This is basically a less humanistic version of Frutiger. As a designer I find the entire face irksome. The legibility doesn't come close to Adrian Frutiger's namesake.
Is a designer's taste more important than someone else's?
No, its simply more informed.
Not at all. I just wanted to point out that it looks like one of the best typefaces of all time except without it's best features. Did not mean to come across as arrogant. I understand it will be useful to some people who don't care or who are unable to pay $30 for Frutiger.
I'd pay $30 in a heartbeat if I could ship Frutiger with my applications. The Intel font can be used for that.
Web guys have it easy when it comes to fonts.
Ahh yes, you'd owe Linotype a few hundred bucks if you want to do that. I'd love to see Adrian Frutiger release an open source font before he goes... Imagine if Univers was free!
I'd be okay with a few hundred too. The issue for me is that for web use prices are easily available. For programatic use, it suddenly becomes a conversation about licensing with a salesman, and I don't have time for a long conversation.
Most of the time, that is. Some fonts have a specific clause that they are not allowed to be used on the web, including a surprisingly large portion of otherwise free fonts. The best example of this is the fonts at http://losttype.com/.
A designer's taste of a type is an educated one, and thus it is more important than one that is not educated. Some knowledge of type is essential for an utter designer, at last.
Let's not beat around the bush. It absolutely is.
And this is why I always find font debates useless. I, personally, found the font very legible. In fact, legibility seems like a pretty low bar, so I can't even imagine how one legible font could not come close to the legibility of another font. What makes you say that?