Bitstream to release open-source fonts
Published: 24 Jan 2003 16:30 GMT
Typography for open-source operating systems such as Linux took a step ahead this week as font maker Bitstream announced it would released 10 fonts under an open-source licence.
The company's plan calls for 10 variations of the Vera typeface will be available under a licence that permits anyone to modify the fonts as long as the name is changed. The fonts may be included at no charge with other software packages but not sold on their own, Bitstream said at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in New York.
The plan is part of an agreement between Bitstream and the Gnome Foundation, which oversees the Gnome graphical environment often used with Linux and other open-source operating systems. Gnome will include the fonts with its software, the foundation said.
Bitstream's plan highlights the growing strength of the open-source movement, under which software may be freely seen, modified and redistributed. The philosophy behind open-source software not only has spread to font designs but also to publishing.
Typography has been a rough spot for Linux. A popular set of fonts used with operating system actually came from Microsoft, a proprietary company. In addition, Linux only now is getting support for anti-liasing, the process of smoothing jagged edges of letters that's been available on Windows and Mac OS for years.
Gnome is the default graphical interface used by top Linux seller Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems is adopting it for its Solaris operating system as well. The major alternative to Gnome is KDE, which is used by default in SuSE's Linux.
Curtis Sasaki, head of Sun's desktop Linux efforts, said Sun will make Gnome the default interface by the time of Solaris 10's release. The current Solaris 9 uses CDE (Common Desktop Environment) by default.
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