Re: OpenType not for Open Communication?

From: John Hudson (tiro@tiro.com)
Date: Tue Dec 07 2004 - 21:24:01 CST

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    John Cowan wrote:

    >>OpenType is a trademark of Microsoft and a proprietary font format
    >>jointly developed by Microsoft and Adobe.

    > The question is, is it an open standard? That is, is anyone free to
    > create OpenType fonts, OpenType font tools, OpenType font renderers?
    > Is the documentation freely available at no more than nominal cost?

    Yes.

    There are Apple patents that relate to TrueType renderers, but as far as I know that is
    the only IP, other than the usual trademark acknowledgements, that affect OpenType
    development and implementation.

    MS and Adobe have both been incredibly helpful to font developers and font tool
    developers. This is one of the reasons for the formats relative success.

    > (Are there bespoke fonts which the buyer keeps to himself?)

    Yes, but not usually because they *only* work for him. In ten years I've only made one or
    two (with non-standard 8-bit character sets) fonts that worked only in the private
    applications for which they were made.

    John Hudson 

    -- 
Tiro Typeworks        www.tiro.com
Vancouver, BC        tiro@tiro.com
Currently reading:
The Peasant of the Garonne, by Jacques Maritain
Art and faith, by Jacques Maritain & Jean Cocteau
Difficulites, by Ronald Knox & Arnold Lunn

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