Philippe Verdy writes > Simple: for now the fonts are in beta, and do not include the hinting > instructions. This may be in development, but faces some legal issues > with Apple patents. So until there's a patent-free hinting mechanism, > for use in fonts, or Apple agrees with a royaltee-free license on > hinting mechanisms, hinted fonts cannot be freely distributed. > What is the legal position if these fonts are taken into Fontlab and rehinted ?
Surely if I make my own hinted font in Fontlab I do not owe royalties to Apple.
No. See my other post on this topic. Phillipe is confusing the patent restrictions on rasteriser technology and the unrestricted font instruction set that is interpreted by the rasteriser. Note, also, that the patented technology involves only a subset of the instruction set, so it is possible to build a rasteriser in which type will still get some benefit from hinting in the font without infringing Apple's patents. This is what FreeType currently ships.
John Hudson
Tiro Typeworks www.tiro.com Vancouver, BC [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Theory set out to produce texts that could not be processed successfully
by the commonsensical assumptions that ordinary language puts into play.
There are texts of theory that resist meaning so powerfully ... that the
very process of failing to comprehend the text is part of what it has to offer
- Lentricchia & Mclaughlin, _Critical terms for literary study_
