Author Topic: Unicode Images on Firefox  (Read 7717 times)

Martin Iturbide

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Unicode Images on Firefox
« on: July 16, 2018, 11:04:32 pm »
Hi

Does anybody know what can be missing on the Firefox port or OS/2 to be able to display the Unicode fonts from this page:
http://xahlee.info/comp/unicode_index.html

Some are showing and the majority does not show. Is it something that is missing on OS/2's Unicode? Any idea or comment which component need to be update and how hard can it be so this will show?

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Martin Iturbide
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Dave Yeo

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2018, 01:36:04 am »
You need the fonts installed. I just installed http://xahlee.info/comp/i/Symbola.zip and now all the fonts except one display.
To install, you can do it the regular way or copy them to a directory which fontconfig checks for fonts and run fc-cache -f and then restart the browser.
Fontconfig uses @UNIXROOT/etc/fonts/fonts.conf to read where the fonts are installed, including the special OS2FONTDIR, which actually reads the ini files to get the installed fonts.
I added a line,
Code: [Select]
<dir>e:/psfonts</dir> under the Font directory list area to pick up all the fonts that I installed under Warp v4 when we were first getting mzfntcfgft to work.
fc-list will list the fonts that fontconfig sees, best to pipe it to less or a file,
Code: [Select]
fc-list | less
« Last Edit: July 17, 2018, 01:48:16 am by Dave Yeo »

xynixme

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2018, 08:24:31 am »
There's also http://unifoundry.com/unifont.html (GNU Unifont). I had to use Wget to actually download the whole largest TTF file.

And http://xahlee.info/comp/unicode_egyptian_hieroglyph.html. Presumably this will cover the single missing one.
« Last Edit: July 17, 2018, 09:29:30 am by André Heldoorn »

Martin Iturbide

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2018, 09:55:48 pm »
Thanks. For the moment I tried Symbola and it seems to work fine.

 ☺ ☻ 😃 😄 😅 😆 😊 😎 😇 😈 😋 😏 😌 😁 😀 😂 🤣 🤠 🤡 🤑
« Last Edit: July 17, 2018, 10:08:46 pm by Martin Iturbide »
Martin Iturbide
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Martin Iturbide

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2018, 11:37:05 pm »
Hi

Symbola worked fine with me (It also says is it free for any kind of use). I also use it in Quassel IRC client and I can also see the Unicode characters on the chat.
GNU Unifont didn't work for Quassel yet.

For the Egyptian Hieroglyph  page  I installed  AbydosFont.zip as it says on the page and it is working.

Thanks
« Last Edit: July 17, 2018, 11:42:45 pm by Martin Iturbide »
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Dave Yeo

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2018, 01:00:31 am »
Actually if you look at the included PDF and click the licence URL, Symbola is only free to use for personal use. http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/License.pdf is linked from http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/ which is linked from the included PDF.
I hate licensing like this as the PDF says one thing and the authours web site says something else.

edit: It may be that the earlier versions such as 9.17 linked from http://xahlee.info/comp/unicode_index.html is free for any use whereas the newest version 11 is not. Still not very clear and I'm sure Arca Noae for example wouldn't carry them without more clear licensing.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2018, 01:04:37 am by Dave Yeo »

Martin Iturbide

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2018, 04:17:01 am »
I hate licensing like this as the PDF says one thing and the authours web site says something else.

You are right. Licensing should be clear, open and free for any use, otherwise there is risk.
It may be interesting to keep looking around, the GNU Unifont is nice but Symbola is working better for me.

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xynixme

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2018, 11:16:03 am »
Quote
the GNU Unifont is nice but Symbola is working better for me.

Why? Better looking? Same quality but smaller file (without noticing missing characters IRL)?

FWIW, the unread license and presumed open sourcing was the single reason to mention the GNU one. And larger may imply more supported, possibly obscure characters.

If someone is going to wrap Unicode font files in a WPI file by using an existing WarpIN script (easy) which uses INSTFONT.EXE, then please consider that some users may only want such a large and rarely used file in fonts.conf but not in their OS2*.INI file (harder, and the FC-CACHE.EXE command takes its time to complete).

"Too. Many. Fonts..." breaks at least one IBM EWS legacy app, IIRC.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2018, 11:26:01 am by André Heldoorn »

Joop

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #8 on: July 21, 2018, 07:17:11 pm »
I hate licensing like this as the PDF says one thing and the authours web site says something else.

You are right. Licensing should be clear, open and free for any use, otherwise there is risk.
It may be interesting to keep looking around, the GNU Unifont is nice but Symbola is working better for me.

