On 5 Jun 2013, at 05:38, Dave Crossland <d...@lab6.com> wrote: > On 4 June 2013 12:54, Vernon Adams <v...@newtypography.co.uk> wrote: >> (a) webfonts, used by css linkage etc and (b) base64 encoded Woff files >> placed in the users browser cache. >> (a) works well. (b) really sucks. takes extra effort and know-how to pull > > Err no, not really? > > You can find the data by clicking in a WebKit browser: Develop, Show > Web Inspector, Resources, click a font, see the base64 data, copy it, > paste it into http://www.motobit.com/util/base64-decoder-encoder.asp > and the browser downloads a file. > > Its also trivial to do it from the command line. > http://askubuntu.com/questions/178521/how-can-i-decode-a-base64-string-from-the-command-line > >> a full, non-subsetted font, > > I'm not sure you can, the subsetting is done on the server…
erm.. so… i was right then :) it sucks as a way of enabling fonts as "free and easy to obtain and use" ;p But anyway, the important thing is that this IS how libre fonts are being distributed more and more. > >> get at that pulled base64'd font, and eventually, be able to use it for e.g. >> a print project. >> >> So my point is with (b). I would want my fonts to come out the other end of >> (b) still fully marked it as a Free font, > > They do > >> and not as a font that is some sort of orphan. If OFL fonts are going to be >> increasingly >> distributed in this way, i think we have to rely more on standalone font >> files and much >> less on license text files, font log text files, etc. > > The requirements are the same if the font is distributed as a > standalone file or as a collection of font files and text files. I think i'm being understood a little :) My point is only this; if we are moving more into libre fonts being distributed via web browser caches and / or embedding (either real or 'faux'), then i think it's worth looking at how to make the standalone font binary object do all the carrying of licensing info & permissions that is needed. And, what could that look like? Obviously we don't want long texts added to metadata, so what would be some 'good ideas'? -v
