[Openfontlibrary] Some suggestions

[Jon Phillips]

On Tue, 2005-12-06 at 13:32 +0000, Simos Xenitellis wrote:
> Nicu Buculei wrote:
> 
> > Simos Xenitellis wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> 2. It is not good to distribute fonts individually as TTF files but 
> >> as an archive (such as ZIP, 7Z, TGZ), because they should include 
> >> some license.
> >
> >
> > Is not possible to embed the license in the metadata, the same way we 
> > are including it at OCAL?
> 
> Indeed, proper Free fonts include the licence material in the header as 
> well. End-users typically cannot see this unless they search deeply. 
> They typically can see the "(c) BY XYZ" line but not more.
> Available fonts may fall in different categories, Free, freeware (but 
> not for commercial use), freeware (but no derivative works), freeware 
> (but cannot embed in document due to GPL as it forces the document to be 
> covered by the GPL) and so on.
> 
> >> 3. Public domain fonts do not provide freedom (a la FSF), they are 
> >> bad :)
> >
> >
> > I think you are confused here, see 
> > http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html
> >
> > "Public Domain
> >
> > Being in the public domain is not a license--rather, it means the 
> > material is not copyrighted and no license is needed. Practically 
> > speaking, though, if a work is in the public domain, it might as well 
> > have an all-permissive non-copyleft free software license. Public 
> > domain status is compatible with the GNU GPL."
> 
> In the case of fonts, I would be happier if the author went into the 
> trouble to attach an Open license and other documentation in an archive.
> I can expect cases where non-free fonts are copied/added to make a new 
> font. I know of one such case which would not have been spotted if it 
> was a single TTF file.
> I believe the most important issue of all is to differentiate this site 
> from those "1000 free font sites".

Agree!

> >> 7. The Open Font License uses the initials OFL, which clashes with 
> >> the Open Font Library.
> >> It might look a bit marketing-y on my side, I would feel that it 
> >> would be better to change Library to something like Repository, as in
> >> Open Font Repository (OFR).
> >> This would mean a few more bucks to register the new domain name and 
> >> some administration work. Would this be ok with you? Please?
> >
> >
> > IMO, "Repository" does not sound that good.
> > And I like us using the same naming scheme as our other project, Open 
> > Clip Art Library
> >
> Regarding other similar sites, see
> http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/fonts.html
> and
> http://eyegene.ophthy.med.umich.edu/unicode/fontguide/
> 
> The first gives you a good understanding of what the font does, though 
> it does not show "how" free each font is.
> The second is a collection of Free fonts.

Cool, it would be great to start collecting this information at our
wiki: http://www.openfontlibrary.org/wiki

http://www.openfontlibrary.org/wiki/index.php/About

Jon

-- 
Jon Phillips

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