Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site uw-beaver
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!laser-lovers
From: laser-lovers@uw-beaver
Newsgroups: fa.laser-lovers
Subject: Re: "public domain" fonts ... However ...
Message-ID: <1024@uw-beaver>
Date: Sat, 13-Apr-85 14:24:52 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.1024
Posted: Sat Apr 13 14:24:52 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Apr-85 05:12:07 EST
Sender: daemon@uw-beaver
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 34

From: ihnp4!utzoo!henry@uw-beaver.arpa

> However...
> To my, admittedly, untrained eye, it looks like the Berkeley default
> troff fonts, R, I, B, and parts of S, are raster copies of parts of
> the Hershey repertory.  Perhaps they are second, third, etc.
> generations, but it does look like the original source was the Hershey
> repertory.  Would that make them public domain?

The Berkeley default troff fonts, at least the 200/inch instantiations,
are bit-tuned versions of the Hershey fonts.  The Hershey->raster
conversion was originally done by Bill Reeves at U of Toronto (whence
the "Berkeley" typesetting-on-Versatec software came), and bit-tuning
occurred both at U of T (early on) and UCB (later).  How "public domain"
the result is, is a good question.  Both U of T and UCB impose limits
on redistribution of distributed software and databases.  (As to how
the U of T stuff made it into x.yBSD without U of T permission:  it went
by an indirect route and the ownership notices got lost along the way.)
It depends on whether the bit-tuning is major enough to constitute a
claim of ownership.

Actually, I doubt that either university cares very much.

> If they are taken from the Hershey repertory, they are bad renderings
> of a mediocre font.  One would do better to re-rasterize them
> himself/herself.

The Hershey fonts aren't terrific, since they were never meant for
raster use at all.  And Bill's rasterizing code was pretty straightforward,
as I recall, and could probably be improved by suitable injections of
subtlety.  But it was all we had...

				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry