Following the Helvetica Neue topic previously discussed in the mailing list, I think we have another issue with fonts here.

In the current [wok] branch there’s a folder called “Fontello” within the ui assets with some ttf, svg, woff and eot files. Fontello is a service that allows you to choose characters from different font families.

According to Fedora Fonts Policy:

1. Fonts released upstream in separate archives MUST be packaged in separate source packages (src.rpm), unless they belong to the same font family.

2. Packagers SHOULD ask upstream to release each font family in a separate versioned archive, when it bundles in a common release archive:

1. fonts with other material such as application code, or

2. different font families.

§ As an exception, when a project is the upstream of several font families, which are all licensed the same way, and released on the same date, with the same version, the use of a common release archive is tolerated.

3. Packagers MUST package each font family in a separate (noarch.rpm) (sub)package, notwithstanding on how they applied the previous source package (src.rpm) rules. The only admitted exceptions are:

0. source packages that only include one font family and no other code or content (font documentation excepted), in which case a simple package is fine,

1. font families which are designed to extend other font families with larger Unicode coverage (for example Arial Unicode, Droid Sans Fallback), in which case grouping the font family and its extension in a single (sub)package is acceptable.

§ such cases should be notified to the fontconfig maintainer and the Fedora fonts list, so the font family split can be eventually hidden from users.

2. fonts that use a format that bundles different font families in a single file.

4. On the other hand, the different faces of a font family MUST be packaged together in a common (noarch.rpm) (sub)package, and not spread over different (sub)packages^[3].

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:FontsPolicy

And Web Assets Packaging:

All system fonts (available in %{_datadir}/fonts) are automatically made available in %{_webassetdir}/fonts/ via a symlink. For more information on packaging system fonts, see the font guidelines. Please note that [Web_Assets/Fonts|only fonts available in the Fedora package collection are made available on HTTP servers by default].

Please note that those guidelines prohibit packaging fonts elsewhere. There is no compelling reason to support other font formats, as most browsers that support web fonts support the TTF or OTF formats used by system fonts, therefore alternative web font formats like WOFF are prohibited.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Web_Assets#Fonts

So, instead of putting font files within Kimchi project, we have to use a package. From the list of icons used to build this Fontello.ttf file, only Font Awesome has a Fedora Package. The problem is that this font uses trademarked icons such as Windows, Spotify, Skype, Facebook, Twitter and other brands when you download it, not sure if they removed from their RPM.

We would also have to provide a service that exposes the TTF and OTF files in the same URL, protocol and port that Kimchi is running, something like https://localhost:8001/fonts/font-awesome.ttf for instance.

As for TTF and OTF support, according to this support table, we got all A-grade browsers: http://caniuse.com/#feat=ttf

The same goes for Open Sans font and an alternative to Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese from Adobe called Source Han Sans:

https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/open-sans-fonts/overview/

https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/adobe-source-han-sans-tw-fonts

https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/adobe-source-han-sans-cn-fonts

The other solution for our icons would be export each glyph we want to use in SVG format (and keep font-awesome license within). It seems that this is ok with Font-Awesome but not with the other fonts available in Fontello.

So, for now I’m removing all font files from [wok] branch and I’ll submit a patch later.

What are your thoughts? Any advice?

Regards,

Samuel