@aschmitz the tools exist to create fonts for free (and have for a long time), and for people who make fonts regularly, even the expensive software quickly pays for itself. but as with any art, it’s one thing to do it for yourself as a passion project, and another to do it on commission for a customer. font design is very iterative and involves a lot of back-and-forth, and just knowing the number of hours involved in that i would guess you’d need at least four figures for anything like a living wage, for anything beyond just a basic latin set with no adjustments. and i wouldn’t expect designers to have so many clients as to actually book full eight-hour days (which is why they have time for passion projects), so the amount they have to charge to sustain their businesses is probably higher

@Lady Probably, yeah. I kind of assume there are people who might do a one-off for, say, an indie game as a side gig because they enjoy it as a hobby, and as with many artists they'd undervalue it, but as you say anyone who's planning to put in the initial brainstorming, several rounds of refinement, things beyond basic Latin, and such will (rightfully) quote a higher price.