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GENTIUM-FAQ |
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Gentium Basic Release 1.102 |
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28 November 2013 |
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======================== |
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Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about the Gentium fonts: |
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General |
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======== |
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How do you pronounce Gentium? |
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The preferred pronunciation is with a soft G as in 'general', not a |
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hard one as in 'gold': JEN-tee-oom. |
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What is GentiumAlt? |
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It is a version of the font with redesigned diacritics (flatter |
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ones) to make it more suitable for use with stacking diacritics, and |
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for languages such as Vietnamese. The Greek glyphs also use the |
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Porsonic (single-curve) design for the circumflex. Since the main |
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Gentium fonts do not currently include any 'smart' rendering routines, |
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there is no easy way to access these alternate diacritic shapes from |
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within the regular Gentium font. The encoding of the fonts are the same, |
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so the same text can be viewed with either one. There is also no |
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problem with having both font families installed at the same time. |
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Licensing |
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========= |
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I want to use Gentium in my publication - can I? |
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Gentium is released under the SIL Open Font License, which permits use |
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for any publication, whether electronic or printed. For more answers |
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to use questions see the OFL-FAQ. The license, alongside information |
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specific to Gentium, is in the release package. |
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|
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I would like to bundle Gentium with my application - can I? |
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This is our most common question. The SIL Open Font License allows |
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bundling with applications, even commercial ones, with some restrictions. |
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See the OFL file. |
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Can I use the font on my web site? |
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You can certainly create web pages that request that Gentium be used to |
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display them (if that font is available on the user's system). According |
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to the license, you are even allowed to place the font on your site for |
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people to download it. We would strongly recommend, however, that you |
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direct users to our site to download the font. This ensures that they |
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are always using the most recent version with bug fixes, etc. To make |
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this easier, we've simplified the URL for Gentium: |
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http://scripts.sil.org/gentium |
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Is Gentium going to stay free? |
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There is no intention to ever charge users for using Gentium. The |
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current version is licensed under a free/open license and future |
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versions will be similar. |
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Modification |
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============ |
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I would like to modify Gentium to add a couple of characters I need. Can I? |
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Yes - that is allowed as long as you abide by the conditions of the |
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SIL Open Font License. |
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So will you add glyphs upon request? |
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If you have a special symbol that you need (say, for a particular |
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transcription system), the best means of doing so will be to ensure |
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that the symbol makes it into the Unicode Standard. It is impossible |
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for us to add every glyph that every person desires, but we do place |
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a high priority on adding pretty much anything that falls in certain |
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Unicode ranges (extended Latin, Greek, Cyrillic). You can send us your |
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requests, but please understand that we are unlikely to add symbols |
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where the user base is very small, unless they have been accepted |
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into Unicode. |
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Can I send you work I've done to be incorporated into Gentium? |
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Yes! See the FONTLOG for information on becoming a contributor. |
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Technical |
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========= |
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Can you help me get Gentium working on my system? |
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We cannot afford to offer individual technical support. The best |
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resource is this website, where we hope to offer some limited help. |
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However, we do want to hear of any problems you encounter, so that |
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we can add them to the list of bugs to fix in later releases. |
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Our contact address is <gentium AT sil DOT org>. Please understand |
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that we cannot guarantee a personal response. |
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I can't find all the extended Latin letters in the font. How do I type them? |
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Gentium is Unicode-encoded, which means that the computer stores a |
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special, unique code for each letter in your document. Since most |
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keyboards do not have hundreds of keys, special software is needed |
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in order to type the hundreds of special characters supported by the |
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font. |
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I can't find the 'o with right hook' in the font. Where is it? |
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Combinations of base letters with diacritics are often called |
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composite, or pre-composed glyphs. Gentium has hundreds of these |
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(the ones that are included in Unicode). There are, however, many |
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common combinations that are not represented by a single composite. |
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It is possible to enter these into a document, but only as |
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individual components. So 'o with right hook' would be entered as |
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'o', then 'right hook'. Although this may not look very good in some |
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cases, we're not able to anticipate every possible combination. |
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Future versions of Gentium will include 'smart font' support for |
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technologies such as OpenType and SIL's Graphite. This will make |
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diacritic positioning much better. The Gentium Basic fonts do, |
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however, include limited support for both OpenType and Graphite, |
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and demonstrate the type of support that will eventually be provided. |
