links for 2007-04-13

This entry was written by Jeff Waugh, posted on April 14, 2007 at 05:22, filed under del.icio.us. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

3 Comments

  1. yosch
    Posted April 14, 2007 at 08:48 | Permalink

    I doubt the license of the Vista font pack is anywhere near the Free Software Definition. No matter how you manage to get it. No real redistribution or modification.

    Why dream of a next msttcorefonts when we already have open fonts?

    See http://www.unifont.org/fontguide/ and http://scripts.sil.org/OFL_fonts for growing catalogs of quality open fonts.

  2. jdub
    Posted April 14, 2007 at 08:56 | Permalink

    You’ve missed the point.

    msttcorefonts downloads redistributable fonts, should you want to use them. The original author has found a way to get Vista fonts without installing Vista, so if the Power Point Viewer is redistributable, it can be added to msttcorefonts.

    This has nothing to do with the Free Software Definition, just freely redistributable material.

    I use and support Free typefaces too.

  3. yosch
    Posted April 14, 2007 at 09:36 | Permalink

    Yes, I certainly agree with what you have said.

    There’s a quite a difference between finding a clever way of using the redistributability loophole, extracting the content from what is probably intended as a platform-specific format to get the fonts on another system and creating a new set of cross-distro cross-platform freely redistributable and modifiable open fonts.

    I wasn’t mixing one with the other.

    It’s worth pointing out that the redistributability has rather hefty limitations too:

    Section 3) b) on the MS Vista EULA
    (http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/useterms) says:

    “b. Font Components. While the software is running, you may use its fonts to display and print content. You may only
    · embed fonts in content as permitted by the embedding restrictions in the fonts; and
    · temporarily download them to a printer or other output device to print content.”

    IHMO we can do better that going through these hoops to get good fonts. Especially when the upstream website might pull them away like it has happened with the MS “core fonts”.

    Using and supporting free and open typefaces should get users of the free desktop beyond that situation.

    Quite a few web designers would like a change from the limitations of the ms core fonts…

5 Trackbacks

  1. By Planet GNOME on April 14, 2007 at 01:05

    April 13, 2007 06:22 PM

  2. By solaris on April 14, 2007 at 14:26

    ve tried the fonts but unfortunately it looks odd on my CRT screen. Something might be wrong with my settings. I’ll try them on my office’s LCD screen next Monday. Meanwhile, if this works great for you, have fun! via jdub

  3. By linuxcaffe | 326 Harbord St, Toronto, Canada on April 15, 2007 at 00:16

    Jeff Waugh: links for 2007-04-14 So it goes: June Callwood FAC issues in the media Jeff Waugh: links for 2007-04-13 Introducing Victor Stenger

  4. By Planet Terasi on April 16, 2007 at 04:05

    ve tried the fonts but unfortunately it looks odd on my CRT screen. Something might be wrong with my settings. I’ll try them on my office’s LCD screen next Monday. Meanwhile, if this works great for you, have fun! via jdub

  5. By Planet linux.conf.au 2007 on April 16, 2007 at 16:58

    April 13, 2007 06:22 PM

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