WP-34s emulator (Qt) font questions

[brouhaha]

I'm (still) working on packaging WP-34s for inclusion in the Fedora Linux package repository, and have some questions about the fonts the QtGui code uses, DejaVuSans.ttf and luxisr.ttf.

The DejaVuSans.ttf is the same length as the one that is installed by default on Fedora 19, but diff says that the content is not the same. Is the font modified specifically for WP-34s? If so, I respectfully suggest changing the name to DejaVuSans-WP34s.ttf or something similar.

Is the Luxi font modified? If so, that poses a problem in that the license for the Luxi fonts does not allow distribution of modified fonts. That technically makes the font not meet the definition of open source (whether it's modified or not).

Because of that license issue, the Luxi fonts cannot be included (modified or unmodified) in Fedora or in any Fedora packages. Can whoever chose the Luxi font, and thus knows what aesthetic tradeoffs were involved in that decision, recommend an open source font to use in its place?

Thanks!
Eric

[pascal_meheut]

Hi,

The fonts have not been modified but are included inside the WP34s emulator distribution to ensure their availability.

I cannot recommend another font instead of Luxi because finding a free one with decimal characters fitting nicely in the emulator already took me a lot of time and right now, I'm not ready to do this work again just because of the extensive definition of what should be free in Fedora license.

But if you feel like it, simply look at 0 to 9 in Luxi and find a free, TrueType font with the exact same look (i.e. not line in 0 for instance) and contact me. I'll be glad to make the appropriate changes.

[brouhaha]

(01-04-2014 07:27 AM)pascal_meheut Wrote:  I cannot recommend another font instead of Luxi because finding a free one with decimal characters fitting nicely in the emulator already took me a lot of time and right now, I'm not ready to do this work again

OK, I understand.

Quote: just because of the extensive definition of what should be free in Fedora license.

For what it's worth, this isn't just a Fedora issue. Debian and Debian-derived distributions (e.g. Ubuntu) moved Luxi into their non-free repositories for the same reason, and a WP-34s package for those distributions can't be put in their normal (free) repositories while it embeds or uses a non-free font.

I'll pick something else to use in Fedora, but it may not be pretty. For now I'd rather have a Fedora package with a less-than-ideal font than no Fedora package at all.

Thanks!

[Thomas Klemm]

Your post led me to Wikipedia, Kris Holmes, Inge Druckrey and others ...
If somebody should be interested in typography I can only recommend these:

Notes on 4 Apple Fonts




Thanks for making me find them.

Best regards
Thomas