7 ms·

I can't really read anything that small on a modern high-res monitor anyway, but I found this bit at the end interesting: "in most jurisdictions bitmap fonts a

• ars 16y ago
  Yes it's true. The shape of vector fonts are also not copyrightable, but the actual file is. So you are free to recreate it if you wish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_on_typefaces http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_on_typefaces
  • palish 16y ago
    What is the definition of "create"? For example what if I wrote a program to open the original file, examine the shapes of the fonts, then write them to a new file? That would essentially be copy-pasting the file, wouldn't it? But how is that different from someone using their eyes to "examine the shapes of the fonts and write them to a new file"? Just because of small inaccuracies? So what if I wrote a program to very slightly change the shapes of the font? Did I "create" a new font?
    • stoney 16y ago
      I don't really understand the definitions - typeface is the style of the letters, you have a font file, which is the implementation of that typeface, but what does "font" on its own refer to? Is it the same as the typeface? I guess that's how I would use it in conversation. If that's the case then I'd say you created a new implementation of existing font?
    • GHFigs 16y ago
      A font file is not just a compilation of vector shapes. It is essentially a small (but potentially complex) program describing their proper rasterization under different conditions. Just copying the shapes as rendered at a certain size by a certain interpreter doesn't really give you a copy of the original font.
      • palish 16y ago
        Interesting! Thank you for the info. I'd like to learn more about fonts.
      • shasta 16y ago
        Here's an experiment you can try: write a program that renders a font to a high res grid, then refits vector data to that data, then publish a bunch of proprietary fonts redone using your program (documenting your approach carefully) and see how long it takes to get sued.
    • jerf 16y ago
      To the best of my knowledge, the law has no answer either in practice or in principle. In my opinion, copyright laws are not merely abused, but actually gibberish in the modern era, but, well, I worked that out 10 years ago and we still seem to be lurching onwards, so whatever.
    • baddox 16y ago
      > What is the definition of "create"? Aha! You've voiced the problem with the very notion of having any sort of control over or ownership of information.
      • khafra 16y ago
        Some would say the greatest fonts were not created, but discovered?
• naner 16y ago
  A slightly related humorous aside: the Wingding glyph order is patented.
  • michael_dorfman 16y ago
    Do you happen to have a Patent number for that? I can't seem to find any (non-Wikipedia) references to the patent that might give a clue.
    • naner 16y ago
      This is a great question. I actually spent a bunch of time searching since there was no citation but all I could find were references to the wikipedia page. So this is possibly made up. I went back and found the original diff[1] where it was added. It is from an IP in Redmond in March of 2007. Wikipedia needs a better interface to search through diffs. I had to manually do a half-interval search. :/ [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wingdings&diff=prev&oldid=117048909 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wingdings&diff...
• Keyframe 16y ago
  It's one of the major reasons why games use pre-rendered font bitmap tables.