Ubuntu is an

OpenType OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. Derived from TrueType, it retains TrueType's basic structure but adds many intricate data structures for describing typographic behavior. OpenType is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corpora ...

-based

font family A typeface (or font family) is a design of letters, numbers and other symbols, to be used in printing or for electronic display. Most typefaces include variations in size (e.g., 24 point), weight (e.g., light, bold), slope (e.g., italic), width ...

, designed to be a modern, humanist-style typeface by London-based

type foundry A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and ...

Dalton Maag, with funding by

Canonical Ltd Canonical Ltd. is a privately-held computer software company based in London, England. It was founded and funded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth to market commercial support and related services for Ubuntu and related projects. ...

. The font was under development for nearly nine months, with only a limited initial release through a beta program, until September 2010. It was then that it became the new default font of the Ubuntu operating system in Ubuntu 10.10. Its designers include Vincent Connare, creator of the Comic Sans and

Trebuchet MS Trebuchet MS is a Sans-serif#Humanist, humanist sans-serif typeface that Vincent Connare designed for Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation in 1996. Trebuchet MS was the font used for the window titles in the Luna (theme), Windows XP default theme, su ...

fonts. The Ubuntu font family is licensed under the Ubuntu Font Licence.

History and features

The font was first introduced in October 2010 with the release of Ubuntu 10.10 in four versions: Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic in English. With the release of Ubuntu 11.04 in April 2011, additional fonts and expanded language coverage were introduced.Ubuntu Font Family
/ref> The final development is intended to include a total of thirteen fonts, consisting of: * Ubuntu in Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic * Ubuntu Monospace in Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic * Ubuntu Light in Regular and Italic * Ubuntu Medium in Regular and Italic * Ubuntu Condensed in Regular only The monospace version, used in terminals, was initially planned to ship with Ubuntu 11.04. However, it was delayed and instead shipped with Ubuntu 11.10 as the default system monospace font. The font is fully

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

compliant and contains Latin A and B extended character sets, Greek polytonic, and Cyrillic extended. In addition, it has become the first native operating system font to include the

Indian rupee sign The Indian rupee sign ⟨₹⟩ is the currency symbol for the Indian rupee (ISO 4217#Active codes, ISO 4217: INR), the official currency of India. Designed by D. Udaya Kumar, it was presented to the public by the Government of India on 15 Jul ...

. The font has been designed primarily for use on screen displays, and its spacing and

kerning In typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between Character (symbol), characters in a Typeface#Proportion, proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result. Kerning adjusts the space between individual le ...

is optimized for body copy sizes. Between 2022 and 2023, the typeface was updated to a slimmer design and enhanced with variable axes. The revised family, named Ubuntu Sans, was released alongside Ubuntu 24.04.

Usage

The Ubuntu Font Family is the default font for the current and development releases of the Ubuntu operating system and is used for the Ubuntu project branding. Ubuntu has been included in the

Google Fonts Google Fonts (formerly known as Google Web Fonts) is a computer font and web font service owned by Google. This includes Free-software license, free and open source font families, an interactive web directory for browsing the library, and Applica ...

directory, making it easily available for

web typography Web typography, like typography generally, is the design of pages their layout and typeface choices. Unlike traditional print-based typography (where the page is fixed once typeset), pages intended for display on the World Wide Web have additiona ...

, and as of April 26, 2011, it is included for use in

Google Docs Google Docs is an online word processor and part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. Google Docs is accessible via a web browser as a web-based application and is also available as a mobile app on Android and iO ...

. Ubuntu Bold Italic is also used in the

bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

logotype, alongside the bitcoin symbol. Ubuntu Sans is the font used in the "

GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , ) is a Raster graphics, bitmap Image file formats, image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released ...

Maker" by the popular GIF sharing app Tenor, the font has become very popular in

internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

culture, being used commonly to caption GIFs and images.

TV Tropes TV Tropes (also written as TVTropes) is a wiki founded by "Fast Eddie" in 2004 that collects and documents descriptions and examples of plot conventions and devices, which it refers to as tropes. Its contents cover many creative works and non- ...

has used Ubuntu in its logo since 2016.

Ubuntu Font Licence

The Ubuntu Font Licence is an "interim" license designed for the Ubuntu Font Family, which has used the license since version 0.68. The license is based on the

SIL Open Font License The SIL Open Font License (or OFL in short) is one of the major open font licenses, which allows embedding, or "bundling", of the font in commercially sold products. OFL is a free and open source license. It was created by SIL Global, the ...

. The Ubuntu Font Licence allows the fonts to be "used, studied, modified and redistributed freely" given that the license terms are met. The license is

copyleft Copyleft is the legal technique of granting certain freedoms over copies of copyrighted works with the requirement that the same rights be preserved in derivative works. In this sense, ''freedoms'' refers to the use of the work for any purpose, ...

and all derivative works must be distributed under the same license. Documents that use the fonts are not required to be licensed under the Ubuntu Font Licence.

Fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...

and

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

have reviewed this license and converged on interpreting it as non-free due to incomplete or ambiguous use and modification permissions.

References

External links

Ubuntu Font Family main page

Ubuntu Font Family on the Ubuntu Wiki

Google Fonts
{{Monospaced fonts Humanist sans-serif typefaces Unicode typefaces Corporate typefaces Open-source typefaces Ubuntu Typefaces and fonts introduced in 2010 Dalton Maag typefaces

History and features

Usage

Ubuntu Font Licence

See also

References

External links