Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 11:47:30 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> Cc: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org>, James Howard <howardjp@well.com>, Joseph Mallett <jmallett@newgold.net>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: banner(6) Message-ID: <20010417114730.F74385@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <15068.3823.602852.567433@guru.mired.org>; from mwm@mired.org on Tue, Apr 17, 2001 at 04:37:51AM -0500 References: <Pine.GSO.4.21.0104161028290.23302-100000@well.com> <20010416191256.R27477@lpt.ens.fr> <20010416193151.U27477@lpt.ens.fr> <4.3.2.7.2.20010416211727.045766e0@localhost> <20010417095140.A74385@lpt.ens.fr> <15068.3823.602852.567433@guru.mired.org>
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Mike Meyer said on Apr 17, 2001 at 04:37:51: > Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> types: > > I have the impression that, traditionally (in the days of movable > > type), a general design was (as you say) a "typeface" and a "font" was > > a particular set of characters implementing a typeface. Or something > > like that. In the computer age, "font" has acquired a slightly > > different meaning. In the Adobe/Microsoft age, the distinction > > between different sizes of the same typeface seems to have vanished. > > While I'm on the topic: another point of similarity between the two > types of fonts is that they, unlike typefaces, are protected as > intellectual property. At least, that's the case unless the recent > spate of hacks to the copyright law has changed things. Since > designing a typeface takes as much work as writing a symphony or a > novel, typeface designers are understandably annoyed that their work, > unlike the work of the composer or the writer, can be ripped off by > anyone with a digitizer. Indeed, designing a *good* typeface can be more work than writing a symphony or a novel -- certainly much more than writing an Eminem or Metallica song. I'm quite surprised if it's not protected by IP laws. Maybe not copyright, but what about patents? Won't the appearance of a font be covered by a "design patent"? (It's a different matter that patent protection has not yet been stretched to the ridiculous durations of time which copyright protection has -- so that most of the well known 20th century fonts would no longer be covered in any case.) I didn't know, also, that Adobe's professional quality fonts look different at different point sizes. Interesting. It seems that a lot of published books don't use such fonts: their footnotes and other small type are often hard to read. R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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