Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today we are kicking off the Ubuntu Font BETA testing. This is a happy day!
Today all Ubuntu Members will have access to a private PPA so that they can use, test and enjoy the font.
The first four variants of the font family are scheduled for completion 8 August 2010 and this is when we aim to do a phased beta to anyone who is interested, and then to release the font to everyone.
For some background and to remind yourself about the project here are Bruno Maag’s UDS sessions on video:
- Plenary session (34:45 into the video)
- Slides from Presentation: Font Development
- Follow-up session on the font: UDS Session
How do I get it?
I want to tell you but I also want you to read the rest of the announcement so I am going to put that information at the end. I am sorry, I have kept it as short as possible, I promise!
What do I get?
For now, only the regular is available for testing, bold comes next. We will announce as more becomes available so you can make sure you have latest.
The Ubuntu font (family) is open-type ttf based font format and fully unicode compliant. It contains Latin A and B extended character sets, Greek Polytonic and Cyrillic extended. The font has been hinted for superior screen display. Its spacing and kerning is optimised for body copy sizes.
How do I give feedback?
We’ve created a font testing tool at fonttest.design.canonical.com. It has some example text and the ability for you to paste in your own text, so if you find a problem you can highlight the exact use of the font and submit your feedback right from the form. It’s connected to Launchpad so you can log in with your existing credentials.
At this stage we would like to encourage you to test the font on screen and print, on different platforms and in different applications.
Please ensure that all feedback contains details of:
- medium (paper or screen)
- platform (operating system including version number)
- application (including version number)
- a description of the problem
- and a screenshot where appropriate
- when printing please include make of printer and driver including version.
The tool at fonttest.design.canonical.com should help a bit so please feel free to go and give it a go. (Bugs can be reported against the tool at: https://launchpad.net/lp-bug-form.)
What will happen with the feedback?
Feedback will be accumulated for analysis and responded to fortnightly. We anticipate high volume feedback so the primary method for response will be the updated font and a list of changes and known issues.
When does everyone get it?
The font is currently in development and is scheduled to be shipped in Ubuntu 10.10. It will be free for everyone to use and share. For now, the exact details of the license are not confirmed.
Do I need to know anything else?
Please note that the stylistic direction has been set.
This is how you get it
Sometime today if you’re an Ubuntu member you’ll get an email inviting you to the private PPA with instructions:
-
This email will include a link to the private PPA page on Launchpad with the proper sources.list: http://launchpad.net/people/+me/+archivesubscriptions Please note that add-apt-repository will NOT WORK; you need to add the sources.list information that is available in the link aboveIt takes Launchpad a moment or two to generate your little private PPA, so please be patient as it generates a Packages.gz file.The following command adds the PPA’s GPG key to your keyring: sudo apt-key adv ––keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com ––recv-keys 42F834ECPlease just don’t just install the .deb, make sure the Private PPA is working for you so you can get font updates.
Using the font.
The font is named “UbuntuBeta” and the package name is ubuntu-private-nda-fonts.See here if you want to know how to change fonts.
Updated instructions – December 2010
- Ubuntu 10.10 and above ship with the
ttf-ubuntu-font-familypackage already installed (for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS you will need to installttf-ubuntu-font-familyand select it manually. - For using on web sites visit “Ubuntu – Use this font” at the Google Font Directory
- For source code and everything else, visit and link to font.ubuntu.com.
And finally
This font is the result of a lot of great work by a lot of talented people. Together we can make it outstanding. We hope very much that you will enjoy using it and look forward to your participation in this final sprint to the finish.
The link to the font test doesn’t work.
Thanks @lazza. I think I was about 2 seconds ahead of you thanks to and471. Please try again, should all be in order now.
Looking great!!!
Great news! I’m trying to get the font on my system right now.
Just curious: has the design team already decided on the default settings in the font section of the appearance editor? I.e. default size and weight for each category.
I got “You do not have any current subscriptions to private archives” message
Im getting a 404 not found on the ppa for 32 bit ubuntu maverick. Any chance someone could add it to the build?
Oh and ive been using the font anyway since OMG Ubuntu pulled it from the .pdf files it was embedded into. It does look great in the interface.
Can someone post a screenshot of how the font looks at various sizes? Like a screenshot of the font install dialog?
Gustavo: are you an Ubuntu Member? If not, then you don’t have access to the PPA.
Ivanka: small thingy: the blog changed the double hyphen sequence ‘–‘ in the command for retrieving the repository key with the – character, and therefore the command doesn’t work.
