GNU FreeFont (also known as Free UCS Outline Fonts) is a family of free
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior. OpenType is a registered trademark ...
,
TrueType
TrueType is an outline font standard developed by Apple in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe's Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. It has become the most common format for fonts on the classic Mac OS, macOS, and Microsoft Windows operating ...
and
WOFF vector fonts, implementing as much of the
Universal Character Set (UCS) as possible, aside from the very large
CJK Asian character set. The project was initiated in 2002 by Primož Peterlin and is now maintained by Steve White.
The family includes three faces: FreeMono, FreeSans, and FreeSerif, each in four styles (Regular, Italic/Oblique, Bold, and Bold Italic/Oblique).
The fonts are licensed under the
GPL-3.0-or-later license with the
Font-exception-2.0, ensuring they may be both freely distributed and embedded or otherwise utilized within a document without the document itself being covered by the GPL. The fonts can be obtained ''
libre
Libre may refer to:
Computing
* Libre software, free software
* Libre Computer Project, developer of open-hardware single-board computers
Medicine
*FreeStyle Libre, a glucose monitoring device
Media
* Libre Times, news site which people can free ...
'' from
GNU Savannah. They are also packaged on certain Linux distributions, including
Ubuntu
Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...
and
Arch Linux.
Design
The glyphs of GNU FreeFont come from many sources, all of which are compatible with the GPL.
The core Latin characters are derived from the
Type 1 fonts donated by
URW++ Design & Development GmbH to the
Ghostscript
Ghostscript is a suite of software based on an interpreter for Adobe Systems' PostScript and Portable Document Format (PDF) page description languages. Its main purposes are the rasterization or rendering of such page description language file ...
project. Specifically, the design notes of GNU FreeFont state that:
* FreeSerif is based on URW++
Nimbus Roman No. 9 L, which is similar to
Times
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems.
Time or times may also refer to:
Temporal measurement
* Time in physics, defined by its measurement
* Time standard, civil time speci ...
* FreeSans is based on URW++
Nimbus Sans L
Nimbus Sans is a sans-serif typeface created by URW++, based on Helvetica.
Nimbus Sans
It is a version using URW++ font source. The family supports Western Europe, East Europe, Turkish, Baltic, and Romanian languages.
The font names ending wit ...
, which is similar to
Helvetica
Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk) is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.
Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) ...
* FreeMono is based on URW++
Nimbus Mono L, which is similar to
Courier
A courier is a person or organisation that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are ...
The Greek, Cyrillic, Armenian, Hebrew, Arabic, and
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
(IPA) characters are partially based on
Omega
Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/ isopsephy ( gematria), it has a value of 800. The ...
, which is an extension of
TeX. The Greek characters are also based on a set of Greek Type 1 fonts compiled by Angelo Haritsis, in addition to Alexey Kryukov's Tempora LCG Unicode. The
Cyrillic
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...
range also includes Valek Filipov's Gnome Cyrillic and Tempora LCG Unicode. Valek Filippov further added some composite
Latin Extended-A
Latin Extended-A is a Unicode block and is the third block of the Unicode standard. It encodes Latin letters from the Latin ISO character sets other than Latin-1 (which is already encoded in the Latin-1 Supplement block) and also legacy characte ...
glyphs.
The Devanagari range in serif is from the Velthuis TeX font, while the range in sans is based on Gargi; Bengali and Gurmukhi ranges are based on Harsh Kumar's BharatBhasha project and others. The Gujarati and Oriya ranges are based on Samyak fonts. The
Ethiopic range is based on the Ethiopic metafont project at the
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vo ...
.
Unicode coverage
In the latest release of 2012-05-03, FreeSerif includes 10,537 glyphs, FreeSans includes 6,272 glyphs, and FreeMono includes 4,178 glyphs.
The family covers characters from the following
Unicode block
A Unicode block is one of several contiguous ranges of numeric character codes ( code points) of the Unicode character set that are defined by the Unicode Consortium for administrative and documentation purposes. Typically, proposals such as the ...
s:
*Basic Latin
*Latin-1 Supplement
*Latin Extended-A
*Latin Extended-B
*International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) Extensions
*Spacing Modifier Letters
*Combining Diacritical Marks
*Greek
*Cyrillic
*Cyrillic Supplement
*Arabic
*Hebrew
*N'Ko
*Thaana
*Syriac
*Armenian
*Georgian
*Devanagari
*Bengali
*Gujarati
*Gurmukhi
*Oriya
*Sinhala
*Tamil
*Malayalam
*Tai Le
*Ethiopic
*Thai
*Kayah Li
*Cherokee
*Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics
*Hanunóo
*Buginese
*Vai
*Phonetic Extensions
*Phonetic Extensions Supplement
*Diacritical marks
*Cyrillic Extended-B
*Tifinagh
*Osmanya
*Coptic
*Glagolitic
*Gothic
*Ugaritic
*Old Persian
*Phoenician
*Runic
*Braille
*Supplemental Arrows-A
*Latin Extended Additional
*Greek Extended
*General Punctuation
*Super and Sub scripts
*Currency Symbols
*Letterlike Symbols
*Number Forms
*Arrows
*Mathematical Operators
*Miscellaneous Technical Symbols
*Enclosed Alphanumerics
*Box Drawing
*Block Elements
*Geometric Shapes
*Miscellaneous Symbols
*Dingbats
*Alphabetic Presentation Forms
*Vietnamese
*Western music
*Byzantine music
*Mah Jong tiles
*Dominoes
See also
*
Free software Unicode fonts
*
List of typefaces
*
Unicode typefaces
References
External links
GNU FreeFontFree UCS Outline Fonts Project
{{GNU
Free software Unicode typefaces
FreeFont
Computer-related introductions in 2002