| Bitstream and Lycoris: Taking Linux fonts to the desktop |
(Jun. 15, 2004)
Does your job require you to create designs or documents with special fonts? Ever wonder what 'anti-aliasing' fonts or 'hinting' really means? Fonts can improve readability for computer users and are important as elements of style and design. Users of Apple and Windows operating systems have long had a large number of fonts on their systems. Today, Linux is gaining both enhanced font technologies and access to large font foundries as the first independent digital foundry, Bitstream, is working to make sure that users of open source have the same rich text experience as those using other OSes.
Desktop Linux maker Lycoris has teamed up with Bitstream with a series of joint initiatives that seeks to make fonts and readability issues a priority for Linux users. By licensing Bitstream's btX2 font rendering engine for its entire product line, Lycoris is ensuring that their customers sit up and take notice of an area gaining interest for users and operating system makers alike. Delivering a richer experience is not limited to just Lycoris users, however. The Maple Valley, WA-based company is raising awareness of the increasing number of Linux compatible fonts, but is making these available to users of all Linux desktops as well as to Mac OS X and Windows users.
The following interview discusses the benefits of enhanced font technology, with detailed screenshots that illustrate the concepts. 'Seeing' how the technology works in the following comparisons is the very best way to demonstrate the effectiveness of improving the user experience.
DesktopLinux.com spoke with Lycoris and Bitstream about the technology and a little bit about the joint projects they have underway.
We talked with Joseph Cheek, Chief Executive Officer of Lycoris; Anna Chagnon, President and CEO of Bitstream; and Sampo Kaasila, VP of Research and Development for Bitstream about the state of fonts on the Linux platform . . .
Q: Why the current attention on fonts and usability for the Linux desktop?
Joseph Cheek: Our focus at Lycoris has always been on the quality of the user experience. As the platform continues to mature, we are looking for more ways in which to give our users increasing quality on that front. The Macintosh platform has always focused on this, giving designers great tools, and Microsoft continues to focus on this as well, such as at the recent WinHec 2004. The market is heading there, and by giving our users the best tools, we can remain a leader on this front.
Anna Chagnon: Bitstream has a long history of supporting the open source community. Font technology still has a base in the commercial sector, and Bitstream aims to bridge that gap. Whether users' platforms are open source or commercial, they should have quality fonts available to them.
Q: You currently are offering Bitstream's fonts for all operating systems through Lycoris?
Joseph: Our users come from a broad spectrum of backgrounds. A significant portion of our users come from the Mac community as well as Windows. They are used to having great-looking fonts both on screen and in print. Linux in general hasn't taken advantage of the growing number of fonts available, nor the ability to display them. By not only utilizing available technology, but also the best technology on the market today, Lycoris can give users a rich visual experience. That's always been a priority for us. Our users are often on a migration path -- that is to say that they use more than one system at a time, often dual booting between systems. We felt offering Bitstream fonts to computer users was the way we could best serve the entire community. By including methods for offering these fonts on any platform, this gives users a chance to sync their new systems with the old.
Q: What is Bitstream's btX2 technology and what does the licensing agreement mean?
Anna: btX2 is Bitstream's font rasterizing subsystem for Linux. With btX2, developers receive everything -- fonts, font rendering engine, commercial use of native TrueType hints, and complete engineering support -- in one license agreement from one vendor. The quality of the text on the screen is an important factor here. We are starting to see a lot of interest in high-quality font rendering on the Linux platform, particularly for native hinting and anti-aliasing.
Joseph: Working together with Bitstream on this project has been wonderful. Bitstream's font technology, including their delta-hinted fonts and professional font engine, demonstrates that they are the clear leaders in the font arena, and bringing this to Linux means that the entire platform will benefit.
Q: As Linux is gaining more mainstream acceptance, and grows the installed base, are you seeing an interest in greater demand for Linux-compatible fonts? Are all fonts compatible with Linux?
Sampo Kaasila: Most developers prefer TrueType and OpenType fonts. These fonts include high-quality hints for optimal output and as well because they are industry-standard formats that most font foundries and designers support. We are finding, increasing interest in compact, scalable Asian fonts, particularly for embedded Linux devices.
Q: Bitstream has some past experiences with the open source community. What sorts of projects have you been involved in?
Anna: Some of the things Bitstream has been involved in include the donation of the Speedo font rasterizer and fonts in Speedo format to the X Consortium. In 2003, Bitstream donated the Vera font family to the GNOME Foundation to bring advanced font rendering to all users of free and open source software. We continue to extend our involvement with the community at every opportunity.
Q: Are you seeing an increase in development or font designs coming from the open source community?
Anna: We are seeing more demand for fonts on Linux that replicate the same desktop experience found on other operating systems. Our donation of the Bitstream Vera family to GNOME is one step in that direction. Anyone in the open source community can freely download the Vera fonts and design extra characters for them -- as long as the designers rename the font, so there is no confusion regarding the original Vera collection. To that end, Bitstream's Director of Typographic Development, Jim Lyles, is creating a design guide for people in the open source community to use when adding characters to the Vera font family. We also have plans to extend the character set, by providing a Bitstream Vera roman font with the WGL4 character set. A WGL4 set includes 652 characters and supports six different 'scripts' or character sets: Baltic, Central European, Cyrillic, Greek, Turkish, and Western. This provides more language coverage for the open source community.
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