Transitioning from Verlag and Vitesse to Red Hat Display and Red Hat Text has become necessary for a few reasons:
- Rising costs: For several years, University Marketing (now the Office of Strategic Communication), has been renewing an annual license for Verlag and Vitesse for campuswide web use. The cost to license these fonts has increased substantially over the years and is no longer sustainable. The current web license will expire June 30, 2023, and will not be renewed. The new brand fonts, Red Hat Display and Red Hat Text, are open source and therefore do not require paid licenses. They will be completely free to use and distribute across campus.
- Limited licenses: For print use, due to the high cost, we could only purchase a limited number of licenses to distribute to campus on a request basis. Units with many users have had to purchase their own individual licenses. This model has likewise proven unsustainable over the years and has limited access to Verlag and Vitesse. By transitioning to free, open-source fonts (Red Hat Display and Red Hat Text), we can now ensure that every member of the campus community — from design professionals to professors and students — has access to our feature brand fonts.
- Campuswide compliance: Given our large and highly decentralized campus, it has proven increasingly difficult and resource-intensive to manage the font licenses and ensure campuswide compliance with the licensing agreements. Moving to these open-source fonts will relieve much of the liability that comes with paid font licenses.