[Nix-dev] Re: Proprietary fonts not installed by default

[Tony White]

2009/7/8 Ludovic Courtès <ludo at gnu.org>:
> Hello,
>
> Tony White <tonywhite100 at googlemail.com>
> writes:
>
>> "Over the last year we’ve been observing typo-designers and their
>> works; we’ve regularly collected high-quality fonts available for free
>> download and free to use for personal or/and commercial projects. In
>> this article we’d like to present an overview of over 40 excellent
>> free fonts you might use for your professional designs in 2008."
>
> A widely accepted definition of "free" software (or "libre" software, to
> avoid the confusion) is the 4 freedoms described at
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html .  These 4 freedoms are
> equally applicable to fonts.
>
> A font that's only "available for free[*] download and free to use for
> personal or/and commercial projects" (which is roughly what the
> Microsoft Core Fonts EULA provides) does not provide all 4 freedoms.
>
> Thanks,
> Ludo'.
>
> [*] Here "free" means "gratis".
>
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Hi Ludo,
OK so most of the fonts on that page have a vague "Free" License or no
distribute license, however there are a few on there that are, as you
point out, are free as in speech.

Gentium :

http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=gentium

"The Gentium font families are freely available and may be used by
anyone at no cost. They are released under the SIL Open Font License,
a free and open source license that permits modification and
redistribution."

Anivers :

http://www.josbuivenga.demon.nl/anivers.html

"Anivers Regular is absolutely free"

Liberation Sans :

http://www.dafont.com/liberation-sans.font

"Public domain / GNU GPL"


I provided the link as a point of reference to back up my point about
there being usable fonts available. I realize now that maybe it wasn't
the best example but there are at least those three fonts listed
above.

Here's a better example of some truly free gpl fonts :

http://www.geocities.com/hartke01/

Unfortunately though, the gpl is not a great reference point for font
licensing and is a whole other discussion.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#FontException

http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/20050425novalis

So if you follow the gnu philosophy for font inclusion, without the
font disclaimer by the original author at the bottom of the document,
all documents like pdfs that contain the font embedded in them (Made
available for use because installed system wide) Are automatically
covered by the gnu gpl. That's not ideal if you create blueprints for
space rockets or missiles. :)

Thanks,

Tony