The players in this story are a highly original 1987 font family by Kuester called Today Sans Serif (available from Mannesmann-ScanGraphic) and a 1997 Adobe font family called Cronos developed by Adobe's Robert Slimbach. The story was reconstructed from postings on the Type designers Forum in August 1999. All text in [..] was added by me to clarify some things. The people mentioned in this story include David Lemon (an ex-Adobe employee, now at Adobe again), Carol Twombly (another Adobe type designer, now ex-Adobe), and independent type designers and type specialists Joe Treacy, Bill Troop and Hrant Papazian.

Bill Troop got the ball rolling with the following statement:

When, for instance, Adobe Cronos (which, as far as I can tell, Adobe has privately conceded is a knockoff of Today Sans Serif) is put into the Adobe Original series and then Adobe actually accepts the prize given by an unusually inept jury of the Type Directors Club. Is that perhaps going too far?

And the design patent I find a matter for concern. When a design patent for Cronos is sought, and actually obtained -- well, that seems to me to cross the border of good ethics and sharp practice, to land in the precincts of fraudulent misrepresentation. At best, it mocks the patent process in a manner I find arrogant to an extreme.

In addition, Today Sans Serif is too recent -- 1987 -- and too well-known.

BUT ... is there an alternative path that could have been taken? Had I wanted to 'improve' a great typeface that was not well-known in the US? Yes. I could have freely acknowledged my debt to the pre-existing artist's work. I could have discussed what I did differently. (Now here, competent wordsmith though I am, I would be hard-pressed, if I were the designer of Cronos, to point out any visible differences between Today and Cronos. I'd have to rely on enormous enlargements to show details that would normally not be visible to the naked eye.)

Still, it's the *intentionality* that counts. For instance, Joe Treacy, good lad that he is, candidly acknowledges his debt to Today Sans Serif in, I think, Treacy Forever, a typeface that little resembles Today. Many other foundries are equally candid about derivation/reinterpretation issues. Font Bureau is so candid about it that I must believe its attributions are considered a marketing point. And why not? Such confident generosity proves strength, not weakness.

It's one thing to steal someone else's idea. It's another to attempt to rewrite history, to claim Cronos (at worst a bad copy, at best a highly derivative reinterpretation of Today Sans) as original. To seek a design patent? To have David Lemon [note: David Lemon used to work at Adobe] write passionate letters about how he personally witnessed [Robert] Slimbach drawing Cronos for over a year? Does it seem, lately, that David spends an inordinate amount of time over Robert's and Carol's [Carol Twombly is another famous Adobe typographer] shoulders? Can this be the same David Lemon who, in 1997, when I was asking for his help in solving a problem with ATM 4.0 and the PC version of Today Sans Serif, said -- "Oh, just use Cronos instead!"

So in sum, I'd say, I don't care what you do. But I'm enough of an art historian that I deeply care that you don't at best mislead, at worst lie, about what you are doing. Needless to say, Adobe knew about the Today problem many months before Cronos was released. I clearly remember encouraging Adobe to license Today from Scangraphic. Fred Brady responded: "Just wait for Cronos. If you like Today, you're going to love Cronos."

Do I hold Adobe to a high standard? Perhaps. Why? Because in the past it seemed, comparatively speaking, a standard bearer for ethics in the software industry. I don't like to think that during the years I spent publicizing this company in good faith, I was merely a puppet being led by the nose.

Hrant H. Papazian adds:

And to be brutally honest, it matters little what I, Roy or Bill think. What matters, and what we should disclose -if nothing else, for our own potential satisfaction- is whether there was a breach of ethics in the TodaySans/Cronos case. This can only be arrived at through earnest and fearless analysis by each one if us as well as us as a group.

Bill Troop then provides more historical detail, and should make us all think hard about the silence imposed by the big companies on its employees:

Today is an acid case. It is one of the MINUTE number of typefaces that actually makes several entirely original contributions to the art. It is one of the truly rare triumphs of originality in all type history. Every single one of those entirely original contributions is used in Cronos--and nowhere else. What difference does it make what you call it? It was eviscerated.

Why? Why do something so obvious? Well, it wasn't obvious that they would ever be found out. Nobody in America knew Today ... and the few who did could be relied upon to hold their tongues, couldn't they? Couldn't they? COULDN'T THEY?

But then something happened ... the first article in an American magazine about Today Sans Serif appeared. And if ever a review was a love letter to a typeface, that was it. The article did not mention Cronos -- and it should have. But it did bring Today to the attention of the American design community for the first time. The article was by me; it appeared late in 1997. Funny thing, it was just about that time that Adobe decided they no longer wanted to work on their project with me.

May I confess something? I thought -- with shocking naivete! -- that if I suppressed all mention of Cronos in my article on Today, that Adobe would be happy. And I discussed this very point with both Robert [Slimbach] and Carol [Twombly]. I obviously didn't get the message I was supposed to. I was expected not to publicize Today. Today was not to exist. It was as if Today was never to have been.

You know what? Fuck that!

I may be a fool of every kind, and sentimental beyond belief, but I'm not going to let Adobe make Kuester a non-person and Today a non-font.

Now, here is the text at Adobe's web page for Cronos: Created by Adobe type designer Robert Slimbach, Cronos is a new sans serif typeface family that embodies the warmth and readability of oldstyle roman typefaces. Because it derives much of its appearance from the calligraphically inspired type of the Italian Renaissance, [wow: no acknowledgment of Today!!!] Cronos has an almost handwritten appearance, setting it apart from most other sans serif designs and making it an effective choice for text composition. The italic design was inspired by early chancery style italics and is both elegant and distinguished. [again, no credit!!!] U.S. Patent Design 400,913. [booh to the patent office]

Luc Devroye