Re: Public Domain Fonts for the Web

Charles Peyton Taylor wrote at 23/02/98 8:09 am

>(A copy of this message has also been posted to the following newsgroups:
>comp.fonts)
>
>This is something Ive been thinking about a lot lately.

I think if you want free fonts, you'd better start making them. That is 
of course if you think the vast range of shareware and freeware fonts (as 
well as those that come with your OS) aren't enough.

>...my copy of Fontographer...

See you have the tools already.

>(can it get me sued?)

Of course

>2) COPYRIGHT/LEFT :   Could the GNU public license be applied
>to a set of public domain fonts? Should these fonts be free,
>public domain, or CopyLeft?

Something can be free and still have copyright protection, PD tends to 
imply that it is copyright free.

>3) QUALITY: A lot of the public domain fonts that Ive seen so
>far might not be good for a archive of this sort.
> A lot are display type and wouldnt be very useful for body
>text.
> A lot dont have a complete western character set.
> A lot have only one style when it would be best to have
>normal, italic, bold, bold italic, and (maybe) outline
>versions.
> And who determines what  a good font looks like? I know what
>I like, and I have good taste, but I have no formal graphic
>design training.

The problem is that it takes *a lot* of work to produce good fonts, 
that's why there aren't many high quality freeware text fonts.

>Hmmm.... actually, I dont know
>who designed Helvetica,

Quite.



-- Clive

Received on Tuesday, 24 February 1998 12:56:39 UTC