Poll

Is there interest in a Roguelike font with symbols catering to our community?

No. Graphics are the future.
1 (4.3%)
No. 7-bit ASCII is good enough.
1 (4.3%)
Maybe. / I don't know.
1 (4.3%)
Yes. / Any license would be awesome -- even closed source.
2 (8.7%)
Yes. / Any free/open-source license would be awesome as long as it looks good.
11 (47.8%)
Yes / I would prefer a Public Domain license
4 (17.4%)
Yes / I would prefer an Apache or BSD license
3 (13%)
Yes / I would prefer an OFL license
0 (0%)
Yes / I would prefer a GPL-based license
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 22

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Author Topic: A Roguelike TTF/OpenFont font: Is there interest in such a thing?  (Read 27445 times)

Ancient

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Re: A Roguelike TTF/OpenFont font: Is there interest in such a thing?
« Reply #15 on: July 27, 2012, 08:43:05 PM »
Quote from: yam655 on July 26, 2012, 12:04:14 PM
On Windows FontForge can be "tricky" to install.

I believe you are right. However, on Arch Linux it is enough to request fontforge package from repository and be done with it. Other Linux distributions probably do not make it any harder.

Quote from: yam655 on July 26, 2012, 12:04:14 PM
Then it's a matter of picking the font (and license) to work from. Each font has a license you're bound to -- except public domain fonts can be derived and relicensed at will. A font with variable-width glyphs we want may be easier to adapt to fixed-width while retaining the same style.

This is a more laborious step for sure. From the poll results it seems we should stick to free licenses. Have any favorite fonts already?
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Michał Bieliński, reviewer for Temple of the Roguelike

yam655

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Re: A Roguelike TTF/OpenFont font: Is there interest in such a thing?
« Reply #16 on: July 27, 2012, 09:14:50 PM »
Quote from: Ancient on July 27, 2012, 08:43:05 PM
Quote from: yam655 on July 26, 2012, 12:04:14 PM
On Windows FontForge can be "tricky" to install.

I believe you are right. However, on Arch Linux it is enough to request fontforge package from repository and be done with it. Other Linux distributions probably do not make it any harder.

The only Linux distros that could possibly have hiccups would be RPM-based distros that require external third-party package repos to get a precompiled version. (I am not an RPM fan.)

Quote from: Ancient
This is a more laborious step for sure. From the poll results it seems we should stick to free licenses. Have any favorite fonts already?

DejaVu. It's Public Domain and has a reasonable initial set of monospace glyphs. It also looks good enough that folks actively use it in Roguelike projects.

There may be better-looking console/programming fonts. Better looking, more complete, and public domain? I think not.

There are very few reasons someone that favors an Apache or BSD license would disfavor a public domain license. Both allow embedding in commercial applications with closed-source modifications.

If we had a lot of GPL fans, we'd probably want something different. As it stands...

The other advantage of having our additions in the public domain: it's easy for other fixed-width fonts to steal them. If our primary goal is to get the missing glyphs in fonts, public domain aids that goal best.

Cheers,
Steven Black
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