Re: [j-tech] 'Open' Torah fonts?

[Ze'ev Clementson]

Hi all,

Some good news! I wrote an email to Yoram Gnat (the creator of the
"Ancient Semitic Scripts" fonts) asking him to consider adding the GPL
font exception to his license (which will allow his fonts to be
embedded in PDF documents). He has agreed and will be adding the font
exception clause to the next version of his fonts (in about 2 weeks).
Here are his comments:

"I will add the GPL font exception to my fonts. Since I am working on
new versions of the fonts (minor changes in most cases), it will take
about two weeks until I upload them to the Culmus site."

The page describing his fonts is here:
http://culmus.sourceforge.net/ancient/index.html

Shabbat Shalom,
Ze'ev

On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 11:48 AM, Ze'ev Clementson <bere...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Efraim,
>
> On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 11:20 AM, Efraim Feinstein
> <efraim.f...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Ze'ev Clementson wrote:
>>> It's a shame that the culmus developers aren't willing to change the
>>> license. Their fonts (especially the "Ancient Semitic Scripts" fonts)
>>> are really unique. By the way, isn't Yoram Gnat the sole developer of
>>> the "Ancient Semitic Scripts" fonts (which includes the "Hebrew
>>> SoferStam Ashkenaz" font)? If so, wouldn't he be the only one who
>>> would need to give permission for an alternative license for his
>>> fonts?
>>>
>>
>> Possibly.  When I emailed them, I emailed the primary dev of the Miriam and
>> David fonts (the OpenType fonts in the main Culmus package).
>
> I've written an email to Yoram Gnat asking him to consider adding the
> GPL font exception to his license. I'll let you know what reply I
> receive.
>
> - Ze'ev
>

[Efraim Feinstein]

Ze'ev Clementson wrote:
> Some good news! I wrote an email to Yoram Gnat (the creator of the
> "Ancient Semitic Scripts" fonts) asking him to consider adding the GPL
> font exception to his license (which will allow his fonts to be
>

Thanks! This is great news! Other than the Stam font, the two Keter
fonts are pretty nice, and at least "Keter YG" could make a decent
alternative to Ezra SIL. They use the same Hebrew intelligence logic
as Ezra SIL (the logic is released under the MIT license).

--
---
Efraim Feinstein
Lead Developer
Open Siddur Project
http://opensiddur.net
http://wiki.jewishliturgy.org

[Ze'ev Clementson]

Hi all,

I've just received an email from Yoram regarding his "Ancient Semitic
Scripts" fonts. The FSF "font exception" was added to the licensing
terms and he's made some changes to the fonts. Following is a list of
changes from the previous version:

1. ProtoCanaanite, Phoenician, all Paleo-Hebrew and
Aramaic-Early-Br-Rkb fonts now have the glyphs assigned to both the
Hebrew Unicode range (0590-05FF) and the Phoenician code range
(10900-1091F)
2. Aramaic-VIIBCE and Aramaic-Imperial-Yeb fonts now have the glyphs
assigned to both the Hebrew Unicode range (0590-05FF) and the Aramaic
Imperial Unicode range (10840-1085F)
3. The Hebrew-Samaritan font now has the glyphs assigned to both the
Hebrew Unicode range (0590-05FF) and the Samaritan code range
(0800-083F)
4. Font "Makabi-YG" added. This is a "modernized" version of the
"Hebrew Square Isaiah" font
5. Oblique, Bold and Bold-Oblique weights added to "Keter YG" font
6. The algorithms of vowel and cantillation marks positioning in the
fonts "Keter Aram Tsova" and "Keter YG" were rewritten and should now
correctly position the marks.
7. Corrections to "Hebrew Sofer Stam Ashkenaz" font

The new version is available at the Culmus project URL:
http://culmus.sourceforge.net/ on the "Ancient Semitic Scripts" page.

- Ze'ev

[Efraim Feinstein]

Ze'ev Clementson wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've just received an email from Yoram regarding his "Ancient Semitic
> Scripts" fonts. The FSF "font exception" was added to the licensing
> terms and he's made some changes to the fonts. Following is a list of
> changes from the previous version:
>

This is great! The Keter YG font is a good generic alternative to Ezra
SIL. I'd find a siddur printed in Keter Aram Tsova YG or Makabi YG to
be too fancy for my tastes. We can certainly offer them as options and
let users decide.

[Aharon Varady]

On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 6:04 PM, Efraim Feinstein <efraim.f...@gmail.com> wrote:

Ze'ev Clementson wrote:

Hi all,

I've just received an email from Yoram regarding his "Ancient Semitic
Scripts" fonts. The FSF "font exception" was added to the licensing
terms and he's made some changes to the fonts. Following is a list of
changes from the previous version:
 

This is great! The Keter YG font is a good generic alternative to Ezra SIL.  I'd find a siddur printed in Keter Aram Tsova YG or Makabi YG to be too fancy for my tastes.  We can certainly offer them as options and let users decide.

This is very welcome news! I've posted news of this on the Open Siddur development blog: http://opensiddur.net/2010/03/freeing-culmus-projects-open-fonts/

Aharon

[Ze'ev Clementson]

Hi Aharon,

Nice write-up. Just as an FYI - I have incorporated the Culmus
"Ancient Semitic Scripts" fonts in my Hebrew Bible iPhone app and the
new version of the app should be available for download at about the
same time as the iPad is released (on April 3 in the US and subject to
Apple's constraints - please don't make any public announcements). On
the ipad simulator, the Keter Aram Tsova font looks nicer than the
Keter YG font; however, that is probably more a function of Apple's
font handling. I found the Paleo Hebrew fonts quite intriguing as
well. I'm a bit of an archaeology buff and it's neat to be able to
read the torah in a Paleo Hebrew font similar to that used at the time
of Hezekiah or in a "square" Hebrew font similar to that used in the
Isaiah scroll found at Qumran.

- Ze'ev