Linux Fonts
> I am an ameature font designer, and I am currently working on a standard
sarif and
> non sarif typeface that I would like to release specifically for the
Linux community
> (full character set complete with proper hinting and kerning/metrics). I
understand
> there is a lack of high quality fonts which have liscenses open enough
to include
> in Linux distros.
I have several questions about this. First, there are several decent fonts with
free licenses; look at these Debian packages: gsfonts, ttf-thryomanes,
ttf-openoffice
and xfonts-scalable. <http://bibliofile.mc.duke.edu/gww/fonts/fonts.html>
also has some
nice free fonts, but nobody has packaged them yet. I have not had a chance
to closely
examine your work, but I'm slightly skeptical about an amateur font
designer doing much
better. (Some of these could use some work, which I'm sure would be greatly
appreciated.)
Part of Linux's font problem has been the font technology more than fonts.
Secondly, you're offering a "full character set". A "full character set" of
a Unicode
font would have at least 70,000 glyphs; a usable one, with all character
shaping and
alternate glyph forms needed for Japanese, among others, would probably
approach a
100,000 glyphs. Such a font has never been created by even the largest
foundry, and
can't be created as one file with TrueType.
If by "full character set", you mean CP1252, let me point out that Linux is
worldwide.
For a font to be really useful, it would be nice for it to cover MES-2 or
MES-3 <http://www.evertype.com/standards/iso10646/pdf/cwa13873.pdf>, which
cover most of the
characters for Europe without needing a familiarity with Eastern languages
and typography.
You might want to look at <http://www.freesoftware.fsf.org/freefont/>; this
is a
project to produce some nice complete fonts for Unix.
Projects that I think would be nice to see:
1. Of the Microsoft web fonts, we don't have a free Comic Sans lookalike.
It would be nice
to get something similar, without of course ripping off Microsoft's font.
2. There's also many fairly common font styles out there not supported by
free fonts;
enhancing the number of distinctive yet multipurpose fonts with Linux is
always useful.
(See the Duke site above for some examples.)
3. Arabic and Indic languages (which will need OpenType) are more or less
unsupported under
Linux. Impossible to do right unless you're familar with the languages, though.
4. There are large blocks of unsupported Unicode characters; the AMS is
supposedly
producing a free math font, but there are large stretches of technical
characters,
and a bunch of syllblaries and alphabets (both in the BMP and Plane 1) to
do. For the
more ambitious, there's Plane 2 (50,000 Chinese Ideographs).
> 1. What sort of liscense should I release it under? I would like it to
be freely
> changeable, distributable, sellable, ect. with the condition that a
small text
> file accompanies the distribution.
There's been endless debates about whether or not such license are free.
The BSD
license is a nice license, if you aren't worried about people taking it
proprietary.
The GPL (see the GSFonts for an additional tag that may or may not be
necessary) is
also a nice font for this. Please don't take Jim Gettys advice; I find it
very nice
when Russians or Ukranians or Cherokee can add to a font and not have to
change the
name. Also, Debian doesn't consider the Lucidux license free.
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