Nick Sherman on Nostr: For most of typography’s history, fonts were sold primarily as a physical items: ...

For most of typography’s history, fonts were sold primarily as a physical items: metal, wood, plastic, and film objects, priced by weight or quantity. End-user licensing only became the primary method to monetize fonts somewhat recently.

Contracts for proprietary fonts presumably go back to the beginning of type, and analog type manufacturers often made B2B deals with each other.

But who first marketed fonts to end users with pricing based on usage limits? Are there any pre-digital precedents?