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<!doctype html><html lang=en><head><meta charset=utf-8><title>History</title> <meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><meta name=generator content="Hugo 0.120.4"><meta name=description content="SIL Open Font License"><link rel=stylesheet href=https://openfontlicense.org/plugins/bootstrap/bootstrap.min.css><link rel=stylesheet href=https://openfontlicense.org/plugins/themify-icons/themify-icons.css><link rel=icon href=../images/favicon.png type=image/x-icon><link rel=preconnect href=https://fonts.googleapis.com><link rel=preconnect href=https://fonts.gstatic.com crossorigin><link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Merriweather:ital,wght@0,400;0,700;1,400;1,700&display=swap" rel=stylesheet><script src=https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/pdf.js/2.9.359/pdf.min.js></script><script src=https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/html2pdf.js/0.9.3/html2pdf.bundle.js></script><style>:root{--primary-color:#005CB9;--secondary-color:#00A7E1;--body-color:#f9f9f9;--text-color:#111111;--text-color-dark:#000000;--text-color-light:#333333;--white-color:#ffffff;--light-color:#00A7E1;--primary-light-color:#89A8CC;--secondary-light-color:#97DAF5;--font-family:Merriweather}</style><link href=https://openfontlicense.org/css/style.min.css rel=stylesheet media=screen><script src=https://openfontlicense.org/plugins/jquery/jquery-1.12.4.js></script><script src=https://openfontlicense.org/plugins/jquery/jquery-ui.js></script><script src=https://openfontlicense.org/plugins/bootstrap/bootstrap.min.js></script><script src=https://openfontlicense.org/plugins/match-height/jquery.matchHeight-min.js></script><meta property="og:image" content="https://openfontlicense.org/images/OFL23-Bluebig.png"><meta name=twitter:image content="https://openfontlicense.org/images/OFL23-Bluebig.png"><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta property="og:image:width" content="512"><meta property="og:image:height" content="512"><meta property="og:image:type" content="image/png"><meta name=twitter:title content="History"><meta name=twitter:description content="The website of the SIL Open Font License"><meta property="og:title" content="History"><meta property="og:description" content="The website of the SIL Open Font License"><meta property="og:type" content="website"><meta property="og:url" content="https://openfontlicense.org/history/"><meta name=twitter:card content="summary"><meta name=twitter:title content="History"><meta name=twitter:description content="The website of the SIL Open Font License"></head><body><header class="banner overlay bg-cover" data-background=https://openfontlicense.org/images/Blue-Glyph-Pattern.png><nav class="navbar navbar-expand-md navbar-light"><div class="container px-2 px-md-0"><a class="navbar-brand px-2" href=../><img class=img-fluid src=https://openfontlicense.org/images/OFL23-Bluef32alt.png alt="SIL Open Font License"> SIL Open Font License </a><button class="navbar-toggler border-0" type=button data-toggle=collapse data-target=#navigation aria-controls=navigation aria-expanded=false aria-label="Toggle navigation"> <span class=navbar-toggler-icon></span></button><div class="collapse navbar-collapse text-center" id=navigation><ul class="navbar-nav ml-auto"><li class=nav-item><a class="nav-link text-dark" href=https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/>OFL Text</a></li><li class=nav-item><a class="nav-link text-dark" href=https://openfontlicense.org/how-to-use-the-ofl/>How</a></li><li class=nav-item><a class="nav-link text-dark" href=https://openfontlicense.org/why-use-the-ofl/>Why</a></li><li class=nav-item><a class="nav-link text-dark" href=https://openfontlicense.org/ofl-fonts/>Fonts</a></li><li class=nav-item><a class="nav-link text-dark" href=https://openfontlicense.org/history/>History</a></li></ul></div></div></nav></header><section class="single section-sm pt-3 pb-0"><div class=container><div class=row><div class=col-lg-12><div class="px-4 pt-3 pb-4 bg-white" id=content><i class="ti-agenda icon text-primary d-block mb-4"></i><h2 class="mb-4 text-primary" id=title>History</h2><div class=content><h3 id=timeline>Timeline</h3><p>The OFL has been around for quite a while - <em>it’s been almost two decades since the first release back in 2005</em> - so it’s fair to say that it has taken on a life of its own. Here are some of the most significant events from the past few years <em>(in reverse chronological order)</em>:<br> </p><div class=timeline><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>November: New OFL website at openfontlicense.org</div><div class=description id=description><p>A redesigned website at <a href=https://openfontlicense.org>openfontlicense.org</a> is launched. There is no change to the license itself, only improved documentation and guidance. It replaces the now retired website at <em>scripts.sil.org/OFL</em>.</p></div></div><div class=date>2023</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>November: OFL-FAQ updated with new entries: version 1.1-update7</div><div class=description id=description></div></div><div class=date>2023</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>October: Google Fonts contains over 1500 font families, almost all under the OFL</div><div class=description id=description><p>The <a href=https://fonts.google.com>Google Fonts</a> service has now published over 1500 font families, the vast majority commissioned and <a href=https://github.com/google/fonts/tree/main/ofl>released under the OFL</a>.