Re: [ft] Font for multiligual applications with non GPL free license

[Frans Grotepass]

On Friday 25 November 2005 02:21, you wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, 24 Nov 2005 10:57:20 +0100
>
> Frans Grotepass <address@hidden> wrote:
> >> 1. license
> >>    you want more permissive than GPL? like MIT, BSD, public domain etc?
> >
> >Sorry, I mentioned this in the title, but not in the body.
> >
> >Does GPL fonts specifically also require me to open the source of my whole
> >application? If so, then I am definitely looking for a BSD/MIT style
> >licensing.
>
> I expected so. I'm not sure if including (unmodified) GPL
> fonts into rom forces you to publish other parts of rom
> under GPL, nor if displaying something by GPL fonts forces
> you to publish it under GPL. I don't want to think so,
> in fact, we can find many Linux-based cellarphones including
> GPL-incompatible fonts. However, it should be clarified by
> the GPLed font producers.
>

It is a difficult question, I read one of these font copyright notices, and it 
is not that clear. I think we will try to do as much as possible without GPL 
fonts

> For the font licensed under more permissive than GPL, check:
>  http://wiki.x.org/wiki/FreeFonts
> as you can see, if excluding GPLed fonts, the supported
> languages are very restricted. I'm afraid most of OpenType
> fonts for Indic languages are licensed under GPL. In addition,
> you will have to install separated fonts for each languages.
> It's a bit troublesome works. For each language fonts, check:
>  http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/fonts.html
> It is not free font portal, but useful links.

Thanks for the tips. I will look around on these sites. It might be more 
sensible to build different rom images for the different countries. Obviously 
buying a font is also a possibility. 
 
> I suppose there should be arabic and hebrew free fonts
> licensed under more permissive than GPL. I searched fonts
> for Omega TeX but I could not find good portal. Sorry.
>
> >> 2. multilingual
> >
> >I do believe that the text layout functionality would be handy in the
> > future, but at this stage, the application can't do vertically alligned
> > text. This is mainly due to an FPGA/hardware limitation. This could be
> > solved in the future, but for now, it will remain horisontally alligned
> > text.
> >
> >For debugging purposes, a GPL Vertically alligned font would be handy,
> > just to see what my rendering does with the text. It will, however be
> > phase two.
>
> I'm very very happy to hear that you mentioned about vertical
> text layout :-):-)
>

Working in a west-european country, it is very difficult to guage what might 
be interesting for other cultures. Reading your response, it is clear that 
something that is almost trivial to implement with Freetype and a decent font 
should be included to obtain a market edge. Obviously adding something 
trivial that nobody is waiting for is simply a waste of time. Differentiating 
in these possible additions is very important in business. I will definitely 
document what is required for vertical text layout and mention it to our 
sales personell. If our customers respond positively to it, we will most 
certainly add support.


Best regards and thanks for the help,

Frans Grotepass