How can I buy fonts at Lazydogs?
Go to the desired font family page and go for the grey field «buying options». You first need to select the type of license, and scale it if necessary. Click on the little i to get more info about the license.
Then you add the fonts to your cart. You can either add the complete family or single fonts. Depending on the number of fonts you choose, a quantity discount will be applied in your cart later.
When you’ve finished shopping go to the cart and edit your shopping list if needed. For immediate product download you can choose one of the online payment methods available in our shop. We use PayPal as a service provider to enable payments via PayPal account, Credit Card, SEPA, GiroPay or Sofortüberweisung. The second, but slower way is to pay via invoice. We then send you an invoice, asking you to transfer the balance to our bank account. As soon as we receive the money, we’ll send you the fonts via e-mail.
Do I need PayPal account to use Lazydogs’ online shop?
The short answer is, no! Not anymore. We now offer different payment methods (powered by PayPal) including payments via PayPal account, Credit Cards, SEPA, GiroPay, Sofortüberweisung, and many others. But if you have a PayPal account you are able to make use of it for buying our fonts.
Which payment methods do you accept?
If you need the fonts for instant download, use one of the online payment methods we accept. Depending on your location, you will be offered different ways to pay for your purchase. If you are not using one of these, you can still choose «Via Invoice» as payment option. You will then get a confirmation e-mail, asking you to transfer the invoiced amount. Depending on your location, of course these things might take a few days. Please be aware that the fonts cannot be mailed before your payment has been approved.
Can I simply order your fonts by e-mail?
Yes, you can! Simply send us an e-mail, that states clearly which fonts you’d like to purchase and what kind of license(s) you need. Also provide name and postal address of the licensee. After receiving your payment (money transfer throughout Europe is usually processed within a few days) we will send you the fonts.
Can I download your fonts immediately?
Yes, you can! But only if you use an online payment method, that can be approved immediately, such as credit card or PayPal.
Why do I need a license?
As fonts are considered not a physical object but rather a piece of software, legally speaking you can’t actually buy our fonts, but purchase («license») the right to use them. This might be a bit confusing at first sight, but actually offers a few more options: With a specific «type of license» you can go for the area of use that you need. And you can also scale a license to fit the extent of use as you like.
Which licenses do you provide?
At the moment we offer a «Desktop License» and a «Web License» on our website. Select the desktop license if you want to use the fonts on your computer (local workstation or laptop computer), tablet, mobile phone or other programmable device with a central processing unit. Select a web license if you want to use the fonts on websites, using the @font-face selector in CSS files (sIFR, Cufón or Typeface.js are not allowed!). If you don’t know the page views right away, simply start with the smallest scale. You can easily upgrade your license for a larger extent of use later! If you need a different area of use (such as app or broadcast licenses) covered or you’re not sure which type of license is the right one for your project, please talk to us and we’ll find the perfect fit.
Who should I claim as licensee and why is this important?
To «buy» fonts is actually a matter of licensing the right to use the fonts. So, it’s actually a contract between you and us. It is important that the person or company that you claim as contractual partner is the user of our fonts. This could be either an agency who works for a client (but the client will not actually work with the fonts themselves), or the final client, or sometimes even both, depending who actually uses the font files. The company who pays for the fonts may differ from the licensee, that’s no problem. Please contact us to receive an invoice with different billing and licensee addresses.
Who is the licensee?
The licensee is our contractual partner, so it’s the legal entity (person or company) who actually purchases the right to use our fonts. In some cases it might be good to name the client here, but in most cases, the «user» is rather the agency who manages the job for the client. So you need to check, who will use the fonts in the end, meaning: who will install or host the font files. Each legal entity who does this, needs to buy a separate license. By the way: You can use «send cart» to prepare the right fonts and licenses for your client and ease the shopping for them.
Can licensee and invoice recipient be different?
Yes, of course. In some cases it might be good to send the invoice not directly to the client, but to the agency who manages the job for the client. Please contact us to receive an invoice with different billing and licensee address.
