RE: [Freetype] Patents

[Ian Brown]

Vadim,
        My issue is the generation of PDFs, and the reason we use Freetype is to get the font metrics (the character widths). We actually never use Freetype to RIP a font, only to get the metrics. The problem is that we must have the same metrics as windows returns, and so we need the hinted widths. The basic system is to print on Unix a document designed under windows. Because the documents are generally statements or other legal documents, they are required to be 'exactly' the same too (i.e. at least the same line breaks). Without the byte code interpreter, there are quite significant differences in Arial 9pt at 300dpi. Enough to make almost every line wrap differently!

For us the licence fee is not out of reach ... we can justify it with only a few high cost AIX system sales. Still, it seems a lot of money to pay just to get metrics from what is, these days, quite a universal font format.

Given the difficulty we had in just getting the quote from Apple though (2 months of 'phone calls to get the right department), I thought it would be useful to let people know on the list what sort of money they are looking at. Then, they can decide whether they want to even start chasing the issue up.

Of course, my issue with the hinting is a little different than usual. In my application I need the hinting to be the same as returned by windows ... whether that is the best hinting or not. And so, I think no matter how good the auto-hinter gets, I'll still need to run the byte codes. In the general case, I would avoid licencing software patents wherever possible given that they are very rarely justified.

Ian