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Microsoft Typography Withdraws Free Web Fonts
jonadab writes: "Microsoft Typography has for years provided a set of very nice
True-Type fonts for free-as-in-without-monetary-cost, including
the excellent Andale Mono (the only scalable fixed-width font
I really like). They are gone. Here
is the Microsoft page where they formerly were, which now tersely
explains that they're not available any longer. There is an
article
about this on extremetech. According to the article, Microsoft
says the withdrawal of the fonts at about the same time as the
LinuxWorld is coincidence. The article also references a Debian
package that has been removed from the distro because of this.
If I understand my rumours correctly, it was a package that
downloaded the fonts from MS, displayed their EULA, and allowed
the user to extract and install the fonts. It was possible to
do the same thing using other distros.
Guess it's time for the OSS people to make some decent-looking
scalable both-screen-and-printer fonts (preferably TrueType).
At minimum, we need nice-looking serif proportional (to replace
Verdana), a sans proportional (to replace Georgia), and a
mostly-sans fixed (to replace Andale Mono), all with good
language support.
This should have been done a long time ago, since the MS fonts
were, albeit $0, not licensed in an open fashion. We always
knew we were relying on MS Typography's generosity, and that
these could disappear at any time. But now the need is more
urgent."
PFAEdit is a sophisticated graphical editor for designing and editing Postscript fonts.
MLT - simple and robust open source multimedia framework for Linux
I found a nice program a couple of days ago.
Try pfaedit. It supports TTF fonts as well as bitmap fonts and has a lot of good features. It supports simple latin-1 fonts as well as unicode fonts and author seems to really know what he's doing since website tells a lot about differences and inner workings of different font types. Pfaedit seems to try its best to convert everything necessary so user doesn't have to worry about them too much.
It is a work in progress but I think good artists can make miracles with it. Website also has good documentation altough I think in-program documentation could be a bit better (just to know where to start). I tried it myself a bit but since I'm no artist..
Website also links to other free font editors but pfaedit seems to be most mature. Most of others only support bitmap fonts.
PFAEdit is a sophisticated graphical editor for designing and editing Postscript fonts. It has tools for specifiying hints for the glyphs, and even has a autohint function that will determine and set hints for you automatically. Truetype hints, called instructions, while not supported at design stage, PFAEdit will try to convert PS hints to TT instructions. But yes, font design is an art and a science.
MLT - simple and robust open source multimedia framework for Linux
but Verdana is the sans, and Georgia is the serif.
The loss of Verdana is really sad -- it was the"first" (read: first designed by a famous typographer) font ever designed specifically for the screen instead of adapated from print media and was commissioned by MS from Matthew Carter. More info, straight from the horse's mouth.
My favorite Carter font is Walker, the mix 'n' match typeface that he designed for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Totally brilliant.
Erik Dalén
Any version from 3.0 onwards will have 600+ excellent quality TrueType and .pfb fonts, and you will pay about $10 fair and square for them.
opentype overview
-Kevin
The default fonts in that package, and the fonts that come with Microsoft proucts, are actually knockoffs of the fonts that came with the original PostScript package.
MD5 (webfonts/andale32.exe) = cbdc2fdd7d2ed0832795e86a8b9ee19a
MD5 (webfonts/trebuc32.exe) = 0d7ea16cac6261f8513a061fbfcdb2b5
MD5 (webfonts/georgi32.exe) = 4d90016026e2da447593b41a8d8fa8bd
MD5 (webfonts/verdan32.exe) = 12d2a75f8156e10607be1eaa8e8ef120
MD5 (webfonts/comic32.exe) = 2b30de40bb5e803a0452c7715fc835d1
MD5 (webfonts/arialb32.exe) = c9089ae0c3b3d0d8c4b0a95979bb9ff0
MD5 (webfonts/impact32.exe) = 7907c7dd6684e9bade91cff82683d9d7
MD5 (webfonts/arial32.exe) = 9637df0e91703179f0723ec095a36cb5
MD5 (webfonts/times32.exe) = ed39c8ef91b9fb80f76f702568291bd5
MD5 (webfonts/courie32.exe) = 4e412c772294403ab62fb2d247d85c60
MD5 (webfonts/webdin32.exe) = 230a1d13a365b22815f502eb24d9149b
MD5 (webfonts/Aruniupd.exe) = 1bef548eb449a0b24ad1c0b8e9d5f2ba
My understanding is that you need to have each font in every character set, which costs a LOT, especially if you need them all manually hinted (every symbol's edge manipulated at the different sizes it will display at so that it will always anti-alias correctly, which is something a computer can't do)
Ofcourse, you can start with latin-1, and work your way out from there.