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Some diacritics are not aligning well with base glyphs, and if I type more |
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than one diacritic, they run into each other. Why is that? |
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Gentium currently has no 'smart font' code for automatic diacritic |
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positioning, but the Gentium Basic fonts do, and similar support will |
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appear in the main fonts in the near future. |
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How do I type the Greek letters? |
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You need a Unicode-compatible keyboarding system, which is not |
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included in the distribution package. |
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I'm having problems making PDFs -- why won't my document distill? |
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Gentium is a large font, with lots of glyphs. As a result, some |
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printers can balk at PDFs that have the complete font embedded. The |
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easiest way to avoid this is to have Acrobat/Distiller subset the |
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font. This is generally a good idea anyway (with any font) and can |
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reduce the size of your files. |
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Basic |
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===== |
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How are the Basic fonts (Gentium Basic, Gentium Book Basic) different |
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from Gentium? |
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These font families are based on the original Gentium design, but with |
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additional weights. Both families come with a complete regular, bold, |
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italic and bold italic set of fonts. The supported character set, |
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however, is much smaller than for the main Gentium fonts. These |
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'Basic' fonts support only the Basic Latin and Latin-1 Supplement |
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Unicode ranges, plus a selection of the more commonly used extended |
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Latin characters, with miscellaneous diacritical marks, symbols and |
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punctuation. In particular, these fonts do not support full extended |
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Latin IPA, complete support for Central European languages, Greek and |
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Cyrillic. |
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What is the Book weight? |
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It is a complete second font family that is slightly heavier overall, |
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and more useful for some purposes. The main Gentium family will |
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eventually have a complete matching Book weight, along with matching |
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italics. |
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Why is the line spacing greater for the Basic fonts? |
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In some environments, stacked diacritics in Gentium could display as |
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'chopped-off'. Gentium Basic has slightly wider default line spacing |
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in order to avoid this problem. Most applications do, however, let you |
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set the line spacing explicitly, so you can have the lines spaced |
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precisely as you wish. |
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Will you be accepting requests for additions to the Basic character set? |
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No. We are now focusing our development efforts on the main Gentium |
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fonts, which already provide richer character set support. |
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Is there an Alt version of the Basic fonts? |
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No, although you may notice that capitals and some tall lowercase |
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letters do use 'low-profile' versions. |
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Future |
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====== |
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Now that SIL International has taken over Gentium, who will be the next |
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designer? |
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Victor Gaultney will remain as primary designer, but Annie Olsen, a |
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fellow type designer from the SIL Non-Roman Script Initiative, has |
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joined the project team. She is a former calligraphy teacher, and is |
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well suited for the task. Other members of the NRSI team will also |
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add their expertise in technical matters. |
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Do you plan to include other typographic enhancements (small caps, old style |
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figures, etc.)? |
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Those would be nice, wouldn't they? From a design point of view, |
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it would be great to have these refinements, and we haven't ruled |
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them out. But there are other needs that are much higher priority |
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(Bold, Cyrillic, etc.). If you think you could contribute some of |
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your time and effort to these enhancements, see the FONTLOG file for |
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information on becoming a contributor. |
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What about bold? |
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The Gentium Basic fonts include Bold and Bold Italic versions. The |
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main Gentium fonts will also include them in the future. |
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Sans-serif? |
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There is a definite need for a sans-serif font that shares some of |
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Gentium's strengths -- high readability, economy of space, etc. It |
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would also be great if that font also harmonized well with Gentium. |
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We don't currently have any plans for a companion face, although one |
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of our other projects - Andika - may be useful. Andika is a sans-serif |
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font designed specifically for use in literacy programs around the |
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world, and is available from our web site. |
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Will you be extending Gentium to cover other scripts, and Hebrew in |
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particular? |
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It is very unlikely that we would do this, as there are so many |
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pressing needs in Latin, Greek and Cyrillic scripts. But you could |
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contribute to the project. |
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When will Cyrillic be completed? |
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As soon as we can get it done, but it is still a few months away. |
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I need a couple of ancient Greek glyphs, such as the digamma. When will |
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those be ready? |
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These have already been designed and will be in the next main release. |
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Will there be a Type 1 version? What about OpenType? |
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The next generation of Gentium will have OpenType, Graphite and AAT |
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support. We do not plan to produce Type 1 versions at this time, but |
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please write us if this is important (and tell us why). We are, however, |
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considering releasing a version in OT-CFF format, but it will not go |
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through the same careful testing as the standard OT/Graphite/AAT version. |
