[XeTeX] IM Fell Type and XeTeX

[S. Ekin Kocabas]

Thank you for the reminder. I do not in any way intend to circulate the
modified version of IM Fell. The modification I did was a rescaling of the
unit length used to define all the other lengths used in the font
description [at least to the limited extend that I'm familiar with fonts].
Had I not done that, then I could not have used the font at all with XeTeX.
I guess this issue is being observed for other fonts as well, and here's how
I did the changes.

Operating System: Ubuntu 8.04


   1. Save the font files to a folder you know
   2. run fontforge (for details on how to install it look at
   http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/)
   3. open the font to be modified
   4. go to Element->Font Info->General->Em Size
      1. Change Em size to 1000
      2. Make sure scale outlines option is checked
   5. Now it is the time to save the font. File->Save As->FontName.sfd (this
   is FontForge's own binary format)
   6. Export the font to open type format by File->Generate Fonts->Choose
   Open Type (CFF)
   7. There will be some errors detected, ignore them and click the save
   button
   8. Exit fontforge, test the fonts with XeTeX


There are possibly ways in which the above procedure can be enhanced. If I'm
missing something (related to kerning or any other aspect), please correct
me.

Now I'll write a bit more on modifying software.

First let me begin with the following
quote<http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/apple-says-jailbreaking-illegal>
"the courts have
long<http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/977/977.F2d.1510.92-15655.html>
recognized<http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/203/203.F3d.596.99-15852.html>that
copying software while reverse engineering is a fair use when done for
purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software"

I am not a lawyer, and therefore, I cannot legally comment on the legal
aspects of modifying a font file. Nevertheless, it does seem to me that
there are cases where tweaking a software (even when it is produced for the
purposes of money making and is copyright protected) is not illegal.

If someone spends a lot of time and effort to create a font and then
publishes it on the net for everyone to use, that person deserves to be
applauded. Therefore, thank you Igino Marini
<http://www.iginomarini.com/>for making IM Fell available. It is my
understanding that, Igino would like
to know about how his creation circulates in the internet. Let's take a look
at his license <http://iginomarini.com/fell/the-revival-fonts/>:

This font is a nearly free font. You can use it freely but:

   1. If you want to use it in publications on any kind of media you have to
   put in the following quote as a note: «The Fell Types are digitally
   reproduced by Igino Marini. www.iginomarini.com» and let the designer
   know where you used it.
   2. You can't change the font and its contents (including outlines,
   kerning and other data as well).
   3. You can distribute it freely with license aside but not sell it in any
   way. Any other different use has to be authorized by the designer.

Now, one could argue that the second clause in his license makes
modification of the font file illegal/unethical. However, it should be
remembered that, licenses cannot be written arbitrarily, they have to adhere
to a larger legal system. At least in the US, I believe the descriptions for
changing the em size---so that texts typeset using IM Fell would look
correctly in the buggy pdf display software---are legal (if the instructions
above actually change the outlines and kerning, well, they should be
modified).

Why am I writing so long on this issue? Mainly because I do not want to live
in a world where I would have to deal with lawyers for every part of my
civic activities. I think people should have the basic rights to modify the
technologies they use, to tweak them if need be. This of course does not
mean that font designers should have no say in their work, or that they
should not be enumerated for their effort.

Is there a way around this? Well, Creative Commons licenses may be a way to
resolve these issues. If you have not heard of them, I would strongly
suggest that you take a look at it
http://creativecommons.org/

Lastly, I would be very interested in learning about Igino's response to
this discussion, therefore, I cc'ed him to this email and provided a quick
summary of this email chain below.

Sincerely,

Ekin


Feb 10, 2009 --- Pepe Romero says "Hello, I am testing in XeTeX the gorgeous
Fell typefaces, digitalized and issued freely by Igino Marini (
http://iginomarini.com/fell/). (Please do try them.) I have a problem,
though. In XeTeX (latest TeX Live 2008) the letters of the text appear
typset one over another (as if there was a kerning problem)" and asks why
that is.

Feb 10, 2009 --- Jonathan Kew says that "This is a problem that shows up
when using OpenType/CFF fonts that do not use the normal 1000-unit emsquare
that is traditional for PostScript outlines. If you view the PDF with an
older version of Acrobat Reader (e.g., version 5 or even 7, I think) the
text will display correctly, but Reader 8 disregards the font matrix entry
and this results in mis-scaled glyphs" and that "I think it can reasonably
be considered a bug in the PDF reader(s)" and also that "If you try the
TrueType version of the fonts, those should work fine."

Feb 10, 2009 --- S. Ekin Kocabas says that "I used FontForge to rescale IM
Fell to use 1000 unit emsqure, it then worked fine."

Feb 11, 2009 --- Gareth Hughes asks how this can be done.

Feb 11, 2009 --- Peter Baker raises the issue that should changes be made,
this may be against the license with which IM Fell fonts were released.
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