Note
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Libron is a modified version of Readerly with various edits to give the font a more neutral look.
The original font was imported and has been manually edited using FontForge. All modified source files are available in the src directory.
The sample shows the opening page of the public-domain prologue of Trevelyan's Type Tester, with native small caps, an enlarged initial and indented paragraphs. It uses a simulated 7-inch e-reader display at 1264 × 1680 pixels, with 36-pixel body type.
Libron started as an attempt to make Readerly feel a little more appropriate for reading on e-readers. Some of the more expressive details that are part of Readerly stood out more than I wanted.
In particular, some of the serifs and capital forms seemed too distracting as I was reading.
What started as a few tweaks to the serifs to make the different font files a little more neutral has gradually developed into a broader reworking of Readerly's design:
- Many uppercase and lowercase letters, figures and punctuation marks have now been redrawn or refined across all four styles.
- Spacing and kerning have been adjusted alongside the outlines to create a more even reading texture.
- Accented characters have been rebuilt where necessary, so that they remain consistent with their base glyphs.
- Synthetic small caps were added to the font, based on scaled down capitals for each four styles.
The result keeps Readerly's proportions and overall character, but has a calmer and more neutral appearance intended specifically for reading books. As such, it is a successor to Readerly.
When a commit of Libron is tagged, a version is automatically released. The version number set in VERSION is used when building the font, and is embedded within the font.
The following variants are generated:
- Libron for desktop (
TTF) - Libron for Kobo devices (
KF TTF) - Libron for CrossPoint Reader (
cpfont) - Libron's webfont variant (
WOFF2)
You can run ./local-build.sh if you have Podman installed to build the definitive fonts. If you have all dependencies installed locally, you can also use ./build.py to build the font with Python.
The local wrapper builds Kobo and CrossPoint variants by default. Use --without-crosspoint to skip CrossPoint. With build.py, add --with-crosspoint to generate the bundles. To convert existing TTFs without rebuilding them, run python3 scripts/build_cpfont.py in the fntbld-oci container. CrossPoint builds need network access to download the converter pinned in scripts/build_cpfont.py.
The Gitea release workflow builds only standard and Kobo fonts with --with-kobofix --without-web. GitHub releases also include web fonts and CrossPoint bundles.
Font builds do not regenerate the README images. Before a release, bump VERSION and run scripts/release.sh to generate the changelog section and refresh specimen.svg and sample.svg. The script builds the current sources, so the images use the release's outlines, kerning, ligatures and version. Review and commit the notes and images before creating the tag. The script does not commit, tag or push.
This font is available under the OFL license.
Libron is a Reserved Font Name. Modified versions must use a different primary font name unless Nico Verbruggen gives written permission.