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| Unreasonable Expectations | | Date Created: 02 Oct, 2004, 10:40 PM |
 As a service provider for the print and design market in my area, I deal with graphic arts professionals all day long. These are people that are trying to serve their customers and to be creative on a deadline.
This process has been made more difficult, in recent years with the advent of OS X, and the transition that my customers have had to make -- going from OS 9 to OS X. The number of font folders, the fact that some fonts just stop working in OS X, and the fact that some programs don't work well with some kinds of fonts (see my other rant about QuarkXpress for more information about this one) make the problems a real challenge to overcome.
But for the most part, I have found that my graphics customers have responded with a great deal of poise. Don't get me wrong, they're not "happy" but they do understand that this is the nature of the new OS. And they understand that the problems that they are having are NOT the result of some conspiracy that I'm involved in.
As I said... For the most part, this has been my experience. But there are those few graphics artist that I work with who either do not have or have not yet displayed that understanding or poise (and you know who you are). These people tend to look at the whole situation and think that it's either a scam or that I (because I know how to deal with these font related issues) owe them free support and service.
To these people I would like to extend to you a great big written raspberry!
Let's look at why you are in the situation(s) that you are in...
1. You haven't ever taken care of your fonts or managed them in the first place.
2. You can't load your fonts from your master fonts CDs because you've pirated most of the fonts you have on your computer.
3. You have continually chosen the lowest cost solutions no matter what recommendations you have received.
4. You have ignored update and upgrade recommendations so that you are now 3 to 4 years behind the current state of the technology.
5. And because you don't know how to treat your service providers (like me) who now don't care as much if you are having problems.
So I would like to make a suggestion to you folks who spend more of your time whining about your font problems and looking for someone to blame... Change your practices and change your attidute(s). If you don't you may find yourself in a world of font hurt that will cost you much more than it has to. |
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