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Bitstream Vera in Medium Weight
Posted by yury90 in
29 Dec 2009 — 6:42am
29 Dec 2009 — 6:42am
Hi everyone,
If the following Bitstream’s Vera font (please see below image) is said as Roman weight, can anyone please tell me where I can get/purchase the original/genuine Bitstream’s Vera font in Medium weight?
Thanks in advance
Yury
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29 Dec 2009 — 6:48am
Vera is a renamed open source version of Bitstream Prima. Doesn't look like there was a medium...
http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/bitstream/prima-sans/
29 Dec 2009 — 12:25pm
"closely based on Bitstream's Prima": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitstream_Vera
AFAIK you are allowed, according to the Vera font license, to make your own medium weight, as long as you don't call it Vera $SOMETHING. The Fontographer "Blend Fonts" feature comes in handy for that (use normal and bold weight). Check your Vera license to see exactly what you are allowed to (IANAL). Andreas
29 Dec 2009 — 3:38pm
Better yet, you could do it with Deja Vu Sans (another Vera derivative http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DejaVu_fonts) and share it back with the world! :-)
That said, you can try to obtain a "medium" look just adding a thin stroke to the regular weight using the desktop publishing app of your choice.
4 Jan 2010 — 11:32am
@sii
>Vera is a renamed open source version of Bitstream Prima.
I was always curious as to how and when this came about.
An act of largesse? Or what?
Can you shed any light?
rich
4 Jan 2010 — 11:55am
The press release announcing the Vera fonts is still on the Gnome website.
4 Jan 2010 — 12:06pm
Historically Prima was to have been Netscape's answer to Verdana. Also noteworthy, the Vera hinting was downgraded from that in the original font.
I've no idea what if anything Gnome paid for the fonts, although the positioning suggests that Gnome is donating them to the OS cause, rather than Bitstream, just as Red Hat and Google get credit for Liberation and Droid, rather than Ascender.
6 Jan 2010 — 8:32am
@sii and Gerry K,
Thanks for the info. Interesting.
As far as credit - I would suppose, them's who paid to make the font or bought the rights, get the right to decide on licensing and labeling.
I like Droid a lot.
Liberation, Red Hat should send back to Ascender so they can finish up the kerning and hinting. (Not a big fan of that one. At least Liberation Serif haven't looked carefully at Sans.)
6 Jan 2010 — 10:11am
>Liberation, Red Hat should send back to Ascender so they can finish up the kerning and hinting.
Fixing the kerning would be hard, as it's a font intended to be a metric replacement for Times New Roman - which means you're kind of stuck with TNR's metrics. Re the hinting most (all?) Linux distros avoid using hints due the Apple patents - maybe when they expire things will be different.