As a designer, can I buy a font for one of my clients?
Acquiring the right products and licenses can often be time-consuming for the designer and also very complicated for your client. To ease this we integrated the «Save/Send Cart» button in our shop. When you press this button, our system generates a link that can be forwarded easily to your customer, who can simply complete the purchase. By the way, this button can also be used to save purchases for a short time. Please also read our information of «Who is the licensee».
What is the «Save / Send cart» button?
If your client needs to buy a license but has no experience or feels uncomfortable with licensing fonts, you can prepare a shopping cart for them. Simply use «send cart» and the client will receive an e-mail with a link to the cart. This way, they can do the shopping directly on his account.
Do you offer trial versions of your fonts?
Yes, we do. Please write us an e-mail that briefly describes who you are and which project you’d like to try our fonts for, and we can provide fully functioning trial fonts.
Do you offer student discounts?
We are happy to support students for larger works like final projects by providing free but project-specific student licences. Please understand, that we’d like to know a bit about your project before we provide any fonts. And of course, we assume that we’ll get a copy of the awesome project outcome!
What can I do if I have technical problems with your online shop?
If for any reason you have problems with our online shop, let us know! We’ll certainly find a way to attain your wishes without hassle.
What can I do if I have technical problems with your font files?
In this support section you may find some answers to common questions about font technology. If this will not help you, please contact us any time. As the functionality of font-software is strongly dependent of the application using it, we cannot promise a solution for any combination of software and operating system. But we’ll certainly try everything humanly possible.
How do I install the fonts?
To install (or deinstall) the fonts you can either use a professional font activation software like Suitcase or FontExplorer, or you proceed with option A or B:
- A) On a Windows computer find the folder «Windows» > «Fonts» on your local harddrive (C:) and put the single font files (not the whole folder!) there.
- B) On a Macintosh computer find the application «Font Book» («Schriftsammlung») and simply drag the file into one of your collections (left column). You may need to activate the font by selecting it in the list and clicking on the checkbox below (next to the plus button).
Which font files will I get with my purchase?
If you selected a desktop license, we will deliver OpenType CFF fonts (.otf). If you selected a web license, we will deliver the webfont formats woff, woff2 and eot as well as OpenType TT (.ttf). Your download consists of a folder with all fonts, the end user license agreement(s) and a PDF file with additional information about each font family. We suggest, that you keep a copy of the files in a location on your harddrive, where they can stay.
What are «Webfonts»?
The term «webfonts» comprises a few font formats wich are used on websites, using the @font-face selector in CSS. The most commonly used format is WOFF and its successor WOFF2. For some older versions of the Internet Explorer the format EOT is used. SVG-fonts are meanwhile considered as a deprecated feature with support being removed from browsers. If you still need those, let us know.
Which font format do I need?
For installation on a work station (computer) OpenType CFF fonts (extension «.otf») will work on both mac and windows platforms and also with most applications. Working on the web, the answer is somewhat more complicated. WOFF and WOFF2 is almost perfectly supported throughout browsers, but you might consider fallbacks depending on your readers. In case you have other needs let us know and we’ll do our best to send you what you need.
Which glyph set do your fonts have?
We don’t use a standard glyph set for all of our fonts at Lazydogs. We believe, that every typeface should be tailored to its specific design concept. You can preview the glyph set by going to the family page and clicking on the section “character sets” or download the PDF specimen, which includes glyph tables to all fonts.
Can I order without VAT?
If you are a business from outside the EU you are most likely eligible to order without tax. You might have to check for customs’ regulations though. Within the EU, businesses can use the reverse charge procedure, which means, that you pay VAT in your own country. Experience shows, that all these proceedings usually bring more paperwork than money savings. However, if you still need an invoice without VAT,
please send us an E-mail with your VAT-ID, licensee’s name and address and the desired products.
What is OpenType?
