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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

H+FJ doesn't serve the kind of user who feels that "buying individual fonts feels outdated", or who does price competition in the two digit range between different foundries. Instead, they sell to people for whom any price they could reasonably come up with for this service would be a rounding error.

Prior to launching Cloud Typography, H+FJ didn't sell web fonts at all. Things seemed to have been going pretty well for them.

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H+FJ doesn't serve the kind of user who feels that "buying individual fonts feels outdated", or who does price competition in the two digit range between different foundries.

The pricing advertised on their site appears to contradict you.

They seem to be aiming for the mainstream market rather than exclusivity, yet their prices are uncompetitive by mainstream standards, which seems an odd strategy.

Of course -- H&FJ is an excellent foundry, and they're not competing in the same space as, say, Google Web fonts. That's what I mean by not competitive. It's a completely different league, as it sounds like you're well aware.

The people who like H&FJ for the quality will subscribe and use this service, while those looking for a commodity option will avoid it -- perhaps even to the benefit of H&FJ.

I know I'll subscribe shortly, which is why I hope this works for their business. It really is an interesting decision when compared to the providers whose offerings keep dropping in price to compete in a commodity market.

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