Add Computer Modern family

[sivapvarma]

Computer Modern is the family of typefaces developed by Donald Knuth for TeX. It would be awesome to have these available in Google Fonts.

SIL OFL v1.1 TTF files are available from Computer Modern Unicode project on SourceForge. TTF files are also available from CTAN though the license there is not clear to me.

This page is good example of how Computer Modern looks on web pages. It also gives more details about the family.

[sambaldwin]

+1

[sivapvarma]

Is there a timeline by which these might be added to google fonts ?

[davelab6]

Is there a timeline by which these might be added to google fonts ?

No, I can't comment on timelines

[hoke-t]

Any status on this?

[davelab6]

Will bump it up in priority, but I can't comment on specific timeline

[hoke-t]

Thanks!

[BafS]

Any new information about this font family ? This PR #1129 is also related but was never merged.

[EklavyaFCB]

Please add this font.

[MadcowD]

Bump!

[ramyalsharif]

An open issue for about 9 months now. What's the problem?

I like making diagrams in Google Docs, because the diagram editor is awesome, however, I write my articles in LaTeX, and so for consistency, I need this font in Google Fonts.

"Quick or Urgent but not Important" is subjective here, please get it done.

I see atleast 62 people here that want this, and 0 that don't.

[m4rc1e]

@ramyalsharif Google Fonts only serves ttfs. Computer Modern only has pfb and otf, http://cm-unicode.sourceforge.net/download.html. We would need to build our own ttfs. It's not as simple as git push.

[BafS]

@m4rc1e the PR #1129 uses ttfs.

[m4rc1e]

@BafS Thanks, do you know where these came from or how they were converted?

I've just had a quick look. In order for us to host them, we'll need to change the name table so it complies with our internal api.

[BafS]

@m4rc1e Okay I see, unfortunately I do not know where they come from. Maybe the author of the PR, @davidgiven, can answer ?

[davidgiven]

The PR has a DESCRIPTION.en_us.html which points to http://canopus.iacp.dvo.ru/~panov/cm-unicode/index.html --- let me know if need more documentation.

[m4rc1e]

@davidgiven Did you build the ttfs yourself? the site only has otf, pfb.

If so, it would be nice to hear what you did. Also, thanks for the pr!

[davidgiven]

No, I just pulled them from the linked site and packaged them, which was the most official distribution source for Unicode-converted all-in-one TTF fonts I could find. They were generated by rendering the TeX fonts to a bitmap and then tracing them. I believe a certain amount of manual work was involved.

The last version of the TTF fonts released was in 2009, so I suspect we don't need to worry about upgrades.

[idupree]

That page links to the Sourceforge download page for cm-unicode which does list TTF https://sourceforge.net/projects/cm-unicode/files/cm-unicode/0.7.0/

[m4rc1e]

@idupree @davidgiven Thank you both so much for the extra details.

I'll update the name tables so we can serve them. Once I do the pr, they'll need approval before they get on boarded.

[rocifier]

+1

[varma443]

Please add this font.

[danijar]

I had a chat with Dave from the Google fonts team. Here is what needs to be done (#1129 (comment)):

someone needs to demonstrate the complete set of copyright holders (a) agree to the work being OFL and (b) agree to drop the RFN. So the next step is to research who the copyright holders are, and be in touch with them.

RFN refers to Reserved Font Name, with some explanation here.

If anybody is able to help with finding the copyright holders and can contact them, we can move forward with this. Getting the fonts into Google Docs lets to greater popularity of the fonts, so I think there is a good chance that the copyright holders will be supportive of this effort.

[delip]

According to this site <https://www.checkmyworking.com/cm-web-fonts/> (with the font files): "These fonts are released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 <https://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=OFL>, so you can basically use them wherever you like." Does that allow use in Google Docs?

