[OS X TeX] gtamacfonts ligatures: PDF searchability

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 28 mars 06 à 22:21, William Adams a écrit :

> If Jonathan Hoefler, (or Linotype) wanted to license Type 1 versions
> of their fonts freely to people who've purchased Mac OS X, the could
> if they so choose --- they don't however, and it's wrong to take that
> choice away from them.

I disagree with you especially regarding this statement. The  
following is my opinion only: A font is or is not licensed for use in  
OS X (and in any software running on that platform, whatever the  
API). Whether that means the font is in this or that format is  
irrelevant: a format is a packaging only, there's absolutely no  
intellectual work from the font designer involved in converting from  
one format to another.

Actually I quite agree with the position of the Adobe blogger  
referenced earlier in this thread <http://blogs.adobe.com/ 
typblography/2005/10/phasing_out_typ.html>:

> As for being "a clumsy attempt to boost sales," I wasn't trying to  
> boost sales at all, so I suppose if you thought I was, it would  
> seem clumsy. I didn't really get into the details of upgrades. It's  
> true that Adobe's licensing terms allow users to convert their own  
> Type 1 fonts to OpenType. However, such conversions will not be  
> identical with Adobe's own OpenType fonts, and the end results may  
> also differ slightly depending on whether one started with Mac or  
> Windows Type 1 fonts.
>
> However, if one needs cross-platform fonts or compatibility with  
> Avalon, and one is on a budget, converting (on one's own) existing  
> Adobe Type 1 format fonts might make sense. I'd suggest TransType  
> from the FontLab folks (http://www.fontlab.com) as probably the  
> best tool for the purpose Note also that such converted fonts will  
> not be eligible for technical support.

Meaning, as I interpret it, that, regarding Adobe fonts, it's only  
fair to allow users to perform font conversion as they see fit, but  
that, of course, the user is then on his own, won't get support from  
the font supplier, and has to be aware that the quality of the  
converted font will probably be lower than with a supplier-provided  
conversion.

Of course that only applies to Adobe fonts, but IMO that's the only  
font licensing policy compatible with the notion of fair use.

Bruno Voisin------------------------- Info --------------------------
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