Dear Backstage folk Tiresias (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiresias_%28typeface%29 ) is a font designed by the RNIB for high legibility - allegedly especially good for people with any sort of visual impairment.
They've just made PC-specific versions (http://www.tiresias.org/fonts/pcfont/about_pc.htm ) which are released under version 3 of the GPL (http://www.tiresias.org/fonts/fonts_download.htm#licence ) This is interesting for a few reasons. In Interactive TV, we (the BBC) uses Tiresias ( the TV version - screenfont - http://www.tiresias.org/fonts/screenfont/about_screen.htm ) for onscreen display (eg of news headlines, OSDs, etc) - it benefits all viewers, not just ones with vision problems. It's also good to see new TTF fonts under a free (beer/ speech) licence. It might also mean that it's easier to emulate Tiresias, and thus iTV apps, on PCs (at the moment the emmys use a not-quite-the-same substitute, which can make rendering and layout a bit weird) Not everyone thinks it's great though - there's a rebuttal/ critique here http://screenfont.ca/fonts/today/Tiresias/ But, anyway, a new font, and one vaguely of interest to Backstage people maybe? Dunno why the TV version is still (seemingly, it's a little unclear) non-free. The site claims 'Bitstream... have the specialist knowledge needed for implementing this font.' Regards George (disclaimer - I work for the BBC) - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
