On 27/10/13 03:43, Brad Jorsch (Anomie) wrote:
I came across Gerrit change 79948[1] today, which makes "VectorBeta" use a pile of non-free fonts (with one free font thrown in at the end as a sop). Is this really the direction we want to go, considering that in many other areas we prefer to use free software whenever we can?
Yes, we should prefer to use free software. We should also strive to ensure that our support for users on non-free platforms is optimal, as long as that doesn't negatively impact on users of free platforms. So I don't think it is a problem to specify non-free fonts in font lists.
The font-family lists in question seem to be:
@content-font-family: "Helvetica Neue", "Helvetica", "Nimbus Sans L", "Arial", "Liberation Sans", sans-serif; @content-heading-font-family: Georgia, "DejaVu Serif", serif;
Now, it seems to me that very few users will have both free and non-free fonts installed. So the order is mostly irrelevant. It could instead be:
@content-font-family: "Nimbus Sans L", "Liberation Sans", "Helvetica Neue", "Helvetica", "Arial", sans-serif; @content-heading-font-family: "DejaVu Serif", Georgia, serif;
And probably nobody would ever notice the difference. That seems like a better choice to me, since it would make the FOSS advocates feel more warm and fuzzy.
There is the separate issue that on my Linux laptop, Nimbus Sans L looks worse than the font my browser will choose for sans-serif. That is because I have customised Firefox to use the Ubuntu font for sans-serif, which is very readable. I find all the Arial clones to be too narrow for comfortable reading.
-- Tim Starling