Re: [oiic-formation-discuss] (1)(f) and (1)(g) -- audience and working language

["David Gerard" <dgerard@gmail.com>]

2008/6/12  <robert_weir@us.ibm.com>:


> Maybe any test case would be written to use a freely-available font, like
> RedHat's Liberation:  https://www.redhat.com/promo/fonts/


How copyright are font metrics, as in the width:height ratio, height
above/below line, etc. of each character?

Font shapes themselves are uncopyrightable (at least in the US), and
font metrics derive from those. The (e.g.) Postscript or TrueType
definition of a font is a program, hence copyrightable in the usual
fashion. But making your own font specifically to have the same
numbers as a proprietary font doesn't appear to be a nexus of
litigation.

If font metrics aren't copyrightable, I suppose you could say "a font
with the following metrics, e.g. [proprietary font], [GPL font] or [PD
font]: [list of metrics]." If that isn't too ambitious.


- d.