</p></div></div><div class=date>2023</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>December: OFL-FAQ updated with new entries: version 1.1-update6</div><div class=description id=description></div></div><div class=date>2020</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>October: ATypI 2020 All Over, a virtual event: Q&A about open fonts</div><div class=description id=description><p><a href=https://atypi.org/presentation/qa-session-contributing-to-the-commons-what-why-and-how/>Q&A Session: Contributing to the Commons: What, Why, and How?</a> ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) Q&A session moderated by Dave Crossland.</p></div></div><div class=date>2020</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>October: LT4all poster session at UNESCO about the OFL</div><div class=description id=description><p>Poster about open fonts produced by SIL International under the OFL is presented at the <a href=https://en.unesco.org/LT4All>LT4all (Language Technologies for all) conference at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)</a> in Paris, France. This conference took place as part of the <a href=https://en.iyil2019.org/>International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL)</a>. Later 2022-2032 was proclaimed the <a href=https://www.sil.org/idil>International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL)</a> by the United Nations and its partners.</p></div></div><div class=date>2019</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>April: OFL-FAQ updated with new entries: version 1.1-update5</div><div class=description id=description></div></div><div class=date>2017</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>September: Google re-licenses the Noto project under the OFL</div><div class=description id=description><p>The large-scope <a href=https://fonts.google.com/noto>Noto</a> font collection designed to cover all of Unicode is re-released and re-licensed under the OFL, having originally been released under the Apache license.</p></div></div><div class=date>2015</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>October: ATypI 2013 in Amsterdam: presentation about open fonts</div><div class=description id=description><p><a href=https://atypi.org/presentation/open-and-collaborative-font-design-in-a-web-fonts-world/>Open and collaborative font design in a webfonts world</a>, ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) panel moderated by Victor Gaultney.</p></div></div><div class=date>2013</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>September: OFL-FAQ updated with new entries: version 1.1-update3</div><div class=description id=description></div></div><div class=date>2013</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>May: OFL-FAQ updated: version 1.1-update3-draft (with more on webfonts and RFNs)</div><div class=description id=description><p>OFL-FAQ draft with coverage of new questions and a separate paper on Web Fonts and Reserved Font Names becomes available for review and comments before being published.</p></div></div><div class=date>2013</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>February: WSIS+10 conference at UNESCO</div><div class=description id=description><p>The OFL is presented at <a href=https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/>WSIS+10 (World Summit on the Information Society)</a> at <a href=https://www.unesco.org>UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)</a>, in Paris, France as a follow-up from previous WSIS events in Geneva and Tunis.</p></div></div><div class=date>2013</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>May: Webfonts services are launched with OFL fonts</div><div class=description id=description><p>Google sets up a webfont service - <a href=https://fonts.google.com>Google Fonts</a> - with a growing catalog of open fonts, the vast majority under the OFL. Other more commercially-oriented efforts follow, such as <a href=https://fonts.adobe.com/>Adobe Fonts</a> (formerly Adobe TypeKit), that include a <a href=https://fonts.adobe.com/foundries/open-source>selection of open fonts under the OFL</a>.</p></div></div><div class=date>2010</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>2004-2010: Face-to-face community engagement events</div><div class=description id=description><p>The goals of the OFL and its methodology are presented and discussed at major industry conferences: <a href=https://atypi.org/>ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale)</a>, <a href=https://www.unicodeconference.org/>Unicode Conference</a>. Open-font-related presentations along with BoFs (Birds of a Feather meetings) take place at many free and open software events to discuss what would be needed to improve the general font landscape and gather feedback: <a href=https://tug.org/meetings.html>TUG (TeX User Group) meetings</a>, <a href=https://libregraphicsmeeting.org/lgm/about/libre-graphics-meeting/>LGM (Libre Graphics Meeting)</a>, Ubuntu Summit, Rencontres Mondiales du Logiciel Libre, <a href=https://wiki.gnome.org/GUADEC>GUADEC</a>, <a href=https://fosdem.org>FOSDEM (Free and Open source Software Developers’ European Meeting)</a>, <a href=https://www.debconf.org/>DebConf (Debian Conference)</a>, <a href=https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/TextLayout/>TextLayoutSummit</a>. Useful discussions allow for the establishing of a solid licensing model especially designed for fonts.