Font Embedding?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

A fully embedded font could be used after extraction by the books purchaser. A partly embedded one will most likely have too many "holes" to be of use for pretty everything than the book it was shipped within.
Given that some of the fonts are costly I understand that a font creator rather dislikes the idea of people getting potential access to a font worth X after having paid just a fraction of ot for an epub file.

Although in practise, this is a silly fear. It might have been valid once, when computer fonts first came in back in 1987 and digital distribution was harder. In 2012, when if you want a font without paying for it there are numerous pirate sites and torrents, worrying about your fonts being embedded in documents is silly.

Just like publishers and DRM, really.

[theducks]

I went looking for a missing (not in the book) font
What is ridiculous is the pricing:
$30 per font face or $120 for a standard set of normal, bold, italic,italic_bold

[teh603]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Although in practise, this is a silly fear. It might have been valid once, when computer fonts first came in back in 1987 and digital distribution was harder. In 2012, when if you want a font without paying for it there are numerous pirate sites and torrents, worrying about your fonts being embedded in documents is silly.

And a sizeable number of FOSS font makers who just want attribution or a copy of what you did with their work.

[Man Eating Duck]

Originally Posted by teh603

And a sizeable number of FOSS font makers who just want attribution or a copy of what you did with their work.

That is what I do when I need international glyphs (I work for a commercial publishing house). I embed DejaVu with an attribution in the colophon text. The attribution is not necessary as far as I can tell, but it's a nice thing to do

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Man Eating Duck

That is what I do when I need international glyphs (I work for a commercial publishing house). I embed DejaVu with an attribution in the colophon text. The attribution is not necessary as far as I can tell, but it's a nice thing to do

A better font is actually Charis SIL and it is free to use to embed.

[Man Eating Duck]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

A better font is actually Charis SIL and it is free to use to embed.

Thanks for the tip, Charis looks nice. I'll run it by our designers, they get the last word

[Freeshadow]

Show them TeX Gyre fonts

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

Show them TeX Gyre fonts

The weight of Charis SIL (unmodified) is heavier then Tex Gyre so it will look better on an eink screen. My modified Charis SIL looks even better as it's that bit heavier so it looks that much better.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Although in practise, this is a silly fear. It might have been valid once, when computer fonts first came in back in 1987 and digital distribution was harder. In 2012, when if you want a font without paying for it there are numerous pirate sites and torrents, worrying about your fonts being embedded in documents is silly.

Just like publishers and DRM, really.

It may be silly, but the reality is that those of us who make ebooks commercially have to live with it. I'm all for embedding subsets if it can be done without a lot of gyrations. I use disclaimers (e.g., "we assume that if you're giving us a font file, you've properly licensed it," etc.) but I do worry, given what's happened with cases of image licensing infringements, etc., that someday I'll have Adobe on my doorstep because some doofus didn't properly license one of their fonts. My alternative is to run out and do the licensing myself, and charge the client, but quite bluntly, that starts to get on my nerves for a variety of reasons, which aren't relevant to this discussion.

Is any of this moving forward? Or did the discussion that Calibre might do it or be made to do it kill the momentum? We don't use Calibre for production--although I adore it for our cataloging--so I'd be interested in this. Can someone advise, if they're actively working on it? I can't code for beans (in Python or whatever), but if I could assist some other way...?

Hitch

[kovidgoyal]

I am working on it. I cant say if my efforts will succeed or not at this point.
If/when it is done, you are welcome to test it.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I am working on it. I cant say if my efforts will succeed or not at this point.
If/when it is done, you are welcome to test it.

Hey, Kovid:

Good to see you. Are you working on it for a non-Calibre approach?

Hitch

[kovidgoyal]

No, it will be part of the calibre conversion pipeline.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

No, it will be part of the calibre conversion pipeline.

Okay, then. Unfortunately, that doesn't help me. Thanks for the heads-up, though.

If anyone else is working on it for a freestanding use, or...?, please let me know, thanks.

Hitch

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Okay, then. Unfortunately, that doesn't help me. Thanks for the heads-up, though.

If anyone else is working on it for a freestanding use, or...?, please let me know, thanks.

Hitch

If if appears as part of the calibre source code, it should be relatively simple to convert to a stand-alone tool.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

If if appears as part of the calibre source code, it should be relatively simple to convert to a stand-alone tool.

pdurrant:

Easy for you to say. Yes, I'm certain I can find someone who can assist us, thanks.

Hitch