[DS-public] No video codecs for HTML5 because software patents :'(

[Alberto Barrionuevo]

On Monday 10 August 2009 17:30:11 Chris Puttick wrote:
>  On the plus side, it seems that at least the key patents
>
> > related to TrueType hinting expire in October 2009.
> > However, there are many more patents to dodge before
> > free software can render on-screen type as clearly as
> > Microsoft Windows.
>
> I'm confused - maybe KDE/Kubuntu are infringing some patents but I don't
> see a quality difference between my Linux typeface rendering and, say,
> Windows Vista. Maybe this is my lack of training or perception when it
> comes to fonts - but I can tell the difference between colour-depths on the
> monitor, or wrong refresh rates, or DVD v. upscaled DVD v. Blueray and 720p
> v. 1080i. So maybe I need to be told what to look for?

A main reason why Apple has been the reign of the designers has been because 
the traditional treatment that they have had for the fonts (Adobe Type Manager 
and PostScript Type 1 font). Nobody, neither Windows nor the unixes, have had 
such a treatment until perhaps now Windows with its Cleartype for LCDs and 
small fonts.

The Apple features in such a field, allowed designed to render and print 
perfectly and realistically (exact WYSWYG) the fonts at any size: from so 
small in the screen to top building sizes at the printer.

The key is that what MacOS has traditionally shown in the screen has been true 
Postcript, instead of to have two renderings, one for the printer and another 
for the screen.

More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonts_on_Macintosh 

Specially the new Quarz engine for small fonts (something similar to Cleartype 
of Microsoft):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Subpixel_demonstration_(Quartz).png

Steve Jobs tells that he learned about the importance of the fonts when he was 
painting big words in banners as a poor paid job in his university.

Saludos,
-- 
Alberto Barrionuevo, FFII
Iberoamerican and Open Standards WGs
www.ffii.org

"In July 2005, after several failed attempts to legalise software patents in 
Europe, the patent establishment changed its strategy. Instead of explicitely 
seeking to sanction the patentabilitty of software, they are now seeking to 
create a central European patent court, which would establish and enforce 
patentability rules in their favor, without any possibility of correction by 
competing courts or democratically elected legislators."
-- http://eupat.ffii.org/


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