Re: Re[2]: pixel fonts

At 11:23 09-08-96, Erik van Blokland wrote:
>I don't agree. Dare I say it: acrobat documents contain complete hinted
>type 1 fonts. Subsetting is only used if less than 10 percent of the
>characters in a font are used.

I would like to add something to the arguments of Erik van Blokland.

If you purchase a font, then you have a license which basically allows you
to create images from the font. Once that image is created, that image can
be multiplied by the licencee of the font as many times he/she likes. Even
others can duplicate that image, provided they do not violate the copyright
on the text or the illustrations.

If it is technically possible to embed outline fonts into web-documents,
then it is also possible to include bitmap fonts. After all, the inclusion
of bitmap data is a part of the specification of these outline web fonts
(OpenType).

If a certain font has been licenced to be embeded, then by all means embed
the outlines. The font will have added value for the creator of the
document, which will pay back for a "multi-user" licence. If a font has not
been licenced, then include bitmaps of the font, the choise of resolution
is up to the user. This will
be legal in any existing font licence.

Then what about resolutions?

Nobody is forcing web publishers to not include bitmap images in their
documents. "You cannot embed GIF images, because they do not come out very
well out of my 600 dpi printer!", is probably an argument rarely heard. It
that just because there is always a copyright on these images, and not
always on type?

Proposal: If OpenType provides a secure mechanisme to embed fonts then
embed OpenType fonts. Font foundries can upgrade their custumers which have
a site-licence with OpenType fonts. New customers that want to embed,
purchase OpenType fonts, if they do not want to embed they get Type 1 or
TrueType, and they pay for what they get. If the latter want to embed after
all, they will embed bitmaps. If you can write software that can sub-set
and embed outline fonts, then you can write software that rasterises a font
and embed a bitmap OpenType font.

A step backward? No.
Technical problems? No.
Legal problems? No.

This is my personal opinion.

Jelle Bosma
Typographic Development Consultant
Monotype Typography Ltd.

Received on Friday, 9 August 1996 06:48:02 UTC