[OpenFontLibrary] The future of OFLB development

[Dave Crossland]

On 25 December 2012 16:09, Alexandre Prokoudine
<alexandre.prokoudine at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'd start with a better question: what place in the modern ecosystem
>> should OFLB be aiming at?
>>
>> When we started it, there was no TypeKit, no GFS, no half a dozen
>> other web fonts foundries.
>>
>> What makes OFLB special today, apart from free-as-in-speech typefaces?
>
> I also think Alexandre's question is a very important one that
> needs an answer before we proceed in any direction. The one
> advantage OFLB has is that typeface authors become the
> curators of their own fonts, which we don't see so much on,
> say, Fontsquirrel, Kernest, or Google.

I think Daniel is correct.

What sets OFLB apart from FontSquirrel and GWF is that Ethan and I are
gatekeepers for those services, deciding what is uploaded to each,
whereas OFLB is 'self service.'

I think it would make sense to add a 'link' object that points to
projects that are hosted and developed elsewhere (DejaVu, Libertine,
etc etc) so that OFLB really IS a 'library' - a complete index of all
libre fonts on the web that presents the fonts in a way that is
pleasant to browse.

I think the features of www.openhatch.org are also good, in that they
help people to become involved. OFLB can help type designers to set
out a project's roadmap and invite people to participate on particular
tasks.