Add font: Bitstream Charter

[arrowtype]

Charter is a classic, highly-respected screen font made by Matthew Carter in 1987. I just learned that it happens to be licensed to be used freely and without restriction. More details at https://practicaltypography.com/charter.html.

Charter license

This is a copy of the Charter fonts which Bitstream contributed to the X 
consortium. This is the original notice included with the fonts:

(c) Copyright 1989-1992, Bitstream Inc., Cambridge, MA. You are hereby 
granted permission under all Bitstream propriety rights to use, copy, modify, 
sublicense, sell, and redistribute the 4 Bitstream Charter (r) Type 1 outline 
fonts and the 4 Courier Type 1 outline fonts for any purpose and without 
restriction; provided, that this notice is left intact on all copies of such 
fonts and that Bitstream’s trademark is acknowledged as shown below on all 
unmodified copies of the 4 Charter Type 1 fonts. BITSTREAM CHARTER 
is a registered trademark of Bitstream Inc.

However, Charter doesn’t seem to be pre-installed on Windows 10. So, it seems like a no-brainer to include on Google Fonts.

Potentially, we could also add Charis, a version of Charter tweaked by SIL, which includes an OFL license. However, it might be a bit of a shame for this to be the only version of Charter available from Google Fonts, partly because Charter has better name recognition and user trust.

A caveat is that neither project currently has a GitHub repo, but it seems that "any purpose and without restriction" would probably allow for a GitHub repo to be created.

[laerm0]

Charis is used for the Latin in the Inku project by @josiasz so here's a +1 for the idea. Charter, of course, is a solid upgrade if possible.

[Cogli]

https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/xcharter

Extension of Bitstream Charter, under same license.

[steve-perkins]

I see that Charis SIL already has a separate issue (#3757) in-flight and at the ready for review stage.

However, Charis is a derivative font that makes a number of design changes, so I don't think that ticket in any way precludes this one from moving forward also. If willing, @arrowtype might consider renaming this issue to avoid any appearance of duplication. Charter is one of the most highly-regarded open source serif fonts every created, and it's surprising that it has not been included in Google Fonts already!

The copy of Charter made available at that practicaltypography.com link would be great. It is beautiful, and would be highly efficient as its file sizes are shockingly small.

However, between the two, I would share @Cogli's recommendation for the "xcharter" version. It covers a much wider character set than the original version of Charter at practicaltypography.com. Also, as part of TeX, "xcharter" is more likely to receive ongoing maintenance. I believe the practicaltypography.com release is literally the original source from 30+ years ago. That being said, I would be delighted to see either version included.

[arrowtype]

@steve-perkins good point! Title updated.

Not that it's my choice in any way, but I would personally prioritize publishing Bitstream Charter first, before XCharter. The added characters are no doubt useful, but they have various design issues, which dilutes the high quality of the original. For instance, XCharter adds small caps, but they have uneven stroke weights (look at O.sc vs V.sc). It adds oldstyle figures, but includes an oldstyle zero with an ambiguous design (which looks far to close to the lowercase o, in my opinion).

Agreed that either would be a great and well-loved addition to the library, though!

[ajskateboarder]

December 2022, any updates on this issue?

[cosmojg]

What are the blockers?