- From: <glen@met.bitstream.com>
- Date: Wed, 04 Apr 96 18:33:02 est
- To: www-font@w3.org
To clear up any mis-information associated with Bitstream stance on
font transport technology we wish to clarify:
Intellectual property rights have to be protected on the internet.
Bitstream TrueDoc technology is the ONLY font technology that protects
those rights while expressing the image that the fonts were intended
to produce. We have the support of many font designers expressing
their support for TrueDoc. TrueDoc has been also accepted as a
standard font fidelity process for Portable Docs such as ENVOY and
HUMMINGBIRD software. Hint especially fall under copyright law as
ruled by the Adobe & Bitstream litigation brought against SWFTE. Any
technology for the internet that does not consider the intellectual
property rights of designers is not a viable solution. Further more it
places OEMs and ISVs in jeopardy.
As far as quality, TrueDoc provides indistinguishable quality or
better in the case of poorly designed fonts. Also it provides anti
aliasing for all devices. Glen Rippel
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Why TrueDoc?
Author: www-font@w3.org at huxleypo
Date: 3/30/96 5:50 PM
As a font and font technology vendor, AGFA supports embedding and
subsetting of fonts in Web documents for viewing/printing
purposes. We feel that our intellectual property rights are
adequately protected under current embedding schemes. It should
be the font vendors' decision whether or not a font is embeddable
in a Web page. TrueDoc does not give the type designer this
option. With TrueDoc, the font design is "embedded" whether or
not the font developer has given permission. In addition, this
new version of the font no longer contains the original type
designer produced scaling instructions, but rather, TrueDoc hints
generated by automated algorithms. The screen quality of the
font will suffer.
Chuck Rowe
New Media Design Support
Agfa Division, Bayer Corp.
chuck_rowe@agfa-type.com
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Why TrueDoc?
Author: www-font@w3.org at Internet
Date: 3/29/96 5:55 PM
Bitstream is committed to honoring all legitimate rights of type
designers and foundries throughout the world. The following influenced
the rock solid design of TrueDoc and positions it as the premier font
technology choice for internet developers.
Bitstream and Adobe were the key players in persuading the US
copyright office in 1991 to change its position from one in which
fonts had no protection into the current position in which font
programs enjoy the same protection as any other software programs.
Bitstream and Adobe led the lawsuit against Swfte for copyright
infringement of their font software programs. As part of the
settlement, Swfte acknowledged its acceptance and agreement with the
U.S. Copyright Office rulings permitting the registration of copyright
in certain programs used in the generation of digitized
representations of typeface designs in the same manner as other
programs.
Bitstream has designed TrueDoc to provide publishers with identical
font capabilities when publishing electronic documents that they have
always enjoyed when publishing documents on paper. This makes fonts
just as useful in the emerging "distribute-and-print" world as they
were in the old "print-and-distribute" one and hence creates new
opportunities for font vendors.
TrueDoc accomplishes this without embedding fonts, or subsets of
fonts, into electronic documents. It doesn't even access the original
font files themselves. Instead, TrueDoc captures the character shapes
that result from executing the fonts -- just like what happens when
printing the document on paper. Storing these compressed character
shapes with an electronic document guarantees that it can be viewed or
printed on any platform, anywhere in the world. If the original fonts
happen to be available at the viewing/printing end, they are of course
used. If not, the character shapes stored in the document by TrueDoc
provide a high fidelity alternative. All of this is accomplished
without risk to the font designer's intellectual property -- which
never leaves the point where it was legitimately installed.
Because the TrueDoc approach is the electronic equivalent of printing
first and distributing second, it automatically gives publishers of
electronic documents the same rights and responsibilities in the use
of fonts as if they were distributing paper documents.
Bitstream is alarmed, therefore, at the prospect of the wholesale
embedding of fonts into portable documents, with or without the
owner's permission, that seems to be implied by recent web font
announcements.
Received on Thursday, 4 April 1996 18:54:36 UTC