abeatbykai.comFOUNDRY.INK · BY STUDIO X
THE TYPEFACE

A custom character setfrom 2011.

abeatbyKai is a custom character set — 97 glyphs drawn by hand in Fontographer in April 2011 and put on DaFont with a nine-line note and the words "NOT FREE" at the bottom. It has been downloaded more than 1.3 million times across DaFont and FontSpace since, without ever being promoted. Free for personal use, and staying that way. The commercial license that note was pointing at is finally being built.

What works today

The character set97 glyphs · 2011 · free for personal use · try it aboveLive
Specimen testerThe real 2011 file, embedded — not a picture of itLive
Commercial licenseTerms settled since 2011; the checkout is what is missingNot yet
v2 releaseSame drawing, with a license string and URL inside the file so a copy in the wild states its own termsNot yet
New weightsHeld — the 2011 Fontographer source has not been found. The TTF carries kerning; the OTF does notNot yet

The 2011 poster

The original 2011 abeat by kai specimen poster. Kai Buskirk in headphones, eyes closed, in
             high-contrast sepia. The wordmark 'abeat by kai' is set large across the top in the typeface
             itself, outlined in white, with a trademark mark. Below it 'created kai buskirk', then the
             nine-line author's verse — her luscious curvy bass, clean simple deep, desiringly smooth,
             stylishly inviting, luxuriously sexy, the face of abeat by kai — all set in the typeface.
             Bottom right reads StudioX since '88, and along the base, kai@kaibuskirk.com.
Made in Photoshop CS5 on 23 April 2011 at 21:31 — the same day the character set was drawn. It has shipped inside the download ever since, so every one of 1.3 million copies carries it. Not a mock-up: this is the file, unretouched.

Try it

her luscious curvy bass — clean, simple, deep.

That is the actual 2011 file, embedded in this page. Not a picture of it.

The character set — 97 glyphs

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 & @ # $ % ! ? . , ; : ' " ( ) - – — /

Note of the author, 2011

This has sat under the listing on DaFont since 26 May 2011, exactly as written. It is on FontSpace too, ending with an email address instead of the last line.

her luscious curvy bass
clean, simple, deep.
desiringly smooth
stylishly inviting,
luxuriously sexy
the face of
abeat
by kai
“NOT FREE”

Fifteen years and 1.3 million downloads later, that last line is still the whole business plan. It has simply never had anywhere to point.

Where it lives now

DaFont — 1,225,071 downloadsRead live 2026-08-10, 19 the day before. Listed “Free for personal use”, 2 font files. First seen 26 May 2011Verified
FontSpace — 141,357 downloadsRead live 2026-08-10. Filed as a “Beats” font — their category, not his word, 96 glyphs. License stated as Shareware, Non-CommercialVerified
Both already say to askFontSpace: “Contact the designer to purchase a commercial license, if needed.” DaFont: “NOT FREE”. The sentence was started twice and finished neither timeThe gap
And everywhere elseFontGet, Online Fonts, a Vietnamese cut (UTM AbeatbyKai), and a dozen mirrors. Uncountable, because the file carried no provenanceReported

Fifteen years in the wild

1,225,071 downloads on DaFontRead live from dafont.com on 2026-08-10, 19 the day before. First seen 26 May 2011Verified
Never promoted, never stoppedAbout 25 a day, steady, for fifteen yearsVerified
Drawn by hand in Fontographer 4.723 April 2011 · build FG4M0000002045 · 97 glyphs, 95 encoded · 1000 upemIn the file
©1988 KaiBuskirk.comThe copyright string inside the 2011 file. The studio predates the character set by decadesIn the file
Mirrored far past DaFontFontSpace, FontGet, Online Fonts, and a Vietnamese cut. True total higher and, until now, uncountableReported

From the same source

The 2011 set is the tree everything else grows from. It stays free for personal use and it is not going anywhere. What follows is drawn from it, not instead of it.

