[Wikipedia-l] Distributing fonts

[Ralesk Ne'vennoyx]

Pablo Saratxaga wrote:

>>Come on, where's the problem? We're offering 4-5 *GB* with pictures to 
>>download for en already. And you say we're not equipped to serve a 
>>single TTF file?
> 
> 
> I had read it as if the idea was to frentically upload all kind of fonts
> available.

No, nonono.  That’s the exact case with the ogg player reaction, of 
course he didn’t mean to upload ALL possible GPL or PD players, only one 
simple one or perhaps two, that would work on most computers (Windows, 
OS 9, OS X, UNIX likes).  I would welcome people to program teeny-tiny, 
simplistic, free and open source Ogg/Vorbis players -- nothing fancy, 
just something that does the job (this one job only).

> Indeed one font is not very much; but the real point is that it is not
> the right place.
> The images are big, but they illustrate the articles; they are part of
> the information in the articles.

The letters that are missing — those would be the information.

> A font, I don't see how it could be a part of the article (a font file
> cannot be directly usable from the web pages; it has to be downloaded
> and installed first; that is different to images, sound and video that
> can be directly seen/heard).

“If you cannot see some characters on this page, or see boxes or 
question marks instead, download and install the free fonts available 
[[TehFontPage|here]], or use [http://www.google.com/ Google] to look for 
more.”

> A font file could be a part of the article of an article about
> typography or computer typography; but as it won't be directly usable
> from the web browser, probably it would be useless anyway.

Same goes for the aural content, you have to download it and listen 
separately.  Are they too, useless?

Just some food for thought.