The Fonts of D&D 5th Edition

[Scorpienne]

I thought this was interesting...

http://firstblood20.tumblr.com/post/119546594358/the-fonts-of-dd-5th-edition

The fonts and style of the 5th Edition line, in case you want to make prettier custom stuff for your games. Most of these fonts are paid for, but a WotC forum thread talks about fonts that make good substitutes.
I’ll post here the exchange, as the forums will be soon closed:

• “Random D&D 5e fact (in case anyone wants to make matching documents): The all-caps header font used in the D&D Basic rules is Berthold Baskerville with the first letter of each word approximately two font sizes larger than the rest of the word. The text of the document uses Bookman Headline.”
• “I dunno. I see MrsEaves, which is clearly based on Baskerville but is unlikely to be exactly the same. Rather than changing font sizes, I see MrsEavesXLSerifOT and MrsEavesSmallCaps.Similarly I see Bookmania rather than Bookman Headline. Clearly based on Bookman, but I don’t think it exists in any larger optical sizes.Am I missing something?
• Baskerville seems to be a close match, but not an exact one. It worked for my purposes. (making a reference sheet that’s similar to another RPG’s product)When I used a website to identify the fonts Bookmania was another suggestion for a match. When I looked really closely, it seemed Bookman Headline was a better match, but YMMV.
• I’m seeing:
  • Bookmania (Body),
  • Interstate (Character Sheet Footers),
  • Modesto Text (Version # and download notice)
  • Mrs Eaves All Small Caps (Page Footers),
  • Mrs Eaves Small Caps (Chapter/Sections Headings)
  • Scala Sans Sc Offc (Sidebar and Table Headings)
  • Mrs Eaves XL Serif OT (Third Party Quotations; e.g. Race entries)
  • Scala Sans Offc (Sidebar/Table Body and Character Sheet)
  • Mrs Eaves Small Caps is the better match for the chapter and section headings. Thank you.
• What fonts would equivalent that are freely available?
  • For Bookmania or Bookman,http://www.fontspace.com/category/urw bookman lseems to be a free version. Edit: Looking at it the commas, quotation marks, and parentheses do not match, and the x-height seems to be lower.I cannot find a free version of Baskerville with small caps. Edit 2: Real small caps seem to be a nuisance to use anyway, so you might possibly get acceptable results withhttp://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/libre-baskerville.

 

[kalani]

Keep in mind, that using these fonts can be considered a violation of copyright (trade dress). As such, I would not recommend using these fonts for any product you wish to release. If you are only using them for your own benefit, it is highly unlikely you will face any issues - but if you release a product (even a free product) designed to look like an official D&D product, you are setting yourself up for trade-dress violation.

 

[Scorpienne]

Keep in mind, that using these fonts can be considered a violation of copyright (trade dress). As such, I would not recommend using these fonts for any product you wish to release. If you are only using them for your own benefit, it is highly unlikely you will face any issues - but if you release a product (even a free product) designed to look like an official D&D product, you are setting yourself up for trade-dress violation.

I'm confident that the vaaaaaaaaaast majority of people who are interested in this are people trying to make nice-looking free stuff for their home games or fan-appreciation stuff, not trying to gin up products for sale.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

Im a bit confused, why is this topic in the AL part of the forum?

 

[kalani]

IDK. It has little to do with AL at all.

 

[Pauper]

It should be noted that the courts have ruled repeatedly that fonts are not copyrightable; the closest you can get to intellectual property protection of fonts is patent protection, and then you must be the creator of the font, which WotC almost certainly is not.

Now if you made a book that used the font scheme in the PH, along with the layout of the chapters, similar artwork, etc., then I might worry about a trade dress lawsuit. But (IMO), if you purchased (or received as part of a software package) a font that is used in a D&D text, there should be no issue with making use of that font in a fan-created work. (As an example, people are posting monsters to the web using the 5E monster block format.) While the WotC Fan Site Kit page does warn against making use of WotC trade dress, more than simply the use of the fonts in the PH would be required for that purpose. (Note, though, I'm not a lawyer.)

--
Pauper

 

[kalani]

^This was what I was trying to articulate. Using a font by itself is fine, but if you release something "designed to look like an official D&D Product" (IOWs, by copying their trade dress), you can run into legal problems (even if released for free).

Copying 5Es monster stat blocks (as mentioned by Pauper above) is a perfect example of trade-dress violation. Using a D&D font in a banner, or in a completely different style of trade-dress is perfectly legal.... Trying to make your item look the same as a D&D item, is not.

The reason I mentioned trade-dress violation earlier, is because of the fact that many people want the D&D Fonts specifically for the purpose of making their creations "look the same" as the official product(s); IOWs - their objective is to use the same trade dress (or a close approximation of). Such individuals want the fonts for the purpose of looking "more official".

I know something of this issue as it relates to the RPG industry, and while mechanics and rules cannot be copyright, trade dress, graphics, artwork, terminology, and block text can be. If rules could be copyright, the Monopoly ruleset would have a monopoly on the 2d6 mechanic.

WotC could not for example, claim copyright violation if another game used the following rule: "Roll 2d20 and take the better result" (as rules cannot be copyright), providing the other game used different phrasing than WotC used.

 

[Pauper]

Note as well that infringement of trade dress is not technically a copyright infringement, but a trademark infringement -- you're infringing on WotC's trademark for D&D, not on their copyrights, by making something that looks enough like an 'official' D&D product that people might confuse it for one.

Kalani is correct that the mechanics of a game cannot be copyrighted -- you could come up with your own RPG where you roll a d20 and high numbers on the die are good. You might even be able to call it a 'd20 system' game; although WotC owns the trademark on that phrase as well, they haven't used it 'in commerce' (i.e.: as part of a published product) since the days of D&D 3.5, and the validity of a trademark is explicitly tied to its use in commerce. What you couldn't do is take all the old d20 system logos and such and use them to promote your game.

Of course, chances are good that even if you did something that is allowed under patent and trademark law, you'd likely have to prove in court that your use wasn't infringing, which is the real limiting factor -- you probably shouldn't even consider this unless you're wealthy enough to be able to take on WotC/Hasbro in court to get a ruling in your favor (and if it became obvious that you were likely to win, WotC/Hasbro would be likely to offer you a settlement to prevent the court from establishing the result in law).

 

[Buckethead Baptist]

Can anyone suggest how to make the Adventurers League (Modesto Condensed) logo effect (white on black bordered by red)?

Trying to make some Announcements for game time for my group on FB.

 

[Pauper]

I suspect it's a layering effect done in Adobe InDesign, the software WotC uses to compose their documents. You might be able to accomplish something similar with the proper fonts and a graphics program like Photoshop, GraphicConverter, the GIMP, or the like, but actually going through the process is something beyond my simple desktop publishing skills.

--
Pauper