OpenType is the standard font format today. It is platform independent, so the same font file works both on mac and windows computers. It can also comprise a large number of glyphs, so it is no longer limited to 256 slots, like with the older PostScript fonts. Additionally OpenType fonts may have so called “layout features” [link], which provide additional functionalities. There is one confusing thing about OpenType fonts: They can exist in two “flavours” depending on what kind of outline technology is used inside: Those with the common Bezier-outlines are called “OpenType CFF” or “OpenType PS” and carry the extension “.otf”. Those with TrueType-based outlines are called “OpenType TT” and carry the extension “.ttf”. That leads to the problem, that it’s not obvious, whether a ttf-file is actually a new OpenType TT font or an old PC TrueType font with less glyphs and poorer functionalities.
What are OpenType (layout) features?
OpenType layout features can add certain functionalities to a font. For example you can choose from various sets of figures (tabular or proportional, oldstyle or lining), you can switch on contextual alternates or swash letters. Not every application can actually operate these special features; in InDesign for example you can find them in the “character” (“Zeichen”) panel: Click on the small arrow in the upper right corner and find the OpenType menu, which shows you the available features of the selected font. If you want to know, which features are implemented in our fonts, go to the family page and open the section “opentype features”. Or download the PDF specimen, which includes the technical specifications to the typeface.
How does the online shopping procedure work?
- Step 1: On the font family’s page go to the section «buying options» and select your desired type(s) of license. If you want to buy more than one type of license (e.g. «Desktop» and «Web»), check the ones you need. Your selection will also update the prices in the list below, including a discount for multiple types of licenses for the same product. You can also scale your license to your specific needs. If you don’t know the appropriate number of page views or devices right away, simply start with the smallest scale. You can easily upgrade your license for a larger extent of use later!
- Step 2: Add the desired fonts from the list to your cart – or remove them as you like. You can add single fonts or packages or whole families.
- Step 3: Click on the button «Go to cart» to see what’s in your cart. You can edit your shopping items or change their license if you like. A quantity discount will be applied automatically if you buy more than 2 fonts. By the way: In case you’re preparing a cart for your customer or someone else who is not so familiar with font licensing, you can e-mail your cart to this person by «Send Cart».
- Step 4: Clicking on the «Checkout» button will open up a section where you can provide name and address of the licensee. For non-German companies who are eligible for shopping without tax, please see the «Can I order without VAT?» post. Proceed with your preferred payment option.
- Step 5: If you chose an online payment with immediate validation, we will provide links to your purchased fonts and your invoice right away – both on our website and via e-mail. If you choose the offline payment method «Via Invoice», you will receive a confirmation e-mail with our bank account details, asking you to transfer the balance due. Depending from where in the world you send the money, this might take a few days. As soon as the balance is accredited, you’ll receive another e-mail with download links for your purchased fonts and your invoice.
What is a variable font?
Variable fonts (OTVar) are a spin-off of the OpenType font format. It includes the possibility to save a whole font family in one file, e.g. a range of fonts that differ in weight, width, optical size or other fancy things. App support for Variable Fonts is still rather poor, but this will most likely change soon. The latest versions of Illustrator and InDesign implemented OTVar just recently. For some of our type families we add a free Variable Font if you buy a complete family.
Your fonts on the Lazydogs website do strange things sometimes – why?
To ensure the best information and shopping experience we use webfonts for frontend displaying and testing on our website. But to prevent theft, we deleted a bunch of glyphs in these fonts. This may lead to strange font behaviours in some very rare cases and will not happen in our fonts mastered for retail.
I found a bug in one of your fonts!
To create font software is a rather complex task, because it interacts with a vast variety of apps and different operating systems. Although we carefully master, test and deliver for common soft- and hardware combinations, we will never be able to test our fonts with every software combination. In the rare case, that our fonts do not work properly on your device, we appreciate you writing us an email. We’ll support you to help solving it, as fast as we can.