool that makes it easy to convert True Type fonts to a swf file that you can use with siFR. It is compatible with sIFR 3 and might just be the easiest way to generate sIFR font files. If you don’t want to shell out the cash for the arguably overpriced Flash software it is definitely your best option.

The second site I want to point you to is css-tricks.com, where there is a video tutorial about how to use sIFR 3. If you are a visual learner like myself, you are going to find this tutorial is for you. If you are lucky your days of stumbling through the sIFR documentation are over. And while I am on the topic of good sIFR tutorials, you might want to look at these instructions on Design Intellection. Good stuff.

I hope you find these links useful. Good luck with your sIFRing!

Posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008. Click here to leave a comment.

I wanted to say sorry to the Internet Explorer users who were experiencing browser crashes from Font Burner. I tackled the problem thinking it would be something major but it turned out that the crashes were due to an unclosed headline tag in my HTML. You wouldn’t think that wouldn’t be enough to kill a browser, but that’s Internet Explorer for you. Let me take this opportunity to encourage you to switch from Explorer to Firefox or other modern browser. You will be glad you did and so will I!

Posted on Saturday, May 24th, 2008. Click here to leave a comment.

I am starting to get some feedback on Font Burner and the hot topic is whether or not this is legal. The FAQ’s were definitely lacking on this point and it deserves a more robust response. So here it goes.

Font Burner respects the rights of font designers. We love fonts and want to make font designers rich and famous. We also love the internet and want to expand the options for online fonts. There is a balancing act that has to happen that allows growth for online font usage as well as rewarding the hard working people who create fonts. Font Burner is right in the middle of it and unfortunately we won’t be able to please everyone.

Font Burner uses sIFR to render the fonts. Most commercial fonts require that you own a license for any font that you are using with sIFR. There is plenty of gray area in a statement like that, but Font Burner has decided to error on the side of safety and honor the font companies’ wishes. For that reason, all the fonts available on Font Burner right now are copyright free fonts, the majority of which can be downloaded for free at dafont.com. At the launch of Font Burner there were some commercial fonts mixed in by mistake. We apologize for any oversight and if you see any more fonts that you believe shouldn’t be available here please let us know!

The hope is that Font Burner can expand beyond the free fonts and offer commercial fonts eventually with the font designer’s blessing. We are looking for a font company or a font designer that is willing to embrace this technology and give us a thumbs up for use on Font Burner. The exposure and publicity that comes with Font Burner has the potential to be a big boost to anyone who recognizes the advantage of being seen as a leader in this regard.

Posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008. Click here to leave a comment.

If you are using Font Burner on your website we want to link to your site. Leave a comment on this post and tell us about your site and the font you are using. Oh, and by the way, thanks for using Font Burner!

Posted on Saturday, May 17th, 2008. Click here to leave a comment.

Although Font Burner has launched with over 1000 hand selected fonts, there are obviously a huge number of fonts that are not available here yet. With the countless fonts available it is a monumental task to sort through them and figure out which ones are worth adding. That’s where you come in.

You can help Font Burner in three ways. First, notice that there are stars next to each font on Font Burner. If you like a font click on the fifth star to give it a five star rating. If you think it is a crappy font click on one star. By ranking the fonts on this site we can eliminate the garbage and promote the good stuff.

The second way you can help is to recommend fonts that you think should be included here. Use the comments in this post to tell us the fonts you want.

The last way you can help us is by spreading the word about Font Burner. Traffic increases our advertising revenue. Please look at our advertisements and click on them if you find an interesting one. It takes money to improve our site and we get money from advertisements.

We want to make Font Burner a great site and we appreciate your help. Thanks!

Posted on Sunday, May 11th, 2008. Click here to leave a comment.

Welcome everyone to Font Burner! Today the site officially launched and it is with high hopes that we release this site into the wild. Like any site worth its pixels, Font Burner has a blog. This is where you can follow new feature developments, font discussions, tutorials, and general announcements.

Since the Font Burner is brand spanking new we expect things to progress rapidly and we could really use your input. Please use the comment section of this blog to give us feedback, or send us an email. Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed so you can keep track of all the developments! Pick the feed that is right for you:

Full Font Burner Feed
Font Burner Blog Only Feed
New Fonts Feed

Again, welcome and thanks for visiting the site!

Posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008. Click here to leave a comment.