Interview with John Philips - Open Font Library
The Open Font Library is a sister project of the Open Clip Art Library. The goal of this project is to collect public domain fonts so that they may be used freely.
Written by Shirish Aharwal
What inspired you to start the Open Font Library (OFL)?
My previous work on Inkscape and Open Clip Art Library (openclipart.org) and a desire to help build out communities where none exist. I'm interested in bridging the various free and open graphics communities and the fonts-domain is a super weak area. The thinking is that by focusing a community of designers around fonts, the quality of fonts around the desktop will increase similar to how Inkscape has helped improve overall design of the free desktop.
What advantages does the OFL have over other sites offering free fonts?
It is focused on what the free and open software/content communities desire, so the entire operation is transparent and open. There is the SIL Open Font License and CC Public Domain declaration in place to help free fonts for use, re-use and remix. Also, the software is completely free software and using Creative Commons' open source project, ccHost (http://creativecommons.org/projects/cchost)
What do you hope to achieve through OFL?
We hope to improve the overall quality of fonts on the free and open desktop. We want to have completely brilliant, free and super high quality fonts for anyone to use on the free desktop. If that happens to solve needs for the larger world, then so be it! But, we have found focusing on a specific area is vital to a project like this.
What goals do you have for the OFL?
I want to make this a super-dynamic community that lowers the barrier for participation in creating fonts, which is a hard endeavor to do! I'm particularly interested in developing a friendly culture that makes lovely international fonts and also as being a place for free and open fonts to be pushed upstream. If one looks at the font packages in various distros, it's totally a mess! Also, there are some fonts where the licensing and/or agreement for usage is dubious.
Can Windows or Mac users use OFL fonts?
Yes, there shouldn't be any problems. We are focusing on collecting both the source and output of font files. George from Fontforge is an active community member and has worked to make this a nice reality. We have the good folks in the larger free and open font community helping to make sure the site is useful.
Is OFL the first site you've worked on?
Hopefully it doesn't look that way! No, I've been working in the field for like 14+ years now. I've been building websites and projects for ages. I started in free and open source with Inkscape and have worked at various companies doing open site design and project building. Inkscape work transitioned into Open Clip Art Library (http://openclipart.org), which always is in need of other developers! I also have built large projects for my present employer, Creative Commons.
How did you create the site? (software, language, etc)
I used to be anti-website engine in favor of pure html, php, and css. But, have converted to building most of my projects with Wordpress. When I first started working for Creative Commons, I was tasked with building up the engine behind the big music remix community, ccMixter (http://ccmixter.org). The engine that powers that site is called ccHost (http://creativecommons.org/projects/cchost) and there was a decision made at some point that this engine is the best way forward for building Open Clip Art Library and Open Font Library. It is totally great to develop on this engine and is underscored that Creative Commons has a full time developer hacking on it in addition to other community contributors, of which I am one now, since I have transitioned to being the Business + Community Manager for Creative Commons.
Anyway, in terms of tools I use: vim, ssh, evolution (for lots of coordination), pidgin (for lots of chat) and epiphany web browser for wiki editing and testing.
Note, that this project is a large collaborative project, so it's not just me. I try to structure out a road map for our community of contributors, and then we all (ideally) lend a hand.
How long did it take you to create the first version of the OFL site?
Half-day at best, because I'm an expert at installing ccHost. It still looks quite similar to Open Clip Art Library, but that is just because we wanted to get the core functionality solid before fixing the site's decorations ;)
If somebody made free fonts which license should they put them under?
That is a tricky question and I recommend anyone [who's interested] to talk to a lawyer about [it]. There are some problems at least in the USA with how fonts work with copyright. With the project we have taken the approach of both allowing for no license (public domain) and the SIL Open Font License because that license has been sussed out by SIL for free-ness and potential legality issues. So, I can't really recommend what license to use, but you can use Open Font Library as a great place for free and open fonts.
I would say however that source code licenses are not tailored for content, such as GPL and LGPL. The SIL Open Font License is tailored for fonts.
How much time and how many steps are there in making a font?
Sadly enough, I don't directly make fonts. I'm the community-building guy on the project and rely heavily on Dave Crossland, George Williams and others to handle this aspect of the project. They are great to talk to about building fonts. In the times I've worked on fonts, back when I did design, it is a time intensive task!
Any specific suggestions for the free software community so font designers feel more at home here?
Yes, jump into helping out at http://openfontlibrary.org The project is an open book, so its open to you to change it!
Do you use free software to make free fonts or do you feel the need for using commercial software to achieve the same?
I've used both [types of] apps. George's FontForge is a great tool that now has the ability to save fonts directly to the Open Font Library, which is quite cool!
A brief list of software, what are your comments on the ones which are in use for free font development:
FontForge - The number one app at the time! Go George! It would be great to get a GTK-based interface for this and would open the door for more developers, but that's been on the table for a while.
Inkscape - Of course Inkscape is the best vector editor in the world!
Gimp - Gimp is useful for converting old typefaces, etc... always brilliant. scribus-font-preview - Awesome!
Any suggestions for upstream free software font tools to make font designers feel more at home?
If you aren't on our list and talking with us, please do so! We want to make the healthiest font ecosystem possible!
What advice would you give to anyone thinking of starting a similar site?
Make a solid plan and double any estimates for how long you think tasks will take. Also, it is nice to have a plan for keeping afloat financially.
John had plenty more to say on the subject of Apple, RedHat and the GPL. To read the entire interview head over to our web site : http://www.fullcirclemagazine.org