</p></div></div><div class=date>2010</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>August: The W3C publishes WOFF as a web standard</div><div class=description id=description><p>The <a href=https://www.w3.org/TR/WOFF/>WOFF standard (Web Open Font Format)</a> by Jonathan Kew (<a href=https://mozilla.org/>Mozilla</a>), Tal Leming (<a href=https://typesupply.com/>Type Supply</a>) and Erik van Blokland (<a href=https://letterror.com/>LettError</a>) opens the door for better support of @font-face across browsers. Fonts under the OFL are used for research, technology demos as well as implementation examples in the <a href=https://www.w3.org/>W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)</a> documentation.</p></div></div><div class=date>2010</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>August: OFL-FAQ updated: version 1.1-update2</div><div class=description id=description></div></div><div class=date>2010</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>April: OSI recognizes the OFL as compliant with the OSD</div><div class=description id=description><p>The OFL is recognized as compliant with the <a href=https://opensource.org/osd/>OSD (Open Source Definition)</a> by the OSI (Open Source Initiative) and placed on <a href=https://opensource.org/license/ofl-1-1/>their list of approved licenses</a>.</p></div></div><div class=date>2009</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>January: Dave Crossland publishes his MATD research</div><div class=description id=description><p>Dave Crossland publishes his <a href=https://davelab6.github.io/matd-dissertation/>MA dissertation on the Free (Libre/Open) Font Movement as part of his MATD (Master of Arts in Typeface Design) at the University of Reading</a>. He also releases <a href=https://cantarell.gnome.org/>Cantarell</a> first under the GPL, then under the OFL - a contemporary Humanist sans serif, used by the <a href=https://www.gnome.org>GNOME</a> project for its user interface.</p></div></div><div class=date>2008</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>October: Paper and presentation by Lorna Priest Evans at IUC31</div><div class=description id=description><p><em>Unicode on the Front Lines: Endangered Languages and Unicode</em> presented by Lorna Priest Evans, SIL Script Technologist and SIL Unicode representative at <a href=https://www.unicodeconference.org/>IUC31 (Internationalization and Unicode Conference)</a>, covering the OFL among other topics.</p></div></div><div class=date>2007</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>26 February: Release of OFL version 1.1 (with OFL-FAQ 1.1)</div><div class=description id=description><p>A refined version of the OFL - version 1.1 - is released with improvements and clarifications, but retains the general working model of the license. The OFL-FAQ is also expanded and updated.</p></div></div><div class=date>2007</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>January: Community review of OFL-1.1-review2</div><div class=description id=description><p>Another round of reviews and minor refinements towards version 1.1.</p></div></div><div class=date>2007</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>August: Go for OFL campaign</div><div class=description id=description><p>The <a href=http://unifont.org/go_for_ofl/>Go for OFL campaign</a> is launched with official support from key organizations in the FLOSS community: <a href=https://unifont.org>Unifont.org</a>, <a href=https://www.freedesktop.org>FreeDesktop.org</a>, the <a href=https://gnome.org>GNOME</a> foundation, <a href=https://kde.org>KDE</a>, the <a href=https://www.linuxfoundation.org/>Linux Foundation</a>, the <a href=https://www.fsf.org>Free Software Foundation</a>. It encourages designers, foundries and supporting institutions to consider choosing the OFL for their font projects. The campaign is presented and launched at the <a href=https://wiki.gnome.org/Events/Summit/2006/TextLayout>TextLayout Summit</a> as part of Gnome Live! 2006 at the <a href=https://www.media.mit.edu/>MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Media Lab</a> in Boston, USA. This results in various new releases across the community.</p></div></div><div class=date>2006</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>March: First LGM in Lyon, France</div><div class=description id=description><p>The very first <a href=http://libregraphicsmeeting.org/2006/>LGM (Libre Graphics Meeting) 2006</a> (LGM) is held in Lyon, France, with a lightning talk about the OFL and key discussions with community members.</p></div></div><div class=date>2006</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>March: Community review of OFL 1.1-review1 draft</div><div class=description id=description><p>A minor revision of the OFL enters the review phase.