On Tue, 21 Aug 2001 17:15:44 -0500, David Starner wrote: > On Tue, Aug 21, 2001 at 10:40:09PM +0200, Claes Andersson wrote: > > There are many issues with fonts. As far as I know, no good truetype > > fonts can be directly distributed with debian. > It might be useful for people who look at free fonts on the net to see > if you can convince an author to release one under a DFSG-free > license
There seem to be many sites interested in spreading their "free" fonts far and wide, asking only recognition. It seems this would not be incompatible with licensing the fonts under a DFSG-free license; I suspect it is only the status quo that has all fonts released under "no redistribution" clauses. Off the top of my history page, two places look interesting: LarabieFonts: <http://www.larabiefonts.com/> Ray Larabie seems genuinely interested in making a social contribution. His "freeware" fonts have generated a whole community -- he maintains a discussion forum for the site. On 16-Jul-2001, Ray announced that he wasn't going to maintain the fonts anymore, but that he would keep them available on the site "forever". This sounds like a possible candidate to approach for having the fonts released under a Free license, since he seems content to never make money from the fonts. Fontcraft Webfonts: <http://www.fontcraft.com/scriptorium/webfonts.html> The site seems to be another "here's a free sample set of fonts, we hope you'll buy our other sets" site. The distribution terms given on the site are imprecise, but interesting: "If you run a website and would like to distribute these fonts to your users for free, just put a link on your page. Then you can define them in your HTML code (FONT FACE="Sirona,Divona,Onuava") to give your site a unique look. All we ask is that you distribute them with a link to this page." I don't know how that would run to a lawyer, but it seems to have at least an intent that may be compatible with a DFSG-free license. > there's not that many good useful (non-grunge/decrotive) full (at > least complete ASCII; preferably a full codepage support) fonts out > there. IANAFE, but many fonts at the above two sites seem to be quite servicable as "default" fonts for a system. As to their completeness, I can't say, but I hope that it's worth investigating at least. The current playing field for licensing fonts seems similar to that for software ten years ago: many companies make a living out of proprietary fonts, but conversely many talented people want to give away their fonts and gain recognition for doing so; nobody seems to even consider the possibility of Free licensing. What would be the best way of approaching these people who may find that Free licenses are the best way to distribute their work? If we find that fontographers are interested, we may gain a lot of good quality work quite rapidly. -- \ "Somebody told me how frightening it was how much topsoil we | `\ are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire | _o__) and nobody got scared." -- Jack Handey | [EMAIL PROTECTED] F'print 9CFE12B0 791A4267 887F520C B7AC2E51 BD41714B
