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M
marcespie
Participating Frequently
November 10, 2017
Question

Core font afm licensing

  • November 10, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 2300 views

Hello, I am in need of clarification with core fonts afm licensing.

Specifically, the current readme says:

"This file and the 14 PostScript(R) AFM files it accompanies may be used, copied, and distributed for any purpose and without charge, with or without modification,"

this is almost an ISC licence.

That one says:
"Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee..."

I'm pretty sure the difference is accidental. I'm not talking about the font itself, but only about the font metrics file.

It would be cool if the core afm could be made available under a more permissive licence.

Most specifically, this would allow using them in OpenBSD-based software products, including mandoc.

Currently, this is blocking  the generation of PostScript/Pdf without proper kerning, thus leading to the impression that those core fonts look bad.

So I'm looking to talk to whoever is in charge of this at Adobe to clarify the situation.

Note that I'm not talking about the font proper, but just the afm files.

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
November 10, 2017

Exactly what do you think the current license prohibits you from doing other than charging a fee for those AFM files which you have gotten for free?!?

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
M
marcespieAuthor
Participating Frequently
November 10, 2017

It's just incompatible with the basic licence used in BSD software.

Specifically, it prevents people from using it as they see fit, which might include creating an appliance, adding their own work on top of it, and then selling their own work.

I couldn't care less about selling it myself.

Like I said, I'm not talking about the font itself, but just about software that may want to produce correct pdf/PostScript that will then use the actual font.

As the situation stands, such software can't be bundled into anything that's sold without asking Adobe about it. So it's a definite no-go for BSD-licenced software.

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
November 10, 2017

In the over 30 years that these AFM files have been available, we have never had any “issues” reported about this by any software vendor. Clearly, the font metric information about these base fonts could be embedded into an application that really needed such.

Ironically, virtually no application these days makes any assumption whatsoever about what fonts may or may not be available either on the system of the person composing documents or on the system of the recipient and as such uses whatever fonts and metrics are installed on the content creator's system itself - nothing built into the applications at all in terms of fonts or font information!!!

And old Type 1 fonts are pretty much obsolete now. Content creators typically use either OpenType (either CSF or TrueType outlines) or Windows-flavor TrueType fonts. They make no assumptions about the availability of Helvetica, Times, Courier, etc.

Bottom line is that AFM files were a nice issue for the 1980s and 1990s, not the 21st century!

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
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