Another problem is that you need license which is like a gpl for fonts (you can't use the GPL because fonts are not code). And as I understand it the FSF is working on just that. This license issue is very important too. Debian recently discovered that they only have a few fonts (only a handful) in the whole of debian which comply with the debian free software guidelines (and by extension the open source definition).
-- snip -- ...we need nice-looking serif proportional (to replace Verdana), a sans proportional (to replace Georgia), and a mostly-sans fixed (to replace Andale Mono)...
-- snip --
A Serif is that pointy thing hanging off of the letters in fonts like 'Times'. Times is a serif font, VERDANA is a sans-serif font, GEORGIA is a serif font. You've got it backwards.
These fonts are still available from the Corefonts project. This is perfectly legal and in accordance with the EULA; see the copy of Microsoft's FAQ. The project also includes "a source rpm that can be used to easily create a binary rpm package that, when installed, gives access to Microsoft's TrueType core fonts for the Web."
These fonts are still available on the Wayback Machine. Just paste in the font URL from this story and go to the old page. Select "from the current server" to download.
Since the EULA allows for unlimited redistribution I have to think this is a legally acceptable method for acquiring these fonts, no?
This was covered by OSNews in this article as well as this one a few days ago. The EULA on these fonts allow redistribution of them in unmodified form, so they can be downloaded from http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/. The important thing to learn however is that Linux should stop relying on Microsoft for TrueType fonts.
-- André Dahlqvist
As font design can take years per font and even longer for an entire font family, I doubt you are going to get any professionals to donate their work just so they can have it named after themselves. Designers aren't as vein as many make them out to be. We take pride in having our work displayed but we also like to be compensated for our efforts.
I designed the Boston Breakers (WUSA) logo and I get giddy every time I see the signs outside the BU stadium or on NESN. By the way, my own website has another version of the logo I felt was much better suited for a sports team, so if you don't really care that much for the logo as is, blame the client. I designed a MUCH better wave and stashed the words "Boston" in a pill box beneath/slightly over the word "Breakers". I'm sure the designers at Chermeyeff and Geismar are rather elated whenever they see their own work on TV, billboards and signs around the country.
Anyway, my point is we don't design to have our names on the logos, fonts or collateral materials, we do it because we love design and solving problems. Our hobbies are our jobs and vice versa. We get paid doing something we truly love to do.
Now, this isn't to say we never donate our time and efforts. As a matter of fact, I am the creative design lead for OBOS (soon to be renamed). I have developed some preliminary design ideas for a modern GUI and am in the process of developing some functionality concepts to create a more user-friendly GUI. Hopefully the OBOS developers will see the wisdom behind the GUI and adopt the ideas I've been working on.
The biggest problem of most OSS projects is they do not make themselves available to people like me. Most developers think design is opening Photoshop and creating pretty pictures. Design is problem solving in much the same way programming is. We use a different language and set of tools but it is problem solving none the less. If the OSS community wants us to help them they are going to have to do better than offer to put our name in the credits, they are going to have to open their minds and listen.
"Guess it's time for the OSS people to make some decent-looking scalable both-screen-and-printer fonts (preferably TrueType). At minimum, we need nice-looking serif proportional (to replace Verdana), a sans proportional (to replace Georgia), and a mostly-sans fixed (to replace Andale Mono), all with good language support."
Verdana is a sans-serif font, Georgia is a serif font and Andale Mono is a fixed-width font based on a sans-serif typeface, there are no mostly-sans font types. Fixed-width fonts mean the spacing between characters is equal. These fonts were designed for use on terminals but are not very good modern on-screen fonts as many of the parameters the fixed-width fonts were designed to solve are no longer an issue. Fixed-width fonts have NEVER been good for print.
Not to be nit-picky, but, Verdanda is a Sans-Serif font. (note the lack of serifs, the pointy bits at the end of characters). Georgia is a Serif face. The reason that both of these faces are so well regarded is that the hinting in them (that is the instructions that tell your OS how to handle scaling up and down a face at screen resolution) is amazingly well done.
Resolution. Serif fonts are very bad at low resolution. Sans-serif fonts are like cartoon stick figures and can be very readable at lousy resolutions. Good serif fonts depend on a continually varying line width which requires extremely high resolution to duplicate. (Shades of grey (Antialiasing) helps somewhat.) Look at newsprint under a compound magnifying glass sometime.
