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Old 04-15-2011, 07:15 PM   #1
Stodder
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Do I need a font license if all I'm doing is referring to the font (not embedding)?

Hi everyone !

May I ask a question about font licenses?

Do I need a font license if all I'm doing is referring to the font (not embedding)? As in, telling the ereader to use the copy of Garamond that is located on its harddrive -- not actually storing the file in the ebook.

For example, using css rules to set font (but not linking to an internal font file within the ebook).

I need help as I don't want to break any rules.

Stodder
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Old 04-15-2011, 07:59 PM   #2
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Originally Posted by Stodder View Post
Hi everyone !

May I ask a question about font licenses?

Do I need a font license if all I'm doing is referring to the font (not embedding)? As in, telling the ereader to use the copy of Garamond that is located on its harddrive -- not actually storing the file in the ebook.

For example, using css rules to set font (but not linking to an internal font file within the ebook).

I need help as I don't want to break any rules.

Stodder
That would be ok, but there is no guarantee that the user has that font, so you should also specify a fallback position by listing multiple items including a generic one. Also ADE tends to use its own internal font in the absence of embedded fonts and ignores external fonts so don't expect the one you want will be used, i.e. it won't find an external one.

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Old 04-16-2011, 12:22 AM   #3
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Thanks Dale !

May I ask what you usually do? Do you prefer to embed, reference, or just let ereaders do whatever they want? Is it possible to supply *no* font preference? I.e. no font details at all?
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Old 04-16-2011, 12:53 AM   #4
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Thanks Dale !

May I ask what you usually do? Do you prefer to embed, reference, or just let ereaders do whatever they want? Is it possible to supply *no* font preference? I.e. no font details at all?
I usually supply no font preference unless I absolutely need to. Generally the defaults provide the user with the most choices in customizing the reading experience for themselves.

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Old 04-16-2011, 04:10 AM   #5
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Thanks. Thats really interesting! I always thought I would look unprofessional if I made an ebook with no font specified, but what you said makes sense: Maybe its good to let people choose what they want !

Thanks for the opinion. Maybe I'm really obsessing over fonts and font licenses?

Do any big publishers produce ebooks with no font specified? I haven't had enough experience to answer this.
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Old 04-16-2011, 06:46 AM   #6
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Can I also find out what other people do with regards to fonts (i.e. embed, reference, or just defaults)?

I'm very fascinated to hear more personal preferences such as what Dale shared.
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Old 04-16-2011, 08:46 AM   #7
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I usually embed fonts, so that the book looks the same in different readers. There are lots of free, non restricted fonts. I like fontin and Lexia DaMa.

I always avoid references to internal fonts, as that ties a book to a particular reader, which I don't think is a good idea. If I choose not to embed fonts, then each reader will use its default fonts.
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Old 04-16-2011, 09:48 AM   #8
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@Stodder
Sadly as it is, it's also a matter of language(s) used in the book itself.
Despite the fact, that usage of Unicode is supported and intended, the reading systems are apparently made for people
Quote:
Originally Posted by Valloric
living in ASCIIland
. As soon as you leave it you end up with the need to supply the fonts by yourself pretty soon.
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Old 04-16-2011, 05:18 PM   #9
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Thanks for taking the time to reply, everyone

@Freeshadow: May I ask what you mean? I'm confused by your mention of languages, unicode, and the last line of your post especially. For more specifics, I'm releasing an english ebook without diacritics or foreign characters.

@Pablo: What if the reference is to a common internal font like one of the big six? And do you embed fonts for body text or just headers?

Last edited by Stodder; 04-16-2011 at 05:20 PM.
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Old 04-16-2011, 10:17 PM   #10
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@Pablo: What if the reference is to a common internal font like one of the big six? And do you embed fonts for body text or just headers?
Even if you try to make references to internal fonts common to several readers, I don't think they will be located in the same path in all of them, so you will need some sort of "conditional CSS" (don't know if such a thing exists in the specification). People also look at their books in ADE, calibre viewer, ePubReader, etc., even if they don't read them in their PC.

I think that in the near future most readers will allow some selection of built-in fonts when no font is specified in the css or even partial or total css override, so font-embedding may become less important.

I usually specify the same font for body and headers.
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Old 04-16-2011, 10:40 PM   #11
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Thanks, Pablo.

I thought you could refer to common fonts by using the general css font rule? Like how websites using css set rules for common fonts without actually specifying a location??
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Old 04-16-2011, 10:50 PM   #12
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@Stodder
I was just ranting.
I just meant that in case one needs foreign chars you mostly 'll end up having to embed a font containing them, since the reading systems don't offer full Unicode glyph coverage.
In your case this seems not to be needed.
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Old 04-16-2011, 11:38 PM   #13
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@Freeshadow: Ah, ok Well, it's useful information, should I ever need to do something which has odd characters or foreign characters.

Thanks
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Old 04-18-2011, 05:44 AM   #14
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I only include font references when I use some fancy font for titles or similar, and then I embed them. For the main text font, it's just the default.
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Old 04-18-2011, 05:55 PM   #15
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Hi Jellby. Thanks for sharing your own preference !

May I ask if you embed licenses with the fonts? And how so, a text file?

Cheers,
Stodder
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