fonts.xyz

NaN, the foundry behind custom type for Deezer, Wise and Channel 4, launched fonts.xyz as a platform for independent foundries with terms that read like a position paper: an eighty percent royalty cut to the designer, one all-inclusive license instead of the usual tiered maze, an eighty percent student discount, and a one percent solidarity tax. Font retail has been a platform monopoly for years and the standard royalty split is the reason most independent type designers cannot live on type. Setting the number at eighty is the entire argument. The counter-read is that the room is loud about this right now and the model is unproven at scale — a generous split only matters if the catalog gets deep enough to earn from. Worth watching whether the foundries actually move, not whether designers say they should.