[OpenFontLibrary] GPL fonts! (Was: Open Font Library submissions)

Dave Crossland dave at lab6.com
Tue Nov 11 11:14:04 PST 2008


2008/11/11 Nicolas Spalinger <nicolas_spalinger at sil.org>:
> [...]
>
>> So I think it would be fine for a font to say in its metadata,
>>
>> "Copyright (c) 2002-2004 Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, George Bush Jr. This
>> font is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
>> the terms of the Open Font License as published by SIL; either version
>> 1.1 of the License available from http://ofl11.url, or (at your
>> option) any later version. See the Open Font License for more
>> details."
>
> Ha ha ha!  Well... if these people opt for a radical career change and
> start making open fonts for the benefit of humanity (or creative fun
> when retired) then I'd recommend they also follow the recommended
> template (yes they can)

lol

> with split copyright notices, reserved names
> lines and links to license and FAQ that the OFL provides in its header.
> There is also a richer header template for separate source files on
> http://oflb.open-fonts.org/OFL-1.1-header.txt

Yes, I hadn't looked through all the resources at oflb.open-fonts.org
properly yet, and having a recommended template is a great idea :-)

"human-readable headers" doesn't mean anything to me, and I would have
thought it was some obscure jargon for "machine-readable metadata
fields"... When you say "the OFL provides in its header" do you mean,
more precisely, "the OFL provides in its preamble"?

Okay, I actually just ended up hacking up the whole thing. Here's a
breakdown of my reasoning

> This file is part of <nameoffont> and is for <description>.

I'm not sure about the usage suggestion, and I think using <> is
error-prone because lots of text processing systems don't display, or
even delete, stuff that appears to be HTML tags to stop spam. So using
programmers $ prefix with underscores for spaces seems better to me.
Of course, type designers won't easily understand either <> or $_ so a
"mickey mouse" version should also be available. I've appended both.

> Copyright (c) <dates>, <Copyright Holder> (<URL|email>),
> with Reserved Font Name <Reserved Font Name>.
> Copyright (c) <dates>, <additional Copyright Holder> (<URL|email>),
> with Reserved Font Name <additional Reserved Font Name>.
> Copyright (c) <dates>, <additional Copyright Holder> (<URL|email>).
>
> This Font Software is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1.
> You should have received a copy of the license along with this Font Software
> either in stand-alone text files, human-readable headers or in the appropriate
> machine-readable metadata fields within text or binary files.
>
> If this is not the case, go to http://scripts.sil.org/OFL for all
> the details including a FAQ.
>
> This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
> WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
>  PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the SIL Open Font License for more details.


-- 8< --
This file is part of the $current_name_of_font_family font family

Copyright (c) $comma_separated_list_of_years,
$name_of_original_copyright_holder ($email_address $homepage),
with Reserved Font Name $original_font_name
Copyright (c) $comma_separated_list_of_years,
$name_of_second_copyright_holder ($email_address $homepage),
without a Reserved Font Name restriction
Copyright (c) $comma_separated_list_of_years, $your_name
($email_address $homepage),
with Reserved Font Name $current_name_of_font_family

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This Font Software is free (libre) and open source software; you can
redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the "Open Font
License" as published by SIL; either version 1.1 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

You should have received a copy of the license along with this Font
Software - either as a stand-alone text file, or as machine-readable
metadata within the Font Software itself. If this is not the case,
please visit the Open Font License website at
http://scripts.sil.org/OFL to obtain a copy. Many other details about
the license are available, including a FAQ.

-- 8< --
This file is part of the "Current Font Name" font family

Copyright (c) 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, Mr Original
Copyright-Holder (o.copyright-holder at email.com
http://www.allmyfonts.com),
with Reserved Font Name "Original Font Name"
Copyright (c) 2007, 2008, Acme Corporation (fonts at acme.com http://www.acme.com),
without a Reserved Font Name restriction
Copyright (c) 2008, Ms Your Name (you at homepage.org
http://homepages.isp.net/yourname/),
with Reserved Font Name "Current Font Name"

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This Font Software is free (libre) and open source software; you can
redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the "Open Font
License" as published by SIL; either version 1.1 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

You should have received a copy of the license along with this Font
Software - either as a stand-alone text file, or as machine-readable
metadata within the Font Software itself. If this is not the case,
please visit the Open Font License website at
http://scripts.sil.org/OFL to obtain a copy. Many other details about
the license are available, including a FAQ.
-- 8< --

Perhaps we should draft this on the wiki.... The discussion page of
http://openfontlibrary.org/wiki/Font_metadata? :)

-- 
Regards,
Dave


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