…

On Mon, May 16, 2022 at 2:34 PM Danijar Hafner ***@***.***> wrote: I had a chat with Dave from the Google fonts team. Here is what needs to be done (#1129 (comment) <#1129 (comment)>): someone needs to demonstrate the complete set of copyright holders (a) agree to the work being OFL and (b) agree to drop the RFN. So the next step is to research who the copyright holders are, and be in touch with them. RFN refers to Reserved Font Name, with some explanation here <https://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?site_id=nrsi&id=OFL_web_fonts_and_RFNs> . If anybody is able to help with finding the copyright holders and can contact them, we can move forward with this. Getting the fonts into Google Docs lets to greater popularity of the fonts, so I think there is a good chance that the copyright holders will be supportive of this effort. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#288 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AACU2BW2S4R5N7NXJQTFQKTVKKILPANCNFSM4CIC5B7A> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[mguzm4n]

Please add Computer Modern

[cheznewa]

Just An Info ::::::: There A Font Better Than Computer Modern (More Glyphs) Called New Computer Modern But In A Licence GFL So Maybe Non-Compatible With Google Fonts.

[danijar]

The GFL license doesn't work so we can't add Latin Modern (unless the creators would grant us a different license).

The SIL license works, so the best option is the cm-unicode package.

It's also available in common file formats (also under SIL) like @delip said.

I'll talk to Dave to see if we can get started on importing this, fingers crossed!

[davelab6]

It seems @christianp has published https://www.checkmyworking.com/cm-web-fonts/ and this is probably the best version of CM to use; @christianp claims the fonts are available under OFL terms, and is actively maintaining them for the web, and maybe I've been too heavy handed with insistence on demonstrations of the complete set of copyright holders agreeing to the work being OFL.

@christianp, https://github.com/google/fonts/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md and https://googlefonts.github.io/gf-guide explain that we require sources to build with fontmake in a public source control system, and your web page doesn't appear to have a link to such a thing, and https://github.com/christianp?tab=repositories&q=cm also has no results. Would you be willing to maintain the project on Github?

[christianp]

@davelab6 I wouldn't say I actively maintain it - I don't think I've done anything with them since I first created them.

All I did was to run the TTF fonts provided by the cm-unicode project through FontSquirrel.

[twardoch]

I think https://www.gust.org.pl/projects/e-foundry/latin-modern would likely be the best implementation of Computer Modern. It's been well-tested by the TeX community and yet has been sensibly modernized to OpenType.

Next Staurday I'll have the chance to talk to the maintainers, and hopefully we'll finally get this OFL licensing in addition to LPPL.

[twardoch]

BTW, I've analyzed it carefully a few years ago and found that OFL is fully compatible with GFL & LPPL, that is, anyone can fork an LPPL or GFL-licensed font and publish it under OFL.

But it'll still be simpler to get GUST to license the fonts under OFL. Covid has complicated matters because this year at GUST (of which I happen to be temporary president, but don't read much into it), we're skipping our annual BachoTeX conference for the third year in a row. The conference has been a key platform for topic conversations.

But fortunately the coming Saturday, there will be a smaller event that the key players will attend. I'll do my best to ensure that the GUST fonts are soon re-published under dual licenses (GFL+OFL). I also know there's work to put the GUST font sources in Github.

[danijar]

@davelab6 Just to confirm, we can't use OTF directly (as provided by cm-unicode)?

[anthezium]

+1, please add, so I can use Google slides figures in my dissertation!

[AlvaroMuradyan]

+1, still waiting to see the best font in google docs, i hope you can also write latex with it, or at least ur equations thing, and maybe add matrices too?

[danijar]

Those would be cool but completely separate features. Let's not complicate this more than needed for now. Having just the CM font family would already be an important step.

[albertqi]

+1, this would be an amazing font to have!

[prayerie]

+1, please add :)

[uN4sh]

+1, we still believe!

[aalok-sathe]

+1

[applecuckoo]

Hello all! Feel free to react with a like in the top post, just reduces all the thread clutter in this issue.

[anthezium]

does whatever metric you use to track interest care about the rate of interest over time? if so, does liking the top post provide the same information for tracking interest over time that clicking like on the top post does?

