I appreciate the tailed 'l'.
Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
31–40 of 245 posts
Re: Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
#32Is it legal for the federal government to specify a font license other than “This is released into the public domain”? They automatically give up all copyright upon publication, which ought to exhaust any licensing terms.
How is the USWDS specifying a font license? It's a derivative work, so the license comes from upstream.
Right. Their README specifies the exact same license as the upstream font https://github.com/impallari/Libre-Franklin
Re: Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
#33I think this is really beautiful.
Re: Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
#34The older I get, the more skeptical I become. Kudos to the author for releasing their project, it looks like a lot of effort went into it, so I hate to sound overly negative, but I just can't help wonder if there is a practical reason for the US government to develop its own font? Is Sans Serif Fonts the department where the US government can really make a difference, or is this just a designer who happened to get a…
The font was made via adjustments to an existing font https://github.com/impallari/Libre-Franklin so I doubt this was one designer's dream project.
Re: Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
#35The older I get, the more skeptical I become. Kudos to the author for releasing their project, it looks like a lot of effort went into it, so I hate to sound overly negative, but I just can't help wonder if there is a practical reason for the US government to develop its own font? Is Sans Serif Fonts the department where the US government can really make a difference, or is this just a designer who happened to get a…
Why bother having an architect of the Capitol, then? Why bother building government buildings out of stone when wood is cheaper? Appearances matter: would you want to do your taxes with Comic Sans?
The choice was never between Comic Sans or New Government Font.
There are a plethora of established sans serif typefaces available under various licenses, as seen on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sans_serif_typefaces
These have existed well before someone said "let's create Public Sans!". It would be nice to know what the reasoning was. The Github page only goes into the details of how Public Sans is different from Libre Franklin.
Re: Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
#36I've been wondering why all these new fonts tend to have a strong focus on sans serif font (Fira has no serif variant, Source Serif Pro came later than the other Source fonts). Aren't there a lot of situations (namely, lengthy legal documents) where you'd prefer a serif font before you want a sans serif?
If you're just looking for a font for your microsft word or other office document software, you're most likely not going to bother downloading new fonts when Word has plenty of fonts available easily.
I would imagine tech geeks and artists are generally the people who are downloading new fonts, and those poeple are probably spending most of their time using sans serif fonts or monospace.
Re: Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
#37This is so interesting. These modern sites clash really hard with my mental visual of "Government technology." And it led me to this, which is maybe even more interesting: https://federalist.18f.gov/
The USDS (US Digital Service) was born in the fire of the healthcare.gov fiasco, and several industry veterans from Google stepped in to fix the infrastructure issues they saw within the US Government. Currently, @Matt_Cutts is leading the org. I can only think that your comment brings a smile to his face.
Does anyone know what it's like working for the USDS? Curious what it's like to work for the Government but under the leadership of presumably a bunch of ex-Googlers.
Re: Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
#38What if the progression ends up being: 1. Publicly-funded font(s) created 2. Use on govt websites grows 3. Publicly-funded CDN used for said govt site assets 4. Other, non-govt sites use said font(s) 5. Govt becomes asset host for web basics across thousands of non-govt sites This may be another step in CDN lifecycle of startup --> megacorp --> commoditization --> govt service.
Why would we go beyond step 2? As a taxpayer, I could buy the argument that the govt needs a new font, and that, having made one, it should make said font available for free so taxpayers can get the benefit. I don't see why my taxes should fund a public CDN, though.
Why not? It all depends on how important as an infrastructure CDNs will become. I know that in the States you prefer things to be privately held, but it's not too absurd imagining a future where CDNs are an essential and fundamental service to every day life for the vast majority of the population.
Re: Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why bother having an architect of the Capitol, then? Why bother building government buildings out of stone when wood is cheaper? Appearances matter: would you want to do your taxes with Comic Sans?
The choice was never between Comic Sans or New Government Font. There are a plethora of established sans serif typefaces available under various licenses, as seen on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sans_serif_typefaces These have existed well before someone said "let's create Public Sans!". It would be nice to know what the reasoning was. The Github page only goes into the details of how Public Sans…
Many (most?) of those typefaces are commercially licensed, and can't serve as a universal "default" for typography across all the USG's web properties. Additionally: almost none of them are in OS/browser font stacks, so using them would incur logistical problems in addition to licensing.
Re: Public Sans – A strong, neutral typeface for text or display
#40I've been wondering why all these new fonts tend to have a strong focus on sans serif font (Fira has no serif variant, Source Serif Pro came later than the other Source fonts). Aren't there a lot of situations (namely, lengthy legal documents) where you'd prefer a serif font before you want a sans serif?
Not all, I believe. Merriweather is serif.
* https://github.com/uswds/uswds-for-designers#fonts
* https://designsystem.digital.gov/components/typography/
* https://github.com/SorkinType/Merriweather/blob/master/READM...