2008/6/12 <>:
> 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.
