Re: wanted: font archive

[Antoine Leca]

Stefan Seefeld wrote:
> 
> I'm looking for some freely (as in GPL) available fonts.
> What about setting up an archive of free fonts which can
> be used with freetype ? I followed some links from your
> pages but found the accompanying texts quite obscure wrt.
> license terms.

There is quite a number of fonts that are floating around
on Internet, but many many many fonts are just existing fonts
that have been copied, more or less well, into new ones,
with the name changed and perhaps some feature altered; the
Copyrights over fonts in the U.S.A. are not very clear, and
as the U.S.A. is by far the biggest market; so, one thing is
sure with fonts: they are not free to use except if it is
explicitely said this way by the *designer* (and you may have
to search hard to spot the designer for a number of fonts).

Furthermore, very few font designers, which did a long job to
hint the font, see a point in collecting the bucks from their
primary client and then give the font for free on the Internet
(sometimes, this is also restricted but the paying customer).


Antoine