GNU FreeFont

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FreeMono
FreeMonoDemonstration.png
Category Serif, Monospace
Designer(s) Primož Peterlin, Steve White
License GNU GPLv3 + font exception
FreeSans
FreeSansDemonstration.png
Category Sans-serif
Classification Neo-grotesque
Designer(s) Primož Peterlin, Steve White
License GNU GPLv3 + font exception
FreeSerif
FreeSerifDemonstration.png
Category Serif
Classification Transitional
Designer(s) Primož Peterlin, Steve White
License GNU GPLv3 + font exception

GNU FreeFont (also known as Free UCS Outline Fonts) is a family of free OpenType, TrueType and WOFF outline fonts, implementing as much of the Universal Character Set (UCS) as possible. The project was initiated in 2002 by Primož Peterlin and is now maintained by Steve White.

The fonts are licensed under the GNU GPLv3 with a font exception, ensuring they may be both freely distributed and embedded or otherwise utilized within a document without the document itself being covered by the GPL.

The family includes three faces: FreeMono, FreeSans, and FreeSerif, each in four styles. These fonts can be obtained gratis from GNU Savannah.[1]

History

At the core of the collection are 35 Type 1 fonts donated by URW++ Design & Development GmbH[2] for Ghostscript project[3] to be available under the GPL. The basic Cyrillic range is based on Valek Filipov's Cyrillic and Omega Serif, via Tempora LCG Unicode. Valek Filippov added some composite Latin Extended-A glyphs. Angelo Haritsis compiled a set of Greek Type 1 fonts, used in FreeSans and FreeMono. The Devanagari range in serif is from the Velthuis TeX font,[4] while the range in sans is based on Gargi;[5] Bengali and Gurmukhi ranges are based on Harsh Kumar's BharatBhasha project[6] and others. The Gujarati and Oriya ranges are based on Samyak fonts. The Ethiopic range is based on the Ethiopic metafont project at the University of Hamburg.[7]

Unicode coverage

In the latest release of 2012-05-03:

  • FreeSerif face includes 10,537 glyphs, with regular, italic, bold and bold italic styles.
  • FreeSans face includes 6,272 glyphs, with regular, oblique, bold and bold oblique styles.
  • FreeMono face includes 4,178 glyphs, with regular, oblique, bold and bold oblique styles.

The family covers characters from the following Unicode blocks:

<templatestyles src="Div col/styles.css"/>

  • Basic Latin
  • Latin-1 Supplement
  • Latin Extended-A
  • Latin Extended-B
  • IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) Extensions
  • Spacing Modifier Letters
  • Combining Diacritical Marks
  • Greek
  • Cyrillic
  • Cyrillic Supplement
  • Arabic
  • Hebrew
  • N'Ko
  • Thaana
  • Syriac
  • Armenian
  • Georgian
  • Devanagari
  • Bengali
  • Gujarati
  • Gurmukhi
  • Oriya
  • Sinhala
  • Tamil
  • Malayalam
  • Tai Le
  • Ethiopic
  • Thai
  • Kayah Li
  • Cherokee
  • Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics
  • Hanunóo
  • Buginese
  • Vai
  • Phonetic Extensions
  • Phonetic Extensions Supplement
  • Diacritical marks
  • Cyrillic Extended-B
  • Tifinagh
  • Osmanya
  • Coptic
  • Glagolitic
  • Gothic
  • Ugaritic
  • Old Persian
  • Phoenician
  • Runic
  • Braille
  • Supplemental Arrows-A
  • Latin Extended Additional
  • Greek Extended
  • General Punctuation
  • Super and Sub scripts
  • Currency Symbols
  • Letterlike Symbols
  • Number Forms
  • Arrows
  • Mathematical Operators
  • Miscellaneous Technical Symbols
  • Enclosed Alphanumerics
  • Box Drawing
  • Block Elements
  • Geometric Shapes
  • Miscellaneous Symbols
  • Dingbats
  • Alphabetic Presentation Forms
  • Vietnamese
  • Western music
  • Byzantine music
  • Mah Jong tiles
  • Dominoes

See also

References

  1. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. [1][dead link]
  5. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. [2] Archived August 7, 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  7. [3][dead link]

External links