abeatbyKai — the 2011 original97 glyphs, exactly as released. Free for personal use, permanently. This page is its homeLive
ABeat EU — the set that speaks GermanThe 2011 drawing extended to Latin-1: ä ö ü ß, the French and Spanish accents, Scandinavian, the euro, and proper quotes and dashes. The original cannot spell Grüße, München or Straße — this is the repair, not a rebrandNext
Further cutsDisplay and mono weights from the same skeleton. Gated on whether the 2011 Fontographer source is ever found — the TTF carries kerning, the OTF does notHeld
Design assetsOrnaments, lettering and marks drawn on the same hand. The 2011 poster above is the first of them, and it has been travelling inside the download for fifteen yearsLater
Where the rest of it livesThe shelf is StudioX Fonts. Hand-made and commissioned work is Foundry.Ink. Both are live and both are run by the same person who drew this.
LINK → https://studioxfonts.com — LIVE LINK → https://foundry.ink — LIVE
Open

A word about the word

It is a custom character setThat is what Kai has called it since 2011, and it is what the provenance record says: “Original custom character set designed by Kai L. Buskirk, released 2011.” Ninety-seven glyphs, drawn one at a timeHis word
The shops call it a fontDaFont files it under Basic > Sans serif. FontSpace calls it a “Beats” font. That is their shelving, and it is the word a buyer types into a search boxTheir word
Both appear here on purposeThe work is described the way its maker describes it. The file formats are still called fonts, because a .otf is a font file and calling it anything else would be preciousHouse rule

Licensing

Personal use — free, and staying freeStudents, personal work, anything not making money. Download it wherever it already lives. No account, no email, no expiry. That has been true since 2011 and it is not changingFree
Commercial — desktop, web, appAny use by or for a business: logos and wordmarks, packaging, signage, an app or a site that embeds the face. One typeface, 97 glyphs, drawn by hand in 2011. Priced per project, not per seat — tell us what it is for and you get a number backOpen
How to get oneA person reads it and answers. No checkout, no cart, no account — deliberately, while the volume is small enough that a human can do it properly.
MAIL → office@abeatbykai.com — the address printed on DaFont since 2011
Live
Custom & exclusive workA character set of your own, a logotype, or an exclusive licence that takes this one off the shelf. Different conversation, same addressAsk

The DaFont author note has said commercial licence — office@abeatbykai.com since 2011, and that mailbox is live and answered. If you wrote and heard nothing, write again — you were not ignored, and we would rather know.

Back of house

Back of houseThe workbench and the boards. Members only.
Not yet
Workboardthe live estate boardNot yet Arcsession record + handoffNot yet The Buscadre comms boardNot yet Membershiproster + accessNot yet

The rest of the works

Kai Buskirktechnology, merch, design, appsStudio XThe studio — cloud, web & AI since 1988Rail-WorksThe suite — rails for work that movesCadreThe cadre gatewayFreeDaTimeA free multi-witness grounding clock. Authoritative local and UTC time, read not computed.PrintshopThe print rail and shop networkRail-FaxSend a fax without a fax machineRail-MailMail between machinesUnion Made ServicesThe shop — sites, storefronts and tools for localsUnion.inkUnion labor, on contractFreeDaNodeThe multi-witness grounding network behind FreeDaTime. Free forever, open source, attribution only.Union Made SystemsThe rails Union Made Services runs onUnion Made TradesThe register of union, allied and union-supporting businesses across every trade. Issues no label of its own.Union Printing TradesA public register of Union Made Trades shops. Every entry records who verified it and when.Doodles & NoodlesDraw without a plan, play without a plan. A sketchbook from Studio X Ink.Foundry.InkCustom lettering, hand-inked art and typefaces cut to brief.LOVE-ART-ROBOTSLOVE is why. ART is what. ROBOTS are how. A creative promotional project from Studio X Ink.ShipWerxThe shipping railStudio X InkThe creative imprint of Studio X — art, design, graphics, robots. The way into the work.StudioX FontsA small type foundry. abeatbyKai, drawn in 2011, downloaded over 1.2 million times.Union DeliveryChartered local deliveryWear XBoutique merchandising, branding and product development. Brand, product and production under one roof.