[Trisquel-users] Are fonts software?

[LDrumbler]

This question came to my mind while I was discussing my "Free Clarendon  
campaign with someone else. When I claimed that fonts are software, because  
they are a program designed to draw the outlines, he countered with a  
powerful point.

If a font is a program created to draw outlines, and therefore is a software  
program that must be free, then what differentiates a font file from a .ogg  
audio file, or a .jpg image? Would they not be software, too? At first I  
scoffed, but it really got me thinking.

A font file (.ttf or .otf) is a set of numbers that describe outlines. The  
system's font-rendering program reads those numbers, draws the outlines  
accordingly, and creates a rasterized version of the outlines. That  
rasterized image is then displayed to the screen.

At no point in that process are the fonts executed. Fonts aren't even  
executable! Why, then, are they considered software? Why are they not  
considered an aggregate of vector images?