Bitstream Vera Fonts

Beta Test Fonts

These are the preliminary versions of the "Bitstream Vera" family of 10 fonts.  Untar the fonts into an appropriate directory and configure your system appropriately as for other TrueType fonts.  Fontconfig based systems generally require no configuration if the fonts are installed in a well known location, though re-running fc-cache -f as root may be necessary on a few systems due to a bug in fontconfig's caching code.

You may not redistribute these fonts at all. Please upgrade to the final fonts as soon as they are available, and discard these versions then.

There are four monospace and sans faces (normal, oblique, bold, bold oblique) and two serif faces (normal and bold; fontconfig/Xft2 will automatically oblique the faces for you).

On systems with fontconfig 2.0 or later installed, making your sans, serif and monospace fonts default to these fonts is very easy.  Just drop the file local.conf into your /etc/fonts directory.  This will make the Bitstream fonts your default fonts for all applications using fontconfig (if sans, serif, or monospace names are used, as they often are as default values in many desktops).

Release Notes

Several letters are being adjusted between preliminary and final versions: specifically, some hinting errors, and making it easier to distinguish "0" from "O", and "1" from "l".

Known problems as of 2/18/2003 include:

Sans:
The intercharacter spacing after the character "s" at 16 pixel seems very tight.
The bottom tiny horizontal connector of lower case "v" isn't dark enough at 12 pixels.

Sans oblique:
At a quite small size (8 pixels) the "M" goes completely haywire, with two vectors going a good 4 pixels to the upper right from the right hand top corner of the M.  It is fine at larger sizes. The "-" looks a bit thick.

Mono oblique:
At smaller sizes, the beginning (top left curve) of the "a" has no trace of a
downward direction, despite the clear intent is should at larger sizes.  This may or may not be changed.

If you note problems, please send them to fonts at gnome dot org, with exactly which face and size and unicode point you observe the problem at. The xfd utility from XFree86 CVS may be useful for this (e.g. "xfd -fa sans").

Beta Test Copyright

The intent of this license is to prevent redistribution or derived works of the preliminary set of fonts, while work is completed on the fonts.

Copyright (c) 2002 by Bitstream, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Bitstream Vera is a trademark of Bitstream, Inc.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person to use the fonts accompanying this license ("Fonts") and associated documentation files (the "Font Software") under the following terms:

The above copyright and trademark notices and this permission notice shall be included in all copies of one or more of the Font Software typefaces. The "Font Software" may not be redistributed.

The Font Software may not be modified, altered, or added to, and in particular the designs of glyphs or characters in the Fonts may not be modified nor may additional glyphs or characters be added to the Fonts. This license becomes null and void to the extent applicable to Fonts or Font Software that have been modified.

THE FONT SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT, PATENT, TRADEMARK, OR OTHER RIGHT. IN NO EVENT SHALL BITSTREAM OR THE GNOME FOUNDATION BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE FONT SOFTWARE OR FROM OTHER DEALINGS IN THE FONT SOFTWARE.

Except as contained in this notice, the names of Gnome, the Gnome Foundation, and Bitstream, Inc., shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other dealings in this Font Software without prior written authorization from the Gnome Foundation or Bitstream, Inc., respectively. For further information, contact: fonts at gnome dot org.

Final Bitstream Vera Fonts

The final version, due in March 2003, will have a generous copyright, allowing derivative works (so long as "Bitstream" or "Vera" are not in the names, and full redistribution (so long as they are not *sold* by themselves); they will be able to be bundled and redistributed and sold with any software.

The final version of the fonts are expected to be distributed under the following copyright:

Final Copyright Draft

Copyright (c) 2003 by Bitstream, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Bitstream Vera is a trademark of Bitstream, Inc.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of the fonts accompanying this license (“Fonts”) and associated documentation files (the “Font Software”), to reproduce and distribute the Font Software, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, merge, publish, distribute, and/or sell copies of the Font Software, and to permit persons to whom the Font Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright and trademark notices and this permission notice shall be included in all copies of one or more of the Font Software typefaces.

The Font Software may be modified, altered, or added to, and in particular the designs of glyphs or characters in the Fonts may be modified and additional glyphs or characters may be added to the Fonts, only if the fonts are renamed to names not containing either the words “Bitstream” or the word “Vera”.

This License becomes null and void to the extent applicable to Fonts or Font Software that have been modified and are distributed under the “Bitstream Vera” names.

The Font Software may be sold as part of a larger software package but no copy of one or more of the Font Software typefaces may be sold by itself.

THE FONT SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT, PATENT, TRADEMARK, OR OTHER RIGHT. IN NO EVENT SHALL BITSTREAM OR THE GNOME FOUNDATION BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE FONT SOFTWARE OR FROM OTHER DEALINGS IN THE FONT SOFTWARE.

Except as contained in this notice, the names of Gnome, the Gnome Foundation, and Bitstream, Inc., shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other dealings in this Font Software without prior written authorization from the Gnome Foundation or Bitstream, Inc., respectively. For further information, contact: fonts at gnome dot org.

Final Copyright FAQ

  1. I don't understand the resale restriction...  What gives?
    Bitstream is giving away these fonts, but wishes to ensure its competitors can't just drop the fonts as is into a font sale system and sell them as is. It seems fair that if Bitstream can't make money from theBitstream Vera fonts, their competitors should not be able to do so either.
  2. I want to package these fonts separately for distribution and sale as part of a larger software package or system.  Can I do so?
    Yes.  A RPM or Debian package is a "larger software package" to begin with, and you aren't selling them independently by themselves. See 1. above.
  3. Are derivative works allowed?
    Yes!
  4. Can I change or add to the font(s)?
    Yes, but you must change the name(s) of the font(s).
  5. Under what terms are derivative works allowed?
    You must change the name(s) of the fonts.  This is to ensure the quality of the fonts, both to protect Bitstream and Gnome. We want to ensure that if an application has opened a font specifically of these names, it gets what it expects (though of course, using fontconfig, substitutions could still could have occur during font opening). You must include the Bitstream copyright. Additional copyrights can be added, as per copyright law.  Happy Font Hacking!
  6. If I have improvements for Bitstream Vera, is it possible they might get adopted in future versions?
    Yes.  The contract between the Gnome Foundation and Bitstream has provisions for working with Bitstream to ensure quality additions to the Vera font family.  Please contact us if you have such additions. Note, that in general, we will want such additions for the entire family, not just a single font, and that you'll have to keep both Gnome and Jim Lyles, Vera's designer, happy!
  7. I want to sell a software package that uses these fonts: Can I do so?
    Sure.  Bundle the fonts with your software and sell your software with the fonts.  That is the intent of the copyright.
  8. If applications have built the names "Bitstream Vera" into them, can I override this somehow to use fonts of my choosing?
    This depends on exact details of the software. Most open source systems and software (e.g. Gnome, KDE, etc.) are now converting to use fontconfig (see www.fontconfig.org) to handle font configuration, selection and subsitution; it has provisions for overriding font names and subsituting alternatives. An example is provided by the supplied local.conf file, which chooses the family Bitstream Vera for "sans", "serif" and "monospace".  Other software (e.g. the XFree86 core server) have other mechanisms for font substitution.
Jim Gettys