Sketch Fonts :: The Idea.

Smile, it's not every day you get to see things differently.

It is not just the words, but how we present them.

We communicate daily through billions of connections using binary text.
Everybody looks the same, so digital and lifeless.

Why don't we change that?

When others read mail from you, they should see it in your handwriting.
It should show your mums' messages in her handwriting. 

This document I am typing now will almost certainly be read using my very own handwriting.  

It personalises communication.  
It should be usable in SMS, IM, MeeGo and Maemo forums, Twitter, Facebook, Slashdot - literally all over the web.  It should work in IRC even!
We could put a new face on Facebook overnight!

Let's give everything a new, more natural look. :)

Your neatest handwriting is important.  The sketchfont takes your best effort and most correct letters and uses it to show you your ideal font.
Completely readable and carrying your hopes and best wishes to people.  
To get it perfect, each letter may take many grades of careful polishing!

The UX has become the Users' Experience.

It is unique and distinctive and carries a huge smile.
A new experience and way to bring digital words to life.

I read my own writing every day when I look at my graffiti wall.
I often think of seeing others handwriting in there.

If it is usable with normal IM/Email/SMS discussions it will be even better.

With people around the world talking to each other in text every single day, an email becomes a carefully handwritten letter. IRC becomes a theatre. 

##### Questions

(*) What happens when the user has not configured their sketchfont?
    The message is displayed using one of the standard fonts.

(*) How much is an idea like that worth?
    This is a billion dollar idea, we connect our users in a new and friendly manner.

(*) Do you have a prototype?
    Yes, it is prototyped inside Liqbase and it runs really well, hopefully you are reading it yourself.  
    But this is only my voice.  We need to work together to give us all our voices.

(*) How do new users enter their sketchfont?
    There will be a built in trainer module which allows the operator to draw and select the best example of each character.

##### Bringing it to life.

For this innovation to be usable in MeeGo officially and within differentiation applications, a re-implementation of the prototype sketchfonts must become part of Qt.
This is because Liqbase is Open Source, GPL licensed and available for Maemo on the Nokia N810 and N900 and soon to be build-able on MeeGo in the community section.
I (Gary Birkett) own the copyright to the Liqbase sketch and sketchfont format and am clear in my conscience that this is my right to sell a re-implementation of it elsewhere.
I will work with the Qt specialists and the best of the Community to recreate the handheld sketching back-end along with support for contacting the sketchfont server to send/retrieve fonts.

##### Formal Offer

This prototype is based on my simple sketching format, which pre-dates Liqbase implementation.
I will license and oversee implementation within Qt.
Since the licensing of Qt is under Nokia control, portions of this work may or may not be open source.
Qt text rendering areas should handle using these fonts just like a regular one.

##### Future

We need to ensure the Qt core and QML renderers can correctly handle the sketchfonts.
If they work from the core then all the other apps will adapt and be able to make use of them.
This is a retroactive upgrade.

There is potential to back-port support for use on Symbian and even earlier handsets. Qt support for sketchfonts extends their usage beyond Linux.  It allows Windows or Mac applications to be sketchfont enabled.

##### Further Investigation

(*) Detail further user cases for sketchfonts including, but not limited to:
	famous fonts
	classy artistic
	symbolic sets

(*) Detail knowledge of kerning and sub pixel rendering to ensure high quality output.

(*) Rendering speed optimisations and improvements by cache or process streamlining.

(*) Improvements to the training method, certain languages have a wide amount of symbols.

(*) Native web support for sketch fonts would require ratification from W3C.


=======================================

By combining the sketchfonts and the Smile proposals we gain maximum benefit.

Transfer of rights can involve stock options from numerous MeeGo supporters.
Around MeeGo however, I will deal directly with Nokia and providing the offer is acceptable I am happy for it be marketed as a Nokia Innovation.

These ideas will help make Nokia be more personal and connect us.

By my estimates, I think we can get this into Qt quickly and make it workable. :)
I believe it can be implemented during 2011 with worldwide take-up during 2012.

This sketchfont customisation is implemented at present within Liqbase which is an ongoing Open Source research and development project built for Nokia N810 and N9-00 devices and recently expanding to many other ARM and x86 ATOM devices on MeeGo.


Gary Birkett,
Smile Architect.





P.S.  Who the f*ck is @Alice?

