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# Choosing font for logo and website : how and why?
We intended to use Font Rund [0] for Sigsum website and logo. Rund is licensed
under Letters from Sweden [1]. It falls under the purview of proprietory
license. We needed to decide on whether to stick with Rund or to go for another
font licensed under SIL OFL [2] or any other permissive/Open Source/Free
Software one.
Before jumping into the conclusion we considered the following scenarios
- If the Sigsum developers and the community at large can freely use and/or
develop and/or contribute in the website or logo of the project?
- Do we need customized permission for every developer working in it?
## Decision
We decided not to use Rund.
Choose a font which is licensed under SIL OFL.
## Difference between SIL OPEN FONT LICENSE 1.1 and Letters from Sweden
(Desktop Fonts)
1. If we consider different types of font licenses in a line, then SIL OPEN
FONT LICENSE 1.1 and Letters from Sweden (Desktop Fonts) belong to the extreme
opposite side of the spectrum. While OFL follows the schema of Free and Open
Source, Letters from Sweden (Desktop Fonts) is of utmost proprietory.
2. Terms Letters of Sweden intends to control the entire usage of the font and
the end-users. OFL stands for the freedom of the end-user.
3. LoS is vague in its wording regarding the definition of entity, derivative
work, etc. In contrast, OFL is sufficiently worded to cover our intended
usage and aligned with our free and open-source ethos.
4. When we choose a license, we choose a community and set the community's
expectation at large towards our project, OFL fits that bracket.
## Trademark and Copyright overlap :
To trademark the logo design in the future will create a weird overlap between
copyright law (especially around open source licenses) and trademark law, in
which the open-source license may grant permission to use the logo in a way that
could be restricted by trademark law. However, our lack of knowledge in Swedish
Intellectual Property laws makes us unsure whether it will not.
## Reasoning for the decision:
We could use for website and never needed permission for each developer working
on it. It was logo where we got stuck. The license in the current form and
wording is strictly commercial therefore limits our usage. Also the license does
not define/recognise Open Source project in any form. There is another topic
which might be potential issue i.e overlap of Trademark and Copyright, we do not
want to deal that. The whole thought process can be found in the pad. Also we
have presentation [3] on Font licensing overall and specific to our use-case.
## Miscellaneous Notes
Under this we contain the highlights of our discussion that led to our
abovementioned decision.
### Some practical usecase/questions to consider
- If we can print merchendise with our logo designed with the particular font
on it?
- If someone/some group from the community at large wants to use font as a text
in a merchandise/webpage for some stuff related to sigsum what will be the fate
then? (Say a developer from Japan wants to print a t-shirt with Sigsum logo and
text -"Join Sigsum")
- Does every developer developing the website needs to get the font license
separately or there is an option for volume licensing?
### Possible outcomes
Utopia: Letters of Sweden license the font (Rund) to us under OFL or an
equivalently free license.
The Swap: We change to another less nice font, but with a nicer license.
The Ostriche: We go ahead using Rund with their license and fix any issues with
it later.
## The Motivation and the discussion before making the decision
**We should not be using Rund at all.**
Taking explicit permission from LoS will require substantially much work,
communication, persuasion from our side, killing the precious time of our actual
project work. The overlap between trademark and copyright is an entirely
unknown arena right now. Also, since Fonts licensed under OFL is used in
various open-source projects around the community, it will be easy to apply the
foss norms/rules here. Lars came up with the idea of a tailor-made for us
licensed under SIL. Nevertheless, this is out-of-scope because the goal project
Sigsum is way different from font creation. Further, this option is too costly
for us.
## References
0. https://lettersfromsweden.se/font/rund/
1. https://lettersfromsweden.se/license/
2. https://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=OFL_web
3. https://slides.com/dascommunity/font-licensing-sigsum-project
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