…

On Sat, Nov 26, 2022, 11:29 applecuckoo ***@***.***> wrote: Hello all! Feel free to react with a like in the top post, just reduces all the thread clutter in this issue. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#288 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAESJ7E2KH5HV5WAJS2TW73WKJQI5ANCNFSM4CIC5B7A> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[sylvaticus]

Maybe they don't give a s...t to academic users that use LateX or like LateX-like fonts :-) :-)

[MadcowD]

Hi all, I am writing to express my support for the addition of the Computer Modern family to Google Fonts. As a professor of computer science, I use this font in many of my lectures and assignments, and I know that many of my students would benefit from having access to it. I hope that this request is taken seriously and implemented soon. Sincerely, William Guss

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On Sat, Dec 24, 2022 at 9:14 AM Antonello Lobianco ***@***.***> wrote: Maybe they don't give a s...t to academic users that use LateX or like LateX-like fonts :-) :-) — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#288 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAFPVLZTH2Y3O7PQAKH7JXDWO4VPRANCNFSM4CIC5B7A> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[tiroj]

@twardoch What’s the status on this? Any movement on the GUST front? If it might be useful—and if some funding were located—I’d be up for porting Computer Modern into the build stream that we used for the STIX Two fonts.

[PaoloLuciano]

This would save me DAYS of work for my thesis instead of creating the figures in Tiks
Pleaaaseee

[alexec]

What font is a good approximation for Computer Modern and is supported?

[alexec]

Robot Serif:

Spectral light:

[danijar]

@twardoch What was the outcome of this?

Either way, cm-unicode is available under SIL, so I don't see any issues here. @davelab6 could we proceed with importing these?

[davelab6]

@danijar We can't use OTF directly (as provided by cm-unicode), because GF requires TTF; in cases where TTFs are available, we can indeed just stuff them into the GF system, making an exception to our current policy requirements - mainly that there be OFL without RFN licensing, plus sources and a build script in some version control system, so that as bugs are found, the step required to make a source patch and rebuild is not too tall - hotfixing binary TTFs is undesirable as it is risks regressions.

Here, TTFs are available from https://sourceforge.net/projects/cm-unicode/files/cm-unicode/0.7.0/ (@tiroj not sure why you saw only the FTP link, I guess maybe just Sourceforge's poor UI :) However in the TTF zip available there, the OFL has RFN, and its very broad:

Copyright (C) Authors of original metafont fonts:
Donald Ervin Knuth (cm, concrete fonts)
1995, 1996, 1997 J"org Knappen, 1990, 1992 Norbert Schwarz (ec fonts)
1992-2006 A.Khodulev, O.Lapko, A.Berdnikov, V.Volovich (lh fonts)
1997-2005 Claudio Beccari (cb greek fonts)
2002 FUKUI Rei (tipa fonts)
2003-2005 Han The Thanh (Vietnamese fonts)
1996-2005 Walter Schmidt (cmbright fonts)

Copyright (C) 2003-2009, Andrey V. Panov (panov@canopus.iacp.dvo.ru),
with Reserved Font Family Name "Computer Modern Unicode fonts".

So we need Andrey to drop the RFN, or publish them with a hotfix rename that doesn't include the words Computer, Modern, unicode or fonts...

Sadly then #288 (comment) also confirms the github repo we were looking at is indeed also in the "TTFs requiring hotfixing" state, and the RFN retention is something I'd want to see verified... so, we are back to a situation where there are no source files or upstream actively maintained project by the libre font community - While @tiroj 's offer to be commissioned to use the STIX build process is welcome, currently the GF team have no intention to fund such work.

If @twardoch can indeed get GUST to release their version freshly under OFL with sources and build script and no RFN, that would be a large step towards getting the CM fonts into Google Fonts, with GUST as a reputable active upstream maintainer.

@alexec the most similar are probably Playfair Display and Old Standard TT?

@AlvaroMuradyan try https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/autolatex_equations/850293439076 or other searches for Workspace LaTeX plugins :)

[MDNich]

+1

[lgrawet]

You might prefer NewComputerModern these days...
Download here and documentation there.

The NewComputerModern FontFamily is a huge extension (“huge” in terms
of the number of additional glyphs) of the lm fonts. It is not just a family
adding random missing glyphs but it adds support for several more languages
and shapes needed for academic (and not only) work.