[OpenFontLibrary] workflow hints

[Nicolas Mailhot]

Le mardi 15 juin 2010 à 00:52 +0400, Alexandre Prokoudine a écrit :

> In other words, would it be considered polite to just distribute
> FontForge source and expect someone contribute a script that exports
> it to UFO or whatever, in case that someone really-really needs it?

At this point it would be very impolite to distribute anything but
fontforge sfds + xgridfit files. I don't think we'd have the faintest
idea on how to process UFO files Fedora-side for example, and since
there is no derth of fonts in formats we know how to package, releasing
anything in ufo format would effectively mean self-blacklisting from our
POW. UFO is a nice idea in theory but it lacks practicality at the
moment.

If you want to be polite please redistribute sfds + licensing files + a
makefile that creates otf/ttf when one types makes (without any funny
argument).

Dejavu and Andrey Panov's Heuristica are two examples that get it right
(good releases, in source format, with clear licensing and makefiles
that just work, simple versions, changes tracked in a public vcs one can
easily consult to check what is happening font-side)

http://code.google.com/p/evristika/
http://dejavu-fonts.org/wiki/Main_Page

Sadly, oflb and the google font directory are prime examples of how
*not* to release fonts if you care about the open part: they have pretty
previews but trying to dig out related sources is hell (in one case
there is no vcs in other everything is lumped toguether in "dump batches
of unrelated changes every once in a while" style) 


-- 
Nicolas Mailhot