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<DIV>>>Le lundi 10 novembre 2008 ? 16:33 +0000, Dave Crossland a ?crit
:<BR>>> 2008/11/10 James Weiner
<james@weareculture.com>:<BR>>> ><BR>>> > Are there no
font formats that can carry easily accessible meta data like<BR>>> >
ID3 does for mp3s etc?<BR>>> <BR>>> TrueType and OpenType do this
easily enough; the problem is getting<BR>>> users to put the metadata
there.<BR>><BR>>And keep it up to date / accurate<BR>><BR>>Even when
there is info in font metadata we often can not trust it<BR>>because it has
been wrong so many times before.<BR>><BR>>Countless fonts say they're at
version 1.0 even when we see them revised<BR>>many
times.<BR>><BR>>Countless fonts make incomplete of plain false licensing
statements in<BR>>their metadata (Google Droid is just the last
high-visibility example).<BR>><BR>>I'll take a detached license file and a
versionned archive any day in<BR>>the stead of their metadata equivallents.
One can be trusted the other ?<BR>>not.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The fact is, as a "font librarian", one needs to examine all
these things, from external webpages related to the font to licensing statements
in the metadata and inside the zip file to what the author enters into OFLB when
doing an upload. <BR></DIV>
<DIV>Also, having the "font sense" an experienced graphic designer will
often have may help, and/or using:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/">http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ever wanted to find a font just like the one used by certain publications,
corporations, or ad campaigns? Well now you can, using our WhatTheFont font
recognition system. Upload a scanned image of the font and instantly find the
closest matches in our database. If WhatTheFont can’t figure it out, you can
submit your image to the <B><A
href="http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/forum/"><FONT color=#002299>WhatTheFont
Forum</FONT></A></B> where cloak-draped font enthusiasts around the world will
help you out!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.identifont.com/">http://www.identifont.com/</A></DIV>
<DIV>Welcome to Identifont, the largest independent directory of typefaces on
the Internet, with information about fonts from 532 publishers and 143
vendors.</DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.fontscape.com/">http://www.fontscape.com/</A></DIV>
<DIV>Same company as identifont - more geared towards picking a font for some
use.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Using these tools takes time and patience.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As font librarians we do need to do it, we need to remove any commercially
(or otherwise incompatible) licensed fonts from OFLB. I personally have found
commercial fonts on OFLB in the past & emailed rejon to have them
removed.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But there may be more! Remember it's not about having the most fonts, *it's
about the license*</DIV>
<DIV>OFLB is NOT a copy of DAFONT.COM, which has thousands of "free fonts" with
many pirated ones, </DIV>
<DIV>"freeware fonts" -- which are not free for changes, and all sorts of other
license questionable stuff, we need to vet every font on oflb.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I have sent dafont.com emails trying to get them to separate GNU GPL and
Public Domain into different categories, to no avail. They
list: (Public domain / GNU GPL) as one of their main font categories.
</DIV>
<DIV>I've audited many of the fonts listed in this category (trying to find
things which could be added to OFLB) and found mostly commercial fonts relabeled
as this, freeware fonts & other questionably licensed fonts in there.</DIV>
<DIV>It was actually pretty disappointing to go through so many fonts and find
nearly nothing with clear / useful licenses I thought could be added to my new
project, oflb.com. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>DaFont.com official policy:</DIV>
<DIV>>Are all fonts free of charge?</DIV>
<DIV>></DIV>
<DIV>>The fonts presented on this website are their authors' property, and
are either freeware, shareware, demo >versions or public domain. The licence
mentioned above the download button is just an indication. Please >look at
the readme-files in the zips or check the indicated author's website for
details, and contact him/her >if in doubt. If no author/licence is indicated
that's because we don't have information, that doesn't mean it's
>free.<BR></DIV>
<DIV>^^^^^^^^^^^^</DIV>
<DIV>With an official policy like that, it's no wonder their archive is full of
who knows what licensed fonts.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I've also found some fonts with more than one open source license. I do
find this troubling, as the terms are different, and it creates confusion for
the people interested in remixing.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I think a good example of confusing licenses is: user zeimusu's fonts. The
.TTF versions are public domain, but the .OTF versions of the same fonts are SIL
OFL.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I would like to see an "other" image added to the license category for when
people upload files under licenses which may be acceptable/free but not one of
the "main" licenses.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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