Designing a font is nigh-on an artform. For it to work properly, first of all, you need to create between 70 and 130 characters (as a minimum) which are all consistent, work together properly (i.e. fit properly next to and above/below each other) and, most importantly, look good.
That's which someone can "'own' a fucking font" (in your words)... It takes a lot of work (sometimes years to do a whole Unicode font) and costs a lot of money to do. Take a look at the majority of free fonts on the market - if they were developed for free, chances are they have a lot of characters missing (especially accented characters needed across the world outside the US) and a lot of bugs.
I've been designing fonts for a little while now. It is probably one of the hardest things I've done. Little nuances have to be kept just so, or the font comes out looking like crap. Several hours can go into designing just a single character.
What's truly difficult is making a design look good on screen. Think about it. Your monitor is probably around 100 dots per inch. Your printer is probably 600dpi or better. When you see it on screen, it looks like a speck of dirt. That's where True Type instructions come in. Let's just say that can take a while. Fifty years later, you finally have something that looks good on paper and on screen. It's enough to make you want to quit after the first letter.
For those that want to start designing fonts, check out FontLab. It isn't cheap, but for what it does, it is the best available right now. For somebody that just wants to toy around, High Logic's Font Creator Program will probably do. It only does truetype fonts and you can't do instructing, but it is only $50. My personal opinion of pfaedit is that it is crap, but you can't beat the price.
It's not a "notion":
http://www.daemonnews.org/200108/dadvocate.html
There is little doubt that M$ has used BSD code. Debug symbols that were not stripped out in beta versions of NT leave little doubt, no? The extent is what is in question.
There is nothing illegal about this. I was merely pointing this out since the original flamer was implying that either a) he, or b) Microsoft was self-reliant. So yes, my point is still valid, and YES, I still have one, AC.
Here's the EULA for andale32.exe, which matches the MD5 you gave. Looks like you CAN use the fonts, which are available at SourceForge: Original fonts which match the MD5's given above.
Microsoft TrueType Fonts
END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR MICROSOFT SOFTWARE
IMPORTANT - READ CAREFULLY: This Microsoft End-User License Agreement ("EULA") is a legal agreement between you (either an individual or a single entity) and Microsoft Corporation for the Microsoft software accompanying this EULA, which includes computer software and may include associated media, printed materials, and "on-line" or electronic documentation ("SOFTWARE PRODUCT" or "SOFTWARE"). By exercising your rights to make and use copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA. If you do not agree to the terms of this EULA, you may not use the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.
SOFTWARE PRODUCT LICENSE
The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is licensed, not sold.
1. GRANT OF LICENSE. This EULA grants you the following rights:
Installation and Use. You may install and use an unlimited number of copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.
Reproduction and Distribution. You may reproduce and distribute an unlimited number of copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT; provided that each copy shall be a true and complete copy, including all copyright and trademark notices, and shall be accompanied by a copy of this EULA. Copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT may not be distributed for profit either on a standalone basis or included as part of your own product.
2. DESCRIPTION OF OTHER RIGHTS AND LIMITATIONS.
Limitations on Reverse Engineering, Decompilation, and Disassembly. You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation.
Restrictions on Alteration. You may not rename, edit or create any derivative works from the SOFTWARE PRODUCT, other than subsetting when embedding them in documents.
Software Transfer. You may permanently transfer all of your rights under this EULA, provided the recipient agrees to the terms of this EULA.
Termination. Without prejudice to any other rights, Microsoft may terminate this EULA if you fail to comply with the terms and conditions of this EULA. In such event, you must destroy all copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT and all of its component parts.
3. COPYRIGHT. All title and copyrights in and to the SOFTWARE PRODUCT (including but not limited to any images, text, and "applets" incorporated into the SOFTWARE PRODUCT), the accompanying printed materials, and any copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT are owned by Microsoft or its suppliers. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT is protected by copyright laws and international treaty provisions. Therefore, you must treat the SOFTWARE PRODUCT like any other copyrighted material.
4. U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT and documentation are provided with RESTRICTED RIGHTS. Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at DFARS 252.227-7013 or subparagraphs (c)(1) and (2) of the Commercial Computer Software-Restricted Rights at 48 CFR 52.227-19, as applicable. Manufacturer is Microsoft Corporation/One Microsoft Way/Redmond, WA 98052-6399.
