ConTeXt Group Font Sponsoring

[Taco Hoekwater <taco@bittext.nl>]

Hi all,

At the recent 10th ConTeXt meeting, we also had the 6th members meeting
of the ConTeXt Group.

The ConTeXt Group uses the annual members meeting to keep track of the 
activities that are deployed by and for our members as well as ConTeXt
users in general.

A late addition to the meeting agenda was the addition of a discussion
point about the newest font proposal from the e-Foundry (TeX Gyre) team.

The proposal dates back to April 2015, and in summary, along with
continuous improvements to the existing Latin Modern, TeX Gyre and 
DejaVu-math fonts, it introduces three new project deliverables:

  * A sans-serif Math Open Type Format font (for use in headings)
  * A heavy Math Open Type Format font (for use in headings)
  * A monospace font with math symbols (for use in editors)

The project is expected to run for multiple years as there is a lot of
work involved. TeX-related projects like this will always eventually get 
done, but with the addition of funding the timeline can be shortened 
considerably, from potentially decades back to a few years.

The ConTeXt Group has a small positive balance each year, and now that
we have a bit of a buffer in the bank, we can afford to look for ways
to use our surplus to help TeX-related development. ConTeXt has been 
using the e-Foundry fonts since well before the first official release, 
so the members meeting decided to offer their financial support to this
newest e-Foundry project.

It was decided to earmark 500€ for each year of the upcoming three 
membership years for that purpose. Not a staggering amount of money, but 
we currently do not have enough members to safely invest more. And we do 
consider it an investment: all ConTeXt users will directly benefit from 
those new fonts once they become available.

More funding would make the project run that much faster, so if you want
to help out, you could make a donation directly via the TUG donations 
page at https://www.tug.org/donate/dev.html (TeX Gyre fonts contribution).

Or you could help indirectly by becoming a member of the ConTeXt Group
via http://group.contextgarden.net/ With more members, we could do more!


Yours truly,

Taco Hoekwater
ConTeXt Group president

-- 
The item(s) mentioned in this message are only part of the activities
undertaken by the ConTeXt Group. The ConTeXt Group is a non-profit
organisation set up for and by ConTeXt users, with its purpose being
promoting and facilitating the use of the ConTeXt typesetting 
system developed by Pragma ADE.

We can always use more volunteers and members, so please think about 
joining in! See http://group.contextgarden.net/ for more information.

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