This folder contains Matthew Skala's OCR B font version 0.3 (Matthew Skala 2011-2021, based on code by Norbert Schwarz 1986-2011).
Matthew Skala's fonts (OCR A and OCR B with variants, in several formats) used to be available from https://tsukurimashou.osdn.jp/ocr.php.en (and a number of possibly unofficial mirrors).
However, that site has been very slow for a while, and sometimes even unreachable (as of 2024). When using other mirrors or font repositories, it is also not always clear which version is the latest, and whether it is the same as this one.
These fonts were released in the public domain. We therefore decided to include the OCR B font in this repository, as a mere convenience, so users can use our package without having to install it separately.
We only include here the OpenType version of the OCR B font.
It is automatically used by our EAN-13 barcode package for SILE, in order to display the human-readable interpretation in barcodes, which only consists of digits.
That's a fairly limited subset, but commands are provided to change the font, if desired. As noted, this font is also available from other sources. There are also alternative OCR B fonts (whether free or sold for a fee). The original OCR B was designed in 1968 by Adrian Frutiger for Monotype, and derived into a number of variants, covering different character sets.
Despite EAN-13 being an international standard, the legal status of OCR fonts is apparently complicated.
We do not claim any rights on this font, and refer readers to the documents accompanying the original complete font distribution. We do not give any kind of binding legal opinion on the status of this font. If you require authoritative legal advice about your proposed use of this font, then you must retain a lawyer.