Re: Downloadable fonts and image replacement

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On Tue, 25 Apr 2006, Kelly Miller wrote:

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> Dave Raggett wrote:
>>
>> I am therefore looking for support for direct use of TTF files so 
>> that I don't have to use a special tool for embedded fonts like 
>> Weft [1]. There are plenty of fonts with open licenses that are 
>> perfectly good for most purposes, so a DRM-based solution isn't 
>> high on my wish list.
>
> The problem here is that if a user wants the font, what will stop 
> them from downloading the ttf file?
>
> IMO, we need a special encrypted format that can be used to encode 
> fonts on the 'Net, so that downloading and using doesn't work.

Microsoft already provides such a solution, which has been widely
deployed as part of IE for Windows. As a developer, you can use
their free tool "Weft" to create the specially encrypted format.
However, it seems to involve too much effort compared with using
image replacements, and hasn't caught on.

For fonts without restrictions on copying, DRM is an unnecessary
pain and a much simpler approach is possible. There are plenty
of such fonts that are perfectly good enough for most purposes.

For more information on Weft, see:

    http://www.microsoft.com/typography/web/embedding/weft3/


  Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org>  W3C lead for multimodal interaction
  http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett +44 1225 866240 (or 867351)

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Received on Tuesday, 25 April 2006 16:06:40 UTC