</p></div></div><div class=date>2006</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>January: Gentium is accepted into Debian main</div><div class=description id=description><p>Gentium, the first font ever released under the OFL, is <a href=https://packages.debian.org/sid/fonts-sil-gentium>accepted into Debian main</a>, the repository containing only free/libre/open source software, which shows compliance with the DFSG (the Debian Free Software Guidelines).</p></div></div><div class=date>2006</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>January: SIL fonts released under the OFL</div><div class=description id=description><p>SIL starts releasing <a href=https://software.sil.org/fonts/>various font projects under the OFL</a>.</p></div></div><div class=date>2006</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>23 January: FSF recognizes the OFL as a free software license</div><div class=description id=description><p>The OFL is recognized as a free software license by the <a href=https://www.fsf.org/>FSF (Free Software Foundation)</a> and placed on their <a href=https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html>list of approved licenses</a>.</p></div></div><div class=date>2006</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>22 November: Release of OFL 1.0 (with OFL-FAQ 1.0)</div><div class=description id=description><p>The first version of the OFL (version 1.0) is released along with its FAQ. See below for <a href=#1.0>historical information about OFL 1.0</a>.</p></div></div><div class=date>2005</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>November 2004 - November 2005: Community review of early drafts</div><div class=description id=description><p>The draft OFL receives wide review by the public, including relevant experts in the legal, font, and free software and open source communities.</p></div></div><div class=date>2005</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>November: Version 1.0-review2 submitted to public mailing-list</div><div class=description id=description></div></div><div class=date>2005</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>November: WSIS in Tunis</div><div class=description id=description><p>The OFL is discussed and refined at the <a href=https://www.itu.int/net/wsis/>WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) in Tunis</a>, a follow-up from a previous event in Geneva in December 2003.</p></div></div><div class=date>2005</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>October: ATypI 2005, TypeTech Forum in Helsinki, Finland</div><div class=description id=description><p>The OFL is discussed and refined at the <a href=https://atypi.org/conferences-events/past-conferences/>ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) TypeTech Forum 2005</a> in Helsinki, Finland, with a presentation by Victor Gaultney.</p></div></div><div class=date>2005</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>September: Version 1.0-review1 submitted to public reviewers</div><div class=description id=description></div></div><div class=date>2005</div></div><div class=container><div class=content><div class=title>2001-2004: Research and analysis of needs and potential models</div><div class=description id=description><p>Research and analysis is carried out by <a href=../why-use-the-ofl/#maintainers>Victor Gaultney and Nicolas Spalinger</a> while working on various other projects. Some initial research was done as part of UNESCO’s (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Initiative B@bel.</p></div></div><div class=date>2004</div></div></div><h3 id=thanks>Thanks</h3><p>We want to express our heartfelt thanks to all the reviewers in the type and FLOSS communities who gave valuable feedback. Congratulations are also due to the many designers, foundries and sponsoring companies who have seen the value of the OFL for some of their projects over the years and have benefited from this open and collaborative approach.</p><h3 id=1.0>OFL version 1.0 (archived)</h3><p><strong>We recommend all authors use version 1.1 of the OFL rather than version 1.0.</strong> The most important change going from version 1.0 to 1.1 is that font names are no longer reserved by default. Any Reserved Font Names must be explicitly listed alongside the copyright statement(s) in the OFL header. <a href=../documents/OFL-1.0.txt>Download the OFL version 1.0 OFL-1.0.txt, but only for historical reasons, not to actually use it</a>.</p><p class="post-meta text-center text-muted small fw-lighter pb-0 mb-0 mt-5">Last updated on 24 January 2024</p></div></div></div></div></section><footer class="section pb-4"><div class=container><div class="row align-items-right"><div class="col-md-12 text-md-center text-center"><p class="mb-md-0 text-md-center mb-12">The SIL Open Font License is maintained by Victor Gaultney and Nicolas Spalinger. <a href=../contact>Contact us</a>.</br>This site is Copyright © 2005–2024 <a href=https://www.sil.org>SIL International (sil.org)</a>  |  <a href=../privacy>Privacy policy</a>  |  <a href=../colophon>Colophon</a>  |  <a href=../full-site-map>Site map</a></p></div></div></div></footer><script src=https://openfontlicense.org/js/script.min.js></script></body></html>