Regards
License??? There is no license. Download a docx file from Word. Open the file with File Commander/2 or similar, because it is not a docx but a zip file with a different name. In it all kinds of stuff including the used fonts in the document. The document itself can be found as an rtf file. So Mickey Mouse can say what they want, if they mean it serious then they heave to remove the fonts out of there docx files. As it is allowed to share documents made with the program Word with someone else that "someone else" person automatic get the used fonts in order to get the document right when he/she opens the document with Word or an other program which support the docx format. Save the font somewhere else and you can use it everywhere. My view.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2018, 07:21:28 pm by Joop »

Dave Yeo

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #9 on: July 21, 2018, 07:33:45 pm »
Well depending on jurisdiction, that would probably be considered fair use and/or slide by as being none commercial, which the license allows.
There's also the point that it is usually only if the copyright owner decides to sue or prosecute that copyright comes into play.
The problem comes if someone like Arca Noae starts including the fonts (version licensed for non-commercial use) in ArcaOS and the author doesn't like that. Even if Arca Noae could win, it's a big hassle and likely expensive to go to court and America has some pretty draconian copyright laws.
One way around it could be for Arca Noae to have a script that when clicked, pointed out the license, and if the user agrees, download and install the fonts.

xynixme

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #10 on: July 22, 2018, 05:16:08 pm »
Quote
Save the font somewhere else and you can use it everywhere.

Technically yes, legally no. Apparently you have to unpack another file to obtain a part a font file. The full context is:

Quote
Microsoft Word allows you to embed a TrueType font in a Word document so that you can view and edit the font, if licensing rights allow.

The single fact that you can delete the voice of a Happy Birthday-recording (or the RTF component of a DOCX file) doesn't imply that the song Happy Birthday (or a TTF file) is free.

(Happy Birthday is free of copyrights by now, but only because Warner Music paid $14 mln.)

Embedded DOCX files: "if licensing rights allow", according to Microsoft.

Martin Iturbide

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2018, 06:08:45 pm »
Hi

Just to summarize the fonts discussed here:

1) Symbola version 9.17, July 2017 (Created by George Douros) seem that it was free for any use.  (Source)
2) Symbola Version v.11.00; June 2018  (Also by George Douros) has a "Free for personal use" license according to the site (Source)
It looks to me that the author changed it license with time, since you can go back in time into his website and see it was a different license.

Lesson learn: Try to get fonts with formal open licenses like the "SIL Open Font License" (OFL) or GNU GPL fonts. I will try to make "GNU Unifont Glyphs" work with Quassel (or find some other open font) and be happy with that.

Regards
Martin Iturbide
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Joop

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #12 on: July 22, 2018, 06:56:25 pm »
Quote
Microsoft Word allows you to embed a TrueType font in a Word document so that you can view and edit the font, if licensing rights allow.
Excuse me, I don't have a choice to embed or not to embed a TrueType font i a Word document, its all done automatically by Microsoft package Word. By doing so you give up "allow" and you give up a part of the license in using it because sender and receiver of the file don't have the choice to include or exclude that part.

xynixme

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #13 on: July 22, 2018, 08:04:13 pm »
Quote
Excuse me, I don't have a choice to embed or not to embed a TrueType font in a Word document
Possibly an opinion instead of valid legal arguments. You're not excused. You have the choice to not use DOCX. Even if you are forced to use DOCX, then you still have the choice to not use a (specific) font which license doesn't allow you to distribute it as a font. And this is hardly relevant anyway.

If you've obtained my UNICODE.DOCX, which includes a font protected by copyrights (allowing you to read it, just like you can read a newspaper which uses a copyrighted font) and which requires you to perform an unusual unzip operation to obtain the font as such, then you're guilty of heling, in your jurisdiction. Even here your arguments are showing that you are aware of copyrighted fonts, so you should check before blaming the author of UNICODE.DOCX (or the seller of a cheap bicycle, you know that bicycles aren't cheap and you know that fonts can be copyrighted).

Perhaps the worst bit is that Microsoft's "solution" makes it easy to distribute fonts, according to your interesting UNZIP option. Nevertheless Microsoft is a good source for what's allowed. Do not distribute used fonts which are copyrighted. Please...

Joop

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Re: Unicode Images on Firefox
« Reply #14 on: July 22, 2018, 08:45:06 pm »
Quote
Excuse me, I don't have a choice to embed or not to embed a TrueType font in a Word document
Possibly an opinion instead of valid legal arguments. You're not excused. You have the choice to not use DOCX. Even if you are forced to use DOCX, then you still have the choice to not use a (specific) font which license doesn't allow you to distribute it as a font. And this is hardly relevant anyway.
Shrink wrap solutions, which is the Microsoft system, is forbidden in my country. So, it will be no windows in that case. I don't have any knowledge about which fonts are protected and which might be used free in the Microsoft operating environment. Nor do I have the choice to reject the OS as I have to work with it and with it have to work with a package like Word. In the list of available fonts is no information what font is free and what does have restrictions if you have to compose a file which is for someone else. Privately I have the trouble that as receiver of text files that the sender does not know how to choose a different format. So its docx, and as I can't process this it will be the choice of what can I do or sent the file back, sometimes the last is no option due to the lack of skills on that side.

If you've obtained my UNICODE.DOCX,
Have no knowledge of this file and I'm not interested, so hold your horses.

Nevertheless Microsoft is a good source for what's allowed.
Lots of things which you call "allowed" are not legal in my country. But no one want to loose money and is waiting for years of visiting courts, so Microsoft thinks that it can do what it does, but that does not mean that it is legal.

Do not distribute used fonts which are copyrighted. Please...
I never distribute anything from which it is not clear if it is allowed to redistribute.