| Category | Sans-serif |
|---|---|
| Designer(s) | Jim Lyles |
| Foundry | Bitstream Inc. |
| Date created | 2002 |
| Also known as | Bera |
Vera is a group typeface (font) with a liberal license. It was designed by Jim Lyles from Bitstream, and it is closely based on Bitstream's Prima, for which Lyles was also responsible. It is a TrueType font with full hinting instructions, which improve its rendering quality on low-resolution devices such as computer monitors. The font has also been repackaged as a Type 1 PostScript font, called Bera, for LaTeX users.[1]
Vera consists of serif, sans-serif, and monospace fonts, as follows:
Although Vera itself covers only common punctuation and the Latin alphabet with some diacritics, its license allows others to make and distribute derivative works with some restrictions, and the DejaVu fonts project is expanding it with additional glyphs and styles. With over 80% installation base, the DejaVu fonts have been gaining on the role as sans-serif default fonts in GNU/Linux. On Windows and Macintosh systems, DejaVu is, however, practically unknown, whereas Bitstream Vera Sans has installation bases of 25% and 20% there, and 79% on Unix, according to a survey. The Bitstream Vera Sans Mono typeface in particular is suitable for technical work, as it clearly distinguishes 'l' (lowercase L) from '1' (one) and 'I' (uppercase i), and '0' (zero) from 'O', unlike the more widely available Monotype Courier New.[2] A derivative of Sans Mono, Menlo, is provided by Apple with the Mac OS X 10.6 operating system.
Also, the Bitstream Vera fonts are available for users of OpenOffice.org to download through the FontOOo wizard.
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