LIMITED WARRANTY
NO WARRANTIES. Microsoft expressly disclaims any warranty for the SOFTWARE PRODUCT. The SOFTWARE PRODUCT and any related documentation is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, the implied warranties or merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement. The entire risk arising out of use or performance of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT remains with you.
NO LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES. In no event shall Microsoft or its suppliers be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or inability to use this Microsoft product, even if Microsoft has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some states/jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you.
MISCELLANEOUS
If you acquired this product in the United States, this EULA is governed by the laws of the State of Washington.
If this product was acquired outside the United States, then local laws may apply. Should you have any questions concerning this EULA, or if you desire to contact Microsoft for any reason, please contact the Microsoft subsidiary serving your country, or write: Microsoft Sales Information Center/One Microsoft Way/Redmond, WA 98052-6399.
I'm the maintainer of the msttcorefonts Debian package. This package has not been pulled (at least not yet).
.exe self installer. Putting the fonts in a .tar/.deb/.rpm for easy installation, even without modifying the fonts themselves seems to violate the license.
.deb files. Yes, there's a tools directory with fips and rawrite and similar non-deb packaged tools useful for installing, but there's not really any current place for these fonts to go. But I'm sure this will get solved before the next major Debian release. ;)
There's some discussion of the situation and the EULA for these fonts in Debian bug report #156503.
As far as I know, it should be ok to redistribute these fonts without modification, but that means leaving them packaged in windows
So for Debian, the problem at this point is one of logistics. The fonts can be distributed, but Debian's mirrored ftp archive system isn't really set up to handle anything other than
One person designed most of the icons, and some of the fonts, for the Mac, Windows, and OS/2. She's famous in the design community. She's freelance and does design jobs. Do you know who she is? Did anybody in the Open Source world, back when the Linux companies had money, think to have her do the design?
Yes, they did.
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~twm/makefont/
My bride found these...
http://www.1001freefonts.com/fontfiles/main.htm
!!!
You'd probably be interested in ProFont - a font designed for programmers, which has existed for years, but few outside of the Mac programming community know about it. It was specifically designed to be readable at 9 point, with similar characters distinctly different, as this page demonstrates. The full distribution includes TrueType, Type 1, and bitmap versions of the font for Mac and Windows. You can also download a look-alike bitmap version for Windows here.
I've been using ProFont for years as the font in my editor when coding, and found it very helpful.
There is an excellent web site called Dmitry's Design Lab that shows you how all the standard elements of design (color, shape, texture, etc.) apply to web sites. He is also one of the authors of the book HTML Unleashed, if you've ever read that. Personally I find it quite fascinating site because I'm usually up to speed on the technical details but when it comes to the actual concepts of design I start venturing away from my areas of knowledge. Anyway, the article on fonts is a great read. It goes over a lot of the history behind fonts, and explains some of the terminology.
Just an FYI on font copyrights. The US copyright office does not allow anyone to copyright a font. They are afraid that someone will try to use it to copyright the alphabet, so that whenever someone uses the letter "A", they will demand a royalty.
The way font copyrights work is that the the software that renders the font is copyrightable intellectual property. Or rather, the code that that makes up the Open Type or True Type version of Helvetica is copyrighted, but not Helvetica itself, as an image. So, it is perfectly OK to to reconstruct any previously designed font, including any in the MS library. Of course, this is easier said than done. A deep knowledge of fonts, their inner structures, and the way to configure them for use on computers is a high art, and takes years to master. Fonts that are not executed well, even copies of pre-existing fonts, will show their flaws fairly quickly, so I wouldn't worry too much about unskilled artisans producing bad versions. The cream will rise to the top. Besides, it is a good reason for anyone to introduce themselves to the world of typography.
"Anyone who would letterspace lower case would steal sheep." (Frederic Goudy)
Well, I think, this is a question of handicraft, so I'll try to share some observations I made by actually do typography (not designing fonts!):
...
;-)
1st: Forget creativity. The most urgent need are fonts for everyday use. Be as boring as possible.
2nd: Fonts are there to be readable. Let the principle of least surprise guide you.
3rd: Don't try to be inventive. The best ideas are several hundret years old. Well, some of the worst, too.
4th: You'll do the spacing wrong.
5th:
Sure, there are some more obstacles, even on the technical side (on which I can't comment), but hey! I don't want to hinder you! Go on