Ah got it I just added the ppa wrong my bad
@sense Fixed. Thanks!
The rumors talks about having all the languages added to this theme. is Hebrew going to be added too?
I wonder if it will be included in Ubuntu maverick by default….
As I’m not an Ubuntu member (yet), I’ll have to wait but I have a question: how will users be able to contribute new characters to the font? It would be great if we could ensure that the range of supported characters covers the widest range of languages possible.
The character pretifier ate the double hyphens in
“sudo apt-key adv ––keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com ––recv-keys 42F834EC” and replaced them with typographic blahdashes or something.
If you see “usage: gpg [options] [filename]”, then that’s probably your problem. Backspace them and type real hyphens.
I get an error 401 with the PPA. I thought private PPAs used to have extra authentication stuff added in? The URL provided on the PPA page doesn’t include that. Could be the problem.
I’m stunned that our documentation is so poor that “How to change fonts” links to an ad-ridden blog post.
How do you know if you’re an ubuntu member?
Michael:
You’d be a member of ~ubuntumembers on Launchpad, and you’ll likely remember having filled out a wiki page application and gone through an interview process with the CC (if it was a while ago), a RMB, or a developer board (if you’re a developer).
@michael
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership
@maco you go here https://edge.launchpad.net/~shanepatrickfagan/+archivesubscriptions and go to the right of the page click view and add that ppa. Then it should work. I got a 404 but that wasnt the right place.
Or I mean it should be your launchpad nick not mine :)
Hi everyone,
On this page:
http://launchpad.net/people/+me/+archivesubscriptions
Click “View” and it should show you what the deb line should look like in your /etc/apt/sources.list.
It should be something like “deb https://jorge:blahblahblah@private-ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-font-beta-testing/ppa/ubuntu maverick main # Personal access for Jorge blah blah”
It’s generated per user. I’ve updated the description on the ppa page to make more sense. Sorry for the confusion.
great!! already using it rocks!!!, can wait to use it on my slides
How can i get it? I am not Ubuntu member. Can anyone send ttf file on my email klvru(at)rambler.ru ??? I want to see it. :)
Looks like my last comment didn’t get through so here it is, if you go here: http://launchpad.net/people/+me/+archivesubscriptions
And click on the “View” link it will give you the right deb line (it’s unique per user).
The “Technical details” instructions on the PPA page won’t work; I’ve updated the page to reflect this: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-font-beta-testing/+archive/ppa
Hey Ivanka I have one kinda weird question I was using the font and i noticed that in terminal that the @shane-laptop the s and the @ are overlapping. The bug isnt showing up on fonttest so im wondering how to report it or if its a bug or not. Its not very bad its just a little overlap.
Ah, I’d just been checking in for more information about this two weeks ago! I’m thrilled to have this opportunity and can’t wait to see just what the font looks like in every day usage. :)
Someone can send me the new font at dreyes@uci.cu ?? thanks to all.
It sounds from the carefully vague wording that this font is going to be proprietary.
If you really want to call your font an improvement over Bitstream Vera, you’ll need to have an equally permissive license.
Hi,
What “Ubuntu member” really means? I use Ubuntu, I have a Launchpad account for years and I’ve signed the Ubuntu Code of Conduct long time ago, too. (which made the status ‘ubuntero’ appeared of my profile or somewhere, but not anymore apparently).
Is this sufficient or have I something more to do now? I really would like to test the font :)
Looking nice.
Valeriy, Dairo, Nicolas: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Membership
Mike: If it was proprietary, it couldn’t be shipped by default in Ubuntu.
So, If it’s not proprietary then WHY it’s not shared with ALL community? Guy, who created that font, is so greedy?
@CheGuevara_ when you pay to have something developed then you can set the rules. The only greedy person here is you.
I would love an email of the font as well:
jkmoore [AT] juno [DOT] com
Thank you.
My main complaint with modern fonts is that the combination “rn” looks awfully like “m”.I often have to stop and look carefully to make the distinction. What will this font do to help solve this problem?
Oh dear, that comment did not work well in the font on my browser. Let me spell it out:
My main complaint with modern fonts is the the combination “rn” (lower case RN) looks awfully like “m” (lower case M). For example, the words “modem” (MODEM) and “modern” (MODERN). I often have to stop and look carefully to make the distinction. What will this font do to help solve this problem?
(I am glad that you distinguish between the upper case of “i” and the lower case of “L”.)