Author Published November 2005 FSF approved Yes | Latest version 1.1 DFSG compatible Yes OSI approved Yes | |
The SIL Open Font License (or OFL in short) is a free and open source license designed for fonts by SIL International for use with many of their Unicode fonts, including Gentium Plus, Charis SIL, and Andika. The Open Font License was first released in November 2005, six months after the GPL Font exception was released.
The license is considered free by the Free Software Foundation, which states that a simple hello world program is enough to satisfy the license's requirement that fonts using the license be distributed with computer software when selling them. The Debian project agrees.
Terms
The Open Font License is a free software license, and as such permits the fonts to be used, modified, and distributed freely (so long as the resulting fonts remain under the Open Font License). However, the copyright holder may declare the font's name as being a "Reserved Font Name", which modified versions then cannot bear. The License permits covered fonts to be freely embedded in documents under any terms, but it requires that fonts be packaged with software if they are sold.