They're just your type

Ding Yi [Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

Typefaces based on entertainment celebrities is another line of typeface product, targeting millions of fans.

Last year Hanyi Fonts unveiled a typeface based on the handwriting of Jing Boran, a young actor and singer who has made handwritten posts about his life for his 21 million followers on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo.

The handwriting of the Chinese director and blogger Xu Jinglei was digitized by Foundertype in 2007.

Only about five companies in China specialize in typeface design. Apart from the fact that the design process in typography is highly labor intensive, copyright infringement also eats into the potential profits of typeface companies.

The price of a Chinese typeface product for business use can be anywhere between several thousand yuan and tens of thousands of yuan, but the lack of awareness in China regarding copyright on typefaces makes life difficult for commercial entities.

In one celebrated case Founder Electronics, the parent company of Foundertype, sued the US games company Blizzard Entertainment for using its typefaces in Blizzard's most popular online game, World of Warcraft, without permission and sought compensation of 100 million yuan ($15 million).

The complaint was filed in 2007, but it was not until five years later that the Beijing Higher People's Court ruled in Founder's favor, but awarded compensation of just 2 million yuan.

To make people aware of copyright issues with typefaces and to avoid the hassle of dealing with minor piracy issues, most of the companies offer license-free use for private individuals using the typefaces for non-commercial purposes.

Before Li Xiangchen, 25, founded the small typeface company Wenyue Type last year he developed a typeface based on the characters in Kangxi Dictionary, an authoritative Chinese lexicon during the rule of emperor Kangxi during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), and it was warmly received in the market.

Li eventually sold the copyright of his Kangxi Dictionary typeface for permanent use to a skincare company for more than 100,000 yuan.

"I am optimistic about Chinese typeface design," he says. "More and more people interested in it, and Chinese people are becoming more affluent, and showing a greater appreciation for the aesthetics of taste. As that happens the demand for typefaces will continue to rise."