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==License controversy==
==License controversy==
This license for the Liberation fonts adds several clauses to the base GPL. The debian-legal mailing list, a list for discussing legal issues in [[Debian]] software, has discussed the impact of a clause requiring physical products including the fonts to make it possible for users to access, modify, and reinstall the fonts on the product. Concerns about this clause making the fonts non-redistributable or perhaps violating the copyright of [[Free Software Foundation]] on the GPL were raised. However, the concern seems to be only limited to Debian distributions. There is also a claim that the extra clause only serves to confuse unqualified readers, not to contradict GPL.<ref>{{cite web
This license for the Liberation fonts adds several clauses to the base GPL. The debian-legal mailing list, a list for discussing legal issues in software included in [[Debian]], has discussed the impact of a clause requiring physical products including the fonts to make it possible for users to access, modify, and reinstall the fonts on the product. Concerns about this clause making the fonts non-redistributable or perhaps violating the copyright of [[Free Software Foundation]] on the GPL were raised. However, the concern seems to be only limited to Debian distributions. There is also a claim that the extra clause only serves to confuse unqualified readers, not to contradict GPL.<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/113889
|url=https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/113889
|title=Bug #113889 in Ubuntu: Ubuntu needs the Liberation Fonts
|title=Bug #113889 in Ubuntu: Ubuntu needs the Liberation Fonts

Revision as of 17:12, 21 June 2010

Liberation Sans
CategorySans-serif
FoundryAscender Corp.
Liberation Serif
CategorySerif
FoundryAscender Corp.
Liberation Mono
CategoryMonospace
FoundryAscender Corp.

Liberation is the collective name of three TrueType font families: Liberation Sans, Liberation Serif and Liberation Mono. These fonts are metric-compatible with Monotype Corporation's Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New (respectively), the most commonly used fonts on Microsoft's Windows operating system and Office suite.[1] Liberation Sans and Liberation Serif were derived from Ascender Sans and Ascender Serif respectively; Liberation Mono uses base designs from Ascender Sans and Ascender Uni Duo.

They are available under the GNU General Public License with a font embedding exception, which states that documents embedding these fonts do not automatically fall under the GNU GPL.[2] Thus, these fonts permit free and open source software (FLOSS) systems to have high-quality fonts that are metric-compatible with Microsoft software.

Some GNU/Linux distributions (such as Ubuntu, OpenSUSE[3] and Mandriva Linux[4][5]) included Liberation fonts in their default installations. The open source software OpenOffice.org includes Liberation fonts in its installation packages for some of supported operating systems.[6][7][8][9]

History

The fonts were developed by Steve Matteson of Ascender Corp. as Ascender Sans and Ascender Serif. A variant of this font family, with the addition of a monospaced font and open-source license, was licensed by Red Hat, Inc. as the Liberation font family.[10]

The fonts were developed in two stages. The first release was a set of fully usable fonts, but they lacked the full hinting capability. The second release, made available in the beginning of 2008, provides full hinting of the fonts.

The Fedora Project, as of version 9, features slightly revised versions of the Liberation fonts contributed by Ascender. These include a slashed zero and various changes made for the benefit of internationalization.[11]

Characteristics

Liberation Sans and Liberation Serif closely match the metrics of Monotype Corporation fonts Arial and Times New Roman, respectively.

Liberation Mono is styled closer to Liberation Sans than Monotype's Courier New, though its metrics match with Courier New.

The Liberation fonts are intended as free, open-source replacements of the aforementioned encumbered fonts.

  • Comparison of initial release of Liberation fonts to the fonts they are designed to be metric compatible with
  • Comparison of Liberation Sans to Arial
    Comparison of Liberation Sans to Arial
  • Comparison of Liberation Serif to Times New Roman
    Comparison of Liberation Serif to Times New Roman
  • Comparison of Liberation Mono to Courier New
    Comparison of Liberation Mono to Courier New

All three fonts support code pages 437, 737, 775, 850, 852, 855, 857, 860, 861, 863, 865, 866, 869, 1250, 1251, 1252, 1253, 1254, 1257, the Macintosh Character Set (US Roman), and the Windows OEM character set,

License controversy

This license for the Liberation fonts adds several clauses to the base GPL. The debian-legal mailing list, a list for discussing legal issues in software included in Debian, has discussed the impact of a clause requiring physical products including the fonts to make it possible for users to access, modify, and reinstall the fonts on the product. Concerns about this clause making the fonts non-redistributable or perhaps violating the copyright of Free Software Foundation on the GPL were raised. However, the concern seems to be only limited to Debian distributions. There is also a claim that the extra clause only serves to confuse unqualified readers, not to contradict GPL.[12]

The licensing issues though appear to have been resolved since Liberation fonts were accepted on Debian on 21 June 2008.[13][14][15]

See also

References

  1. ^ Liberation Fonts
  2. ^ License.txt - LICENSE AGREEMENT AND LIMITED PRODUCT WARRANTY, LIBERATION FONT SOFTWARE, retrieved 2010-01-15
  3. ^ "Package List/11.2/KDE4-LiveCD-i686". Retrieved 2010-04-04. liberation-fonts-1.03-2.1.noarch
  4. ^ Mandriva Linux 2008 Release Tour, retrieved 2010-04-04, integrated into Mandriva Linux 2008
  5. ^ Packages included in Mandriva Linux 2010 Free x86-64 linked from http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Mandriva_Linux_2010#Package_Lists, retrieved 2010-04-04, FREE-2010-x86_64 /main/fonts-ttf-liberation-1.04-2mdv2010.0.noarch {{citation}}: External link in |title= (help)
  6. ^ "OpenOffice.org Wiki - External/Modules". Retrieved 2010-01-31.
  7. ^ "OpenOffice.org - Issue 77705 - Liberation font and OOo". Retrieved 2010-02-05.
  8. ^ "OpenOffice.org - Issue 104723 - Update Liberation fonts to v1.05.1.20090721". Retrieved 2010-02-05.
  9. ^ ooo-build - patches - dev300 (OpenOffice.org 3.xx patches), retrieved 2010-01-31
  10. ^ Webbink, Mark (2007-05-09). "Liberation Fonts". Red Hat. Archived from the original on 2008-01-17.
  11. ^ Bugzilla entries for the revised Liberation fonts included in Fedora 9, Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug List
  12. ^ "Bug #113889 in Ubuntu: Ubuntu needs the Liberation Fonts". Launchpad.
  13. ^ "Accepted ttf-liberation 1.04~beta2-2".
  14. ^ "Package: ttf-liberation".
  15. ^ "ttf-liberation -- A set of free (GPL) fonts from Red Hat Inc".
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