[Openfontlibrary] Font File Type and Admins?

[Jon Phillips]

On Wed, 2006-10-25 at 14:27 -0700, George Williams wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-10-25 at 10:45, Dave Crossland wrote:
> > I think we should support all formats. A friend of mine is big into
> > bitmap fonts and I hope he'll contribute to the Free Font Movement, so
> > it wouldn't be too good to exclude them.
> I tend to agree that there should be some support for bitmap fonts.
> However there are a huge number of bitmap formats, and I really don't
> think this site should try to support all.
> 
> However, unlike outline fonts, nothing much is gained by this plethora
> of formats.
> 
> My personal preference would be that all bitmap fonts be converted to
> the X11 OpenType Bitmap format -- which is what you'd expect a bitmap
> only font to look like if OpenType supported them. It's extension is
> .otb.

That sounds good...this leads me back to the idea of what we should
require for minimum requirements for uploading of a font, which is what
I think we should push for for getting the most contributors and pushing
the agenda of open-ness and creativity. Thus, I think supporting all the
Open Type varieties is the main requirement for an upload. Then, one
should also be able to attach the master files (.sfd, etc) for their
file. Is it hard to get at editing a font from the opentype files?

My main priority is to keep the barriers for entry as low as possible
for contributors, but keep our values high...

> There are various tools which can convert other formats to this one
> (fontforge will, there are others out there).

Cool...we could develop an interface for this...

> > 
> > In general I think Bitmap fonts is a relatively simple way of getting
> > into font development, and is very cool, especially with screen-based
> > designers.
> > 
> > The other formats are also quite obscure, 
> Er...
> Most fonts on a mac will be in Apple Advanced Typography. Though Apple
> seems to be moving away from this. But the distinction between an Apple
> ttf and OpenType ttf isn't obvious to the casual user.
> 
> Multi-Master is used heavily by Adobe -- internally. Many of their font
> families appear to have multi-master sources. Those sources are not
> released to the world. But Adobe clearly feels that there is value in
> the format.
> 
> > 1. Use the OFL

and public domain (already supported)

> > 2. Include the source files used to make the font

agree, but think this is optional if we can edit the font fro the
opentype files (while inferior to the master files)

> > 3. Include at least one compiled font binary

In one of the open type formats....bitmap or vector

> > 4. Include a thumbnail and type specimen sheet

Hmmm...this is something we should generate IMO...

> > Should 2 include only source files for free software applications?
> Does it include scanned images used for tracing, etc.?

That is a good point...I agree, we should promote open file formats as
much as possible for both souce and compiled fonts...

> On Wed, 2006-10-25 at 11:28, Raph Levien wrote: 
> > Grayscale bitmap fonts are also interesting, but unfortunately tools
> > to support their use are in poor shape. 
> otb does support greyscale bitmaps.
> ff can be used to create them, but only pixel by pixel, or by
> rasterizing an outline. The first is painful, the second rather useless.
> 
> > for mirrored references and the like. Dave's suggestion of UFO is also
> > plausible as a source format, but as far as I know it isn't widely
> > used - certainly until FontForge has native support for it.
> I'd been ignoring them since I didn't understand their utility and no
> one had asked for them. If people want them I'll look at them again.

Cool!

> > And the best I can come up with so far on the slogan front is "fonts
> > of freedom."
> I thought "Type Casting" a rather good pun -- though unfortunately we
> don't really cast metal anymore.

I think just good to keep in line with Open Clip Art Library...and "Type
Casting" is what we came up with in the chat channel...

Oh, btw, we have been discussing these things in #openclipart on
irc.freenode.net RyanLerch, could you update our site to say that is
where we are chatting at the moment...we can move to #openfontlibrary if
traffic gets to be too much...

Jon

-- 
Jon Phillips

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