Handwritten fonts thrive in digital era

Choi Min-seon, 23, a college student, has 32 different fonts available in her smartphone. Though only about 10 of them are provided from the phone’s manufacturer, she downloaded more than 20 extra via online and is using them freely as she pleases.

“At least every other week, I check out ‘new font types’ and store two to three that I like,” Choi said. “When including fonts for the PC, I have more than 100 digital font types that I have downloaded thus far.”

Handwritten letters that were almost deserted as legacy of the analog era have made a comeback in the form of “digital fonts.” Digital font refers to font types that Internet users can use in the digital environment, including system fonts used in Windows and Mac operating systems, and fonts exclusively for smartphones.

Initially established due to widespread use of the computer in the 1990s, the digital font market has continued to grow and is now worth 30 billion won (26 million U.S. dollars) per annum, according to industry sources. More than 30 companies including Sandol Communication and Yoon Design dedicated to this business are operating in Korea.

Digital fonts are enjoying the coming of age in tune with the widespread use of smartphones. With the ratio of smartphone users relative to feature phones reaching nearly 70 percent in Korea, the added value of fonts generated in the market exclusively for mobile and smartphone applications amounts to nearly 100 billion won (88 million dollars) per year. Diverse font types are gaining popularity, ranging from oversized font for people with presbyopia to sensible font displaying individuals’ personality.

Smartphone manufacturers have joined forces with professional font developers to expand the market. Samsung Electronics is selling more than 900 types of font at Samsung Apps, its own application for contents sales, since September 2011. LG Electronics started selling fonts on its “LG Smart World” in January last year, and is currently providing 405 fonts. LG Smart World had a total of 2 million downloads of fonts in this year’s first half. Some of them are offered for free, but most of them are sold for 2,000 won (1.76 dollars) to 3,000 won (2.6 dollars) per font type. A source at LG Electronics said, “The average monthly sales have continued to increase.”

As is the case for MP3, drama and movie files, however, digital fonts are also prone to violation of copyright. A user fee-based font costs 2,000 won (1.76 dollars) to 3,000 won (2.6 dollars) per type when used for the smartphone and about 60,000 won (52 dollars) for systems, but few are paying to buy them.

Though digital fonts are copyrighted material, most web users illegally exchange user fee-based fonts. Portal Naver has 403 cafes where web users can download fonts for free, and when “font download” is searched on the portal, nearly 50,000 results are displayed.

Samsung and LG block users from using pirated fonts by downloading original font to their smartphones. But web users developed apps designed to abort fee-based sale of such fonts, effectively generating a situation of duel between “sword and shield.”

“Copyrights to fonts are not practically protected in Korea,” said Kim Yong-il, a lawyer with the law firm Gil-sang. “Copyright laws should be systematically streamlined.”