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Web Open Font Format backed by Mozilla, type foundries (ars technica)Web Open Font Format backed by Mozilla, type foundries (ars technica)Posted Nov 3, 2009 7:37 UTC (Tue) by boudewijn (subscriber, #14185)In reply to: Web Open Font Format backed by Mozilla, type foundries (ars technica) by nim-nim Parent article: Web Open Font Format backed by Mozilla, type foundries (ars technica) No minority group has to "pirate" fonts. They can just download fontforge and create a free font for their script, they don't have to wait until someone from the latin world gets interested enough to do it for them.
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Web Open Font Format backed by Mozilla, type foundries (ars technica) Posted Nov 3, 2009 8:35 UTC (Tue) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link]
Thank you for writing plainly the message sent by the two most recent Mofo initiatives: we don't care if our free web does not extend to minority groups, they can go support themselves alone, we care about yourtube western users.
(of course I know that was not what was intended, that's just how it reads, and you've just confirmed it)
Web Open Font Format backed by Mozilla, type foundries (ars technica) Posted Nov 3, 2009 9:25 UTC (Tue) by boudewijn (subscriber, #14185) [Link] And why shouldn't people start supporting themselves? And get involved and scratch their itch, provide for themselves? What is wrong with asking that of people? Note: I'm not involved in any initiative at all -- but I do know that it's pretty easy to make fonts for minority scripts because I've created about a dozen or so myself, about twenty years ago, with primitive tools like Corel Draw. Nowadays there are excellent free tools available so there is no excuse. If you've got a computer, you can create the fonts you need. It's your language, your script, so why not get active and support it? Why depend on others?
Web Open Font Format backed by Mozilla, type foundries (ars technica) Posted Nov 3, 2009 11:24 UTC (Tue) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link]
It is not that simple to create fonts. Modern "smart" vector fonts are complex beasts, font creation is under-documented, and many minority scripts are way more complex than basic latin to support (see indic and cjk scripts). You do not have a tenth of the infrastructure or tools that exists to help someone with no formation to start churning out code. Go search the internet for relevant specs and figure out how to use fontforge yourself is not really a winning proposition.
Also, even if it was dead-easy (it is not today), people are just not aware they could do it. They know they can localize the UI because they see it localized in other languages. They'll quickly find lots of pointers to tools to help them do so. But since Mofo never made any effort to promote FLOSS fonts (and even focused on getting it out of the picture altogether with stuff like @font-face), many minority users are not even going to be aware it is possible, and assume it's some sort of black magic only Microsoft, Apple, or proprietary foundries can achieve.
Lastly, this is a chicken-and-egg problem. When you have no font for a script you have few users for this script. When you have few users you have few contributors. And if you wait till it's perfectly supported by proprietary platforms, well, few people are interested with working with you at this point. Your stuff is the uninteresting stuff which does not properly support the locale, it is very strange someone adopted it in other countries.
Web Open Font Format backed by Mozilla, type foundries (ars technica) Posted Nov 3, 2009 13:11 UTC (Tue) by boudewijn (subscriber, #14185) [Link]
Waiting for someone else to do it for you isn't a winning proposition
either. And I know there are many complex scripts: I have learned to read and write about half a dozen myself. Since I'm no longer active as a Sino- involved myself and I've got other projects to spend my time on these days.
But I think it's wrong to assume that the those who have a need cannot be
Web Open Font Format backed by Mozilla, type foundries (ars technica) Posted Nov 3, 2009 13:30 UTC (Tue) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link]
boudewijn, Firefox is an international project. I don't think it's wrong to expect it to shoulder part of the effort to properly support the web in all languages via free components. Last I've seen it didn't claim to support western users only.
Also I do not think it is wrong to expect western people to help groups in other areas, given western people often have a lot more material means at their disposal, and inherited the software work done on western languages by previous generations (so they usually can't claim they did the work for their language, so others should too).
Which does not mean local people should not get involved and contribute, but washing your hands on them is not right.
PS. You seem to assume I'm asking for myself. I don't. I have the chance of being born in a western country, and not in a minority group. And that never stopped me from giving a hand to people who were not that lucky.
Web Open Font Format backed by Mozilla, type foundries (ars technica) Posted Nov 3, 2009 13:53 UTC (Tue) by boudewijn (subscriber, #14185) [Link]
"You seem to assume I'm asking for myself. I don't. "
Er, I'm not sure where you get that from.
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