GENTIUM-FAQ
Gentium Release 1.03
========================
Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about the Gentium fonts:
General
========
How do you pronounce Gentium?
The preferred pronunciation is with a soft G as in 'general', not a
hard one as in 'gold': JEN-tee-oom.
What is GentiumAlt?
It is a version of the font with redesigned diacritics (flatter
ones) to make it more suitable for use with stacking diacritics, and
for languages such as Vietnamese. The Greek glyphs also use the
Porsonic (single-curve) design for the circumflex. Since Gentium
does not currently include any 'smart' rendering routines, there is
no easy way to access these alternate diacritic shapes from within
the regular Gentium font. The encoding of the fonts are the same, so
the same text can be viewed with either one. There is also no
problem with having both font families installed at the same time.
Licensing
=========
How is this version of Gentium different from version 1.02?
The only difference between version 1.02 and 1.03 is that Gentium is
now released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. There has been no
change to metrics, glyphs or behavior.
I want to use Gentium in my publication - can I?
Gentium is released under the SIL Open Font License, which permits use
for any publication, whether electronic or printed. For more answers
to use questions see the OFL-FAQ. The license, alongside information
specific to Gentium, is in the release package.
I would like to bundle Gentium with my application - can I?
This is our most common question. The SIL Open Font License allows
bundling with applications, even commercial ones, with some restrictions.
See the OFL file.
Can I use the font on my web site?
You can certainly create web pages that request that Gentium be used to
display them (if that font is available on the user's system). According
to the license, you are even allowed to place the font on your site for
people to download it. We would strongly recommend, however, that you
direct users to our site to download the font. This ensures that they
are always using the most recent version with bug fixes, etc. To make
this easier, we've simplified the URL for Gentium:
http://scripts.sil.org/gentium
Is Gentium going to stay free?
There is no intention to ever charge users for using Gentium. The
current version is licensed under a free/open license and future
versions will be similar.
Modification
============
I would like to modify Gentium to add a couple of characters I need. Can I?
Yes - that is allowed as long as you abide by the conditions of the
SIL Open Font License.
So will you add glyphs upon request?
Gentium is no longer being updated. Gentium Plus has been significantly
updated and if further glyphs are requested, they could be added to
Gentium Plus.
Can I send you work I've done to be incorporated into Gentium?
We are willing to incorporate your work into Gentium Plus. See the
Gentium Plus FONTLOG for information on becoming a contributor.
Technical
=========
Can you help me get Gentium working on my system?
We cannot afford to offer individual technical support. The best
resource is this website, where we hope to offer some limited help.
However, we do want to hear of any problems you encounter, so that
we can add them to the list of bugs to fix in later releases.
Our contact address is <gentium AT sil DOT org>. Please understand
that we cannot guarantee a personal response.
I can't find all the extended Latin letters in the font. How do I type them?
Gentium is Unicode-encoded, which means that the computer stores a
special, unique code for each letter in your document. Since most
keyboards do not have hundreds of keys, special software is needed
in order to type the hundreds of special characters supported by the
font.
I can't find the 'o with right hook' in the font. Where is it?
Combinations of base letters with diacritics are often called
composite, or pre-composed glyphs. Gentium has hundreds of these
(the ones that are included in Unicode). There are, however, many
common combinations that are not represented by a single composite.
It is possible to enter these into a document, but only as
individual components. So 'o with right hook' would be entered as
'o', then 'right hook'. Although this may not look very good in some
cases, we're not able to anticipate every possible combination.
Gentium Plus includes 'smart font' support for technologies such as
OpenType and SIL's Graphite. This improves diacritic positioning.
Some diacritics are not aligning well with base glyphs, and if I type more
than one diacritic, they run into each other. Why is that?
Gentium currently has no 'smart font' code for automatic diacritic
positioning. You may wish to use Gentium Plus which does include
'smart font' support.
How do I type the Greek letters?
You need a Unicode-compatible keyboarding system, which is not
included in the distribution package.
I'm having problems making PDFs -- why won't my document distill?
Gentium is a large font, with lots of glyphs. As a result, some
printers can balk at PDFs that have the complete font embedded. The
easiest way to avoid this is to have Acrobat/Distiller subset the
font. This is generally a good idea anyway (with any font) and can
reduce the size of your files.
Future
======
Now that SIL International has taken over Gentium, who will be the next
designer?
Victor Gaultney will remain as primary designer, but other designers
from the SIL Non-Roman Script Initiative have joined the project team,
including Annie Olsen and Iska Routamaa. Other members of the NRSI team
will also add their expertise in technical matters.
Do you plan to include other typographic enhancements (small caps, old style
figures, etc.)?
Gentium Plus now has support for small caps. From a design point of view,
it would be great to have other enhancements, and we haven't ruled them
out. But there are other needs of much higher priority (such as Bold).
If you think you could contribute some of your time and effort to these
enhancements, see the Gentium Plus FONTLOG file for information on
becoming a contributor.
What about bold?
Gentium Basic and Gentium Book Basic are now available in all four weights
(Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold-Italic). The 'Basic' fonts only cover
basic Latin glyphs. We are now working on completing these weights for
Gentium Plus. Be patient, though, as Gentium has lots of glyphs!
Sans-serif?
There is a definite need for a sans-serif font that shares some of
Gentium's strengths -- high readability, economy of space, etc. It
would also be great if that font also harmonized well with Gentium.
We don't currently have any plans for a companion face, although one
of our other projects - Andika - may be useful. Andika is a sans-serif
font designed specifically for use in literacy programs around the
world. Andika Basic (Regular) is already available and a version of
Andika with a more complete repertoire will be available in a few months.
Will you be extending Gentium to cover other scripts, and Hebrew in
particular?
It is very unlikely that we would do this, as there are so many
pressing needs in Latin, Greek and Cyrillic scripts. But you could
contribute to the project.
When will Cyrillic be completed?
Gentium Plus now has Cyrillic support.
I need a couple of ancient Greek glyphs, such as the digamma. When will
those be ready?
These are now available in Gentium Plus.
Will there be a Type 1 version? What about OpenType?
Gentium Plus has OpenType and Graphite support. We do not plan to
produce Type 1. Included in the developer package of Gentium Plus
is a version in OT-CFF format, but it is provided as a source for
glyph outlines, not as a user-installable font, and includes no
smart font code.
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