6 ms·
What is the advantage of this over Open Sans? Is it less encumbered legally? Or are there other advantages? Or is it simply another alternative, which is also g
by chrisbrandow 8y ago
What is the advantage of this over Open Sans? Is it less encumbered legally? Or are there other advantages? Or is it simply another alternative, which is also great.
- legitster 8y agoThe key word is "neutral". The government doesn't set a preference for a specific font or organization.
- citizenkeen 8y agoWhat is a neutral font?
- cbhl 8y agoIf I recall correctly, Open Sans was commissioned by Google.
- legitster 8y agoIf they pick a font, even an open source one, it could encourage people to copy them. Or be making some (very minor) statement about open source. By developing their own font, they don't set preference for any organization, group, or business.
- snazz 8y agoThey do develop it on GitHub, which I would consider to be a stronger statement than font choice.
- beatgammit 8y agoWell, nobody said they had to be consistent...
- sdinsn 8y agoYes, Open Sans is under the Apache License while Public Sans should be under Public Domain (although this is a bit unclear and is being debated in the github issues).
- wongarsu 8y agoWhile that's a great reason in the US, internationally unless it's under the CC0 or similar the Apache License is actually preferable to Public Domain (assigning things to public domain is not trivial or even possible everywhere)
- dannyw 8y agoCan someone release their work in the public domain, and also license it under the Apache License?
- wongarsu 8y agoSure. In any country without a concept of releasing something into public domain the fact that you did so would be irrelevant and the Apache License would apply, in any country where you successfully released it into public domain that already gives all the rights granted by the Apache License. The restrictions of the Apache License obviously wouldn't apply in those countries. Though if you try such legal tricks you may as well use the CC0 [1], it's designed to emulate public domain as closely as possible in a way that's valid everywhere. 1: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc...
- Spivak 8y ago> The restrictions of the Apache License obviously wouldn't apply in those countries. How does this work? Can you 'dual license' with public domain?
- webmaven 8y agoAssigning new works to the public domain is a pain in many jurisdictions, but if a work originates in the US as public domain, it is in the public domain everywhere. Note that this doesn't apply to non-USG-made derivative works, though.