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 organization behind ''
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...
.''
History
The Open Font License was created by SIL Global employees Victor Gaultney and Nicolas Spalinger.
Gaultney had previously designed the
Gentium font and was unsatisfied with existing font licenses.
The Open Font License was designed for use with many of SIL's
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 ...
fonts, including
Gentium Plus,
Charis SIL
Charis SIL or Charis () is a slab serif typeface developed by SIL International based on Bitstream Charter, one of the first fonts designed for laser printers. The font offers four family members: roman, bold, italic, and bold italic.
Its design ...
, and
Andika.
The license was in a "public review" stage between 2005 and 2007
and version 1.1 was published in February 2007.
Prior to the release of the OFL, the
Bitstream Vera
Vera is a digital typeface (computer font) superfamily with a liberal license. It was designed by Jim Lyles from the now-defunct Bitstream Inc. type foundry, and it is closely based on Bitstream Prima, for which Lyles was also responsible. It i ...
fonts had been released in 2003 under most of the same terms and conditions.
Open-source fonts are a popular choice among designers, and most open-source fonts utilize the Open Font License. For example, it was used to license a font made by the US government.
Terms
The Open Font License is a free software license, and as such permits the fonts to be used, modified, and distributed freely (so long as the resulting fonts remain under the Open Font License). However, the copyright holder may declare the font's name as being a "Reserved Font Name", which modified versions then cannot bear. (This includes subsetting for web fonts.) The license permits covered fonts to be freely embedded in documents under any terms. The only stipulation is that fonts cannot be sold on their own, though they may be included in software bundles for sale.
The license is considered free by the
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...
(FSF)
and the
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 ...
project.
Although the license requires fonts to be bundled with software when sold, FSF states that this requirement is harmless because it can be satisfied with a simple
hello world program
Hello is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is first attested in writing from 1826.
Early uses
''Hello'', with that spelling, was used in publications in the U.S. as early as the 18 October 1826 edition of the '' Norwich Cou ...
.
See also
*
GPL font exception
*
Ubuntu Font License
References
External links
SIL Open Font License version 1.1SIL Open Font License FAQLinux.com: SIL Open Font License revised
{{Free and open-source typography
Free and open-source software licenses
Copyleft software licenses