The League of Movable Type asks: how important is open source typography to you?
I’ll get straight to my answer: very.
More specifically, I’m quite excited about what this league is doing for a branch of typography which seems almost mythical. We know about paid fonts and free fonts, but what’s buzzing big right now is the use of fonts on the web with the emergence of @font-face embedding, webfonts, and services like TypeKit. But what about usage and modification of fonts in general?
The open source debate is always tricky when creative works are in question, but the case shouldn’t be different for typefaces. The League is going beyond that debate, but still has some tough questions to be answered:
Is open source typography important enough to fight for? Are we all brave enough to do something to change the status quo? Is the status quo okay, do we really need to change anything at all?
What is the status quo? If this 3-year old post is any indication, it looks like a sleepy town that needs some jazzing up. The Open Font Library is more closely linked to the open source software community than with the open source design community, but they mentioned Lettercase being a Github-like tool, so it looks like they’re taking steps towards that already.
Should we fight for open source typography and change the status quo? It could potentially compete alongside the hosted font embedding services and create a fine alternative for web designers using custom web fonts. Options are good.
Sound off with your thoughts there!
I enjoy all opensource things and i think that typography isnt exception to be non-open. I’m just not an “open-source-freek”, but open mostly beeter than not open :)
By Bookworm Jahz on March 14, 2010 6:09 am
[...] Museo and the other Exljbris fonts are also as ubiquitous as the Microsoft and Apple system fonts, at least on the Web, because they’re good and free. They’re like the new generation of default fonts to play with, since they’re the most accessible. Same case with The League of Movable Type. [...]
By Dell chooses Museo | Wisdump on March 31, 2010 3:42 am