Re: WOFF can't be used offline (claim)

Chris, 

all webfonts (i.e. also WOFFs) sold at MyFonts have a separate EULA from the desktop fonts, which are delivered as OTF or TTF. 

But of course the blanket statement that "WOFF cannot be used offline" is incorrect. There are no restrictions in the WOFF format itself, and licensing terms vary largely. For example, there is no reason why WOFFs licensed under Apache 2 or OFL could not be used "offline". 

The cited document says: 

> The WOFF format stores that URL prefix in an HTTP header that is returned with the font when it is served by an HTTP server. If the font may be re-published freely, that can be indicated by using “*” instead of a URL prefix. But in the absence of that header, or if the font is not served by an HTTP server, the URL prefix is assumed to consist of the protocol, server and port of the server that served the font. It is undefined what that means for an offline book. Which means that fonts in the WOFF format, even free ones, cannot be used offline.


The Access-Control-Allow-Origin mechanism is not part of the WOFF format itself, but exists on a different level (where exactly?). 

Certainly the phrasing "The WOFF format stores that URL prefix in an HTTP header" is imprecise. However, the document raises an interesting question that certainly should be addressed. 

Best,
Adam

Sent from my iPad

> On 11 lis 2013, at 07:56, Chris Lilley <chris@w3.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello suzuki,
> 
> Monday, November 11, 2013, 5:24:06 AM, you wrote:
> 
>> The discussion seems to be saying as WOFF has an ambiguity about
>> the permission of the usage of the transferred WOFF, thus, WOFF
>> is not suitable to embed in the offline document. I'm not sure
>> why a conversion to OpenType is expected to be a solution...
> 
> Yes, unless the OpenType has a different license agreement to the WOFF
> (I have never seen this case) then I don't see how they differ at all.
> 
>> Regards,
>> mpsuzuki
> 
>>> On 11/11/2013 01:15 PM, Chris Lilley wrote:
>>> Hello Www-font,
>>> 
>>> Spotted recently:
>>> 
>>> "Which means that fonts in the WOFF format, even free ones, cannot
>>> be used offline.
>>> 
>>> Free fonts in the WOFF format may thus have to be converted to
>>> OpenType prior to packaging. "
>>> http://www.w3.org/Style/2013/paged-media-tasks#embedded-fonts
>>> 
>>> I'm wondering how that conclusion is arrived at; not clear it is
>>> correct.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Best regards,
> Chris                            mailto:chris@w3.org
> 
>

Received on Monday, 11 November 2013 14:38:06 UTC