"The donation of these fonts to the free software community is the final piece that will give full functionality to projects like Freetype, XFT2 and X Render extensions in the Xfree86 project, Pango, KDE and Trolltech's QT Rendering," said Jim Gettys, GNOME Foundation board member. "These fonts will be available to all developers and users, giving GNOME and other open source programs a great look right out of the box that has been lacking until now."

The Bitstream Vera fonts will be available for free copying and redistribution and can be modified as long as the font name is changed. The fonts cannot be packaged by themselves for sale, but can be sold with any software. The GNOME Foundation will incorporate the fonts into future GNOME releases, giving end users of all levels, as well as GNOME developers, the advanced display capabilities they offer.

"Bitstream has had a long relationship with the developer community," explained Bob Thomas, director of product management, Bitstream. "We're very happy to contribute these fonts to the open source community and we hope that developers will generate new fonts and continue to enhance the experience of end-users at all levels."

"GNOME was created to give free software users a friendly, powerful desktop environment," said Miguel de Icaza, GNOME Foundation president and CTO of Ximian, Inc. "This agreement with Bitstream will enhance the experience and graphics capabilities of corporate, enterprise, educational, governmental and individual GNOME users and will give powerful tools to open source developers everywhere."

"Bitstream's generous donation is a tangible measure of the importance and growth of open source," said Russ Nelson, VP of the Open source Initiative. "I praise the GNOME Foundation's efforts to bring this agreement into being."

The agreement between Bitstream and the GNOME Foundation will bring invaluable tools to open source developers and users worldwide.

About

GNOME
GNOME is a free software project that is developing a complete, easy to use desktop for GNU/Linux (more commonly known as Linux), BSD, Solaris, HP-UX and a variety of other Unix and Unix-like operating systems. The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. More than 700 computer developers, including over 100 full-time, paid developers, contribute their time and effort to the project.

The GNOME Foundation
Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. GNOME is an entirely free user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable Internet devices. The modern architecture and design of GNOME includes a technically advanced application development platform and a powerful end-user desktop environment. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers. More information on GNOME is available at www.gnome.org .

Bitstream Inc.
Bitstream Inc. (NASDAQ: BITS ) is the leading developer of font technology, digital fonts, and custom font designs. Bitstream licenses its award-winning TrueDoc and Font Fusion technologies to Web and application developers, and to manufacturers of information appliances, wireless and handheld devices, set-top boxes, embedded systems, and printers. Setting the standard for excellence in font technology, Bitstream holds numerous key patents that cover the creation of portable fonts for the Internet. Building on this experience, Bitstream has released ThunderHawk, a breakthrough technology for the wireless Web.

Founded in 1981, Bitstream is the first digital font foundry. In 1999, Bitstream created MyFonts.com, Inc. (http://www.myfonts.com), the Web site for finding, trying, and buying fonts on line. Bitstream is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Bitstream and TrueDoc are registered trademarks, and Font Fusion, MyFonts.com, ThunderHawk, and Vera are trademarks of Bitstream Inc. Other technologies and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Leslie Proctor
GNOME Foundation
801.446.4638

Bob Thomas
Director of Product Management
Bitstream Inc.
617.520.8376