Chris@909: -*-text-*- Chris@909: $Id: README,v 1.1 2002/11/28 10:10:30 peterlin Exp $ Chris@909: Chris@909: Summary: This project aims to privide a set of free scalable Chris@909: (PostScript Type0, TrueType, OpenType...) fonts covering the ISO Chris@909: 10646/Unicode UCS (Universal Character Set). Chris@909: Chris@909: Chris@909: Why do we need free scalable UCS fonts? Chris@909: Chris@909: A large number of free software users switched from free X11 Chris@909: bitmapped fonts to proprietary Microsoft Truetype fonts, as a) they Chris@909: used to be freely downloaded from Microsoft Typography page Chris@909: , b) they contain a more Chris@909: or less decent subsed of the ISO 10646 UCS (Universal Character Set), Chris@909: c) they are high-quality, well hinted scalable Truetype fonts, and d) Chris@909: Freetype , a free high-quality Truetype font Chris@909: renderer exists and has been integrated into the latest release of Chris@909: XFree86, the free X11 server. Chris@909: Chris@909: Building a dependence on non-free software, even a niche one like Chris@909: fonts, is dangerous. Microsoft Truetype core fonts are not free, they Chris@909: are just costless. For now, at least. Citing the TrueType core fonts Chris@909: for the Web FAQ : Chris@909: "You may only redistribute the fonts in their original form (.exe or Chris@909: .sit.hqx) and with their original file name from your Web site or Chris@909: intranet site. You must not supply the fonts, or any derivative fonts Chris@909: based on them, in any form that adds value to commercial products, Chris@909: such as CD-ROM or disk based multimedia programs, application software Chris@909: or utilities." As of August 2002, however, the fonts are not Chris@909: anymore available on the Web, which makes the situation clearer. Chris@909: Chris@909: Aren't there any free high-quality scalable fonts? Yes, there are. Chris@909: URW++, a German digital typefoundry, released their own version of the Chris@909: 35 Postscript Type 1 core fonts under GPL as their donation to the Chris@909: Ghostscript project . The Wadalab Chris@909: Kanji comittee has produced Type 1 font files with thousands of Chris@909: filigree Japanese glyphs . Chris@909: Yannis Haralambous has drawn beautiful glyphs for the Omega Chris@909: typesetting system . And so Chris@909: on. Scattered around the internet there are numerous other free Chris@909: resources for other national scripts, many of them aiming to be a Chris@909: suitable match for Latin fonts like Times or Helvetica. Chris@909: Chris@909: Chris@909: What do we plan to achieve, and how? Chris@909: Chris@909: Our aim is to collect available resources, fill in the missing pieces, Chris@909: and provide a set of free high-quality scalable (Type 1 and Truetype) Chris@909: UCS fonts, released under GPL. Chris@909: Chris@909: Free UCS scalable fonts will cover the following character sets Chris@909: Chris@909: # ISO 8859 parts 1-15 Chris@909: # CEN MES-3 European Unicode Subset Chris@909: http://www.evertype.com/standards/iso10646/pdf/cwa13873.pdf Chris@909: # IBM/Microsoft code pages 437, 850, 852, 1250, 1252 and more Chris@909: # Microsoft/Adobe Windows Glyph List 4 (WGL4) Chris@909: http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/opentype/appendices/wgl4.html Chris@909: # KOI8-R and KOI8-RU Chris@909: # DEC VT100 graphics symbols Chris@909: # International Phonetic Alphabet Chris@909: # Arabic, Hebrew, Armenian, Georgian, Ethiopian, Thai and Lao alphabets, Chris@909: including Arabic presentation forms A/B Chris@909: # Japanese Katakana and Hiragana Chris@909: # mathematical symbols, including the whole TeX repertoire of symbols Chris@909: # APL symbols Chris@909: etc. Chris@909: Chris@909: A free Postscript font editor, George Williams's Pfaedit Chris@909: will be used for creating new Chris@909: glyphs. Chris@909: Chris@909: Which font shapes should be made? As historical style terms like Chris@909: Renaissance or Baroque letterforms cannot be applied beyond Chris@909: Latin/Cyrillic/Greek scripts to any greater extent than Kufi or Nashki Chris@909: can be applied beyond Arabic script, a smaller subset of styles will Chris@909: be made: one monospaced and two proportional (one with uniform stroke Chris@909: and one with modulated) will be made at the start. Chris@909: Chris@909: In the beginning, however, we don't believe that Truetype hinting will Chris@909: be good enough to compete with neither the hand-crafted bitmapped Chris@909: fonts at small sizes, nor with commercial TrueType fonts. A companion Chris@909: program for modifying the TrueType font tables, TtfMod, is in the Chris@909: works, though: . For Chris@909: applications like xterm, users are referred to the existing UCS bitmap Chris@909: fonts, . Chris@909: Chris@909: Chris@909: What do the file suffices mean? Chris@909: Chris@909: The files with .sfd (Spline Font Database) are in PfaEdit's native Chris@909: format. Please use these if you plan to modify the font files. PfaEdit Chris@909: can export these to mostly any existing font file format. Chris@909: Chris@909: TrueType fonts for immediate consumption are the files with the .ttf Chris@909: (TrueType Font) suffix. You can use them directly, e.g. with the X Chris@909: font server. Chris@909: Chris@909: The files with .ps (PostScript) suffix are not font files at all - Chris@909: they are merely PostScript files with glyph tables, which can be used Chris@909: for overview, which glyphs are contained in which font file. Chris@909: Chris@909: You may have noticed the lacking of PostScript Type 1 (.pfa/.pfb) font Chris@909: files. Type 1 format does not support large (> 256) encoding vectors, Chris@909: so they can not be used with ISO 10646 encoding. If your printer Chris@909: supports it, you can use Type 0 format, though. Please use PfaEdit for Chris@909: conversion to Type 0. Chris@909: Chris@909: Chris@909: Primoz Peterlin, Chris@909: Chris@909: Free UCS scalable fonts: ftp:#biofiz.mf.uni-lj.si/pub/fonts/elbrus/