[OSGeo-Discuss] Free licensed alternative to ESRI map fonts

[Nyall Dawson]

On Wed, 13 May 2020 at 23:38, Jody Garnett <jody.garnett at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> This discussion starts to get into the value, it is a lot of work to gather up these original or alternate sources ... both for end users migrating to open source, and for OSGeo projects to do on their own.
>
> I think this would be a great group project.

Brett has recently compiled a summary of these fonts and symbols here:
https://github.com/Saijin-Naib/ESRI-Fonts-Cheat-Sheets

What I think we should aim for is an equivalent of the "Liberation"
font package, which implements freely licensed equivalents of the
standard Windows font packages (Arial, Times New Roman, etc), with
identical font metrics and similar styling so that they can be used
effectively as a drop-in replacement.

What would be the next step to move forward with this and approach
osgeo for funding?

Kind regards,
Nyall

>
> On Wed, May 13, 2020 at 3:44 AM Brad Hards <bradh at frogmouth.net> wrote:
>>
>> I have no idea what is in the map fonts (or even what an ESRI map font is), but if you're looking for the symbology for DNC and VMAP, (which sound vaguely like: ESRI NIMA DNC LN, ESRI NIMA DNC PT, ESRI NIMA VMAP1&2 LN, ESRI NIMA VMAP1&2 PT) its probably based on some variant of the NGA GeoSym stuff - MIL-HDBK-857A and MIL-DTL-89045/A
>>
>> If you're prepared to deal with converting CGM to whatever that font thing is, you can download the definitions from the NGA GWG Portrayal Working Group at https://gwg.nga.mil/pfg_documents.php (expect a cert warning)
>>
>> The ESRI Mil2525C Modifiers and some of those MilSym / MilMod things might be MIL-STD-2525 (aka STANAG APP-6) symbology. Not usually treated as a font though....
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Discuss <discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> On Behalf Of Nyall Dawson
>> Sent: Tuesday, 12 May 2020 3:46 PM
>> To: Even Rouault <even.rouault at spatialys.com>
>> Cc: OSGeo Discussions <discuss at lists.osgeo.org>
>> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Free licensed alternative to ESRI map fonts
>>
>> On Wed, 6 May 2020 at 01:13, Even Rouault <even.rouault at spatialys.com> wrote:
>>
>> > for my understanding, and hopefully help others, I assume the issue is that you have a style definition where there are tuples of (font_identifier, symbol_identifier_in_the_font) to define the styling of layers with point geometries, right ?
>>
>> Partially, but the "bigger picture" is that there's just no alternative freely available version of many of these symbol graphics themselves. That's the blocker that I've encountered.
>>
>> > If that's only the former, then assuming there would be N open fonts already covering the whole set of ESRI symbology fonts (unlikely), one could possibly create a mapping between each tuple of (ESRI_font_id, ESRI_symbol_id) to (OPEN_font_id, OPEN_symbol_id). If the later, then you need a complete replacement for each proprietary font.
>>
>> It's the later.
>>
>> > How many symbols / fonts are we discussing about ?
>>
>> There's about 73 fonts total (see list below, may not be complete), which average about 100 icons apiece.
>>
>> ESRI AMFM Electric
>> ESRI AMFM Gas
>> ESRI AMFM Sewer
>> ESRI AMFM Water
>> ESRI ArcPad
>> ESRI Arrowhead
>> ESRI Business
>> ESRI Cartography
>> ESRI Caves 1
>> ESRI Caves 2
>> ESRI Caves 3
>> ESRI Climate & Precipitation
>> ESRI Commodities
>> ESRI Conservation
>> ESRI Crime Analysis
>> ESRI Default Marker
>> ESRI Dimensioning
>> ESRI Elements
>> ESRI Enviro Hazard Analysis
>> ESRI Enviro Hazard Incident
>> ESRI Enviro Hazard Sites
>> ESRI Environmental & Icons
>> ESRI ERS Infrastructures S1
>> ESRI ERS Operations S1
>> ESRI Fire Incident NFPA
>> ESRI Geology AGSO 1
>> ESRI Geology
>> ESRI Geology USGS 95-525
>> ESRI Geometric Symbols
>> ESRI Hazardous Materials
>> ESRI Hydrants
>> ESRI IGL Font16
>> ESRI IGL Font20
>> ESRI IGL Font21
>> ESRI IGL Font22
>> ESRI IGL Font23
>> ESRI IGL Font24
>> ESRI IGL Font25
>> ESRI Meteorological 01
>> ESRI Mil2525C Modifiers
>> ESRI MilMod 01
>> ESRI MilMod 02
>> ESRI MilRed 01
>> ESRI MilSym 01
>> ESRI MilSym 02
>> ESRI MilSym 03
>> ESRI MilSym 04
>> ESRI MilSym 05
>> ESRI NIMA City Graphic LN
>> ESRI NIMA City Graphic PT
>> ESRI NIMA DNC LN
>> ESRI NIMA DNC PT
>> ESRI NIMA VMAP1&2 LN
>> ESRI NIMA VMAP1&2 PT
>> ESRI North
>> ESRI Oil, Gas, & Water
>> ESRI Ordnance Survey
>> ESRI Pipeline US 1
>> ESRI Public1
>> ESRI SDS 1.95 1
>> ESRI SDS 1.95 2
>> ESRI SDS 2.00 1
>> ESRI SDS 2.00 2
>> ESRI Shields
>> ESRI Surveyor
>> ESRI Telecom
>> ESRI Transportation & Civic
>> ESRI US Forestry 1
>> ESRI US Forestry 2
>> ESRI US MUTCD 1
>> ESRI US MUTCD 2
>> ESRI US MUTCD 3
>> ESRI Weather
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>
> --
> --
> Jody Garnett