From: Kenneth Whistler (kenw@sybase.com)
Date: Wed Dec 03 2003 - 20:40:57 EST
Philippe,
> > Sorry, but you really do not know what you are talking about. What cannot
> > be freely distributed are *rasterisers* that make use of Apple patented
> > technology that interpret TT instruction sets. Anyone can make, hint and
> > ship -- freely or for a licensing fee -- a font with a full set of hint
> > instructions. What you cannot do is build a rasteriser that interprets
> > these hints without licensing the technology from Apple.
>
> This does not seem clear when you look at the claims of the 3 Apple patents:
> the term "rasterizer" is not even used, and what is patented to the method
> to represent these hints. So, unless Apple publishes a legal disclaimer
> about what is really patented, I do think that the situation is quite
> ambiguous, and even creating a hinted font or creating a tool that allow
> making such hinting in a font design may require a license to use the
> hinting method.
Despite being told otherwise by a font expert and a spokesman from
Apple, you blather on here.
http://freetype.sourceforge.net/patents.html
Patent #1: US5155805: Method and apparatus for moving control points
in displaying digital typeface on raster output devices. May 8, 1989.
Patent #2: US5159668: Method and apparatus for manipulating outlines
in improving digital typeface on raster output devices. May 8, 1989.
Patent #3: US5325479: Method and apparatus for moving control points
in displaying digital typeface on raster output devices. May 28, 1992.
"It's important to understand that the patents do not prevent
anyone from reading, converting or generating TrueType fonts.
As they only concern the subtle art of hinting TrueType glyphs,
it's even possible to legally display text with TrueType fonts,
as long as the patented techniques aren't used to optimise the
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
bitmaps at small pixel sizes."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The abstract for US5155805 starts out: "A method for manipulating
the control points of a symbol image represented by an outline
font to improve the appearance of the font on raster output devices
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
which are under control of a computer."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There, is that clear enough for you?
--Ken
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