Semplifica Symbol & Dingbats Fonts

by Semplifica s.r.l.

Two TrueType fonts designed as OFL-licensed, freely distributable replacements for the classic Symbol and ZapfDingbats typefaces commonly embedded in legacy PDF documents.

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Fonts included

File	Replaces	Glyph source
fonts/SemplificaSymbol-Regular.ttf	Adobe Symbol (proprietary)	XITS Math (OFL 1.1)
fonts/SemplificaDingbats-Regular.ttf	ITC Zapf Dingbats (proprietary)	Noto Sans Symbols 2 (OFL 1.1)

Repository structure

├── fonts/
│   ├── SemplificaSymbol-Regular.ttf
│   └── SemplificaDingbats-Regular.ttf
├── specimens/
│   ├── SemplificaSymbol-Specimen.pdf
│   └── SemplificaDingbats-Specimen.pdf
├── scripts/
│   ├── font_builder.py       — build script (Apache 2.0)
│   ├── maps.py               — Unicode mapping tables (Apache 2.0)
│   └── requirements.txt
├── MAP.md                    — complete glyph mapping with metric/aesthetic analysis
├── OFL.txt                   — font license
└── LICENSE-Apache.txt        — script license

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Why these fonts exist

Symbol and ZapfDingbats are two of the 14 standard PDF fonts — the font set that every PDF viewer is required to support. They are widely embedded in legacy documents produced by older software (word processors, technical publishing tools, CAD applications, etc.).

The original Symbol and ZapfDingbats typefaces are proprietary. The only widely available open-source alternatives are the URW Base 35 fonts (specifically URW Standard Symbols L and URW Dingbats), contributed by URW++ in 1996 and maintained today by Artifex Software. However, the URW Base 35 fonts are released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0), which is a copyleft license: any software that distributes or uses those fonts must itself be released under the AGPL. This makes them unsuitable for use in proprietary or commercially distributed software.

These fonts were generated programmatically to fill that gap: they provide the same character coverage and advance-width metrics as the originals, using glyph outlines sourced exclusively from SIL Open Font License (OFL) fonts. The OFL is a permissive license that allows use, modification, and redistribution — including in proprietary and commercial software — without imposing copyleft requirements on the containing work.

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Technical details

• SemplificaSymbol glyph outlines are taken from XITS Math (OFL 1.1), a Times-serif mathematical font with Greek and symbol coverage that closely matches the proportions of the original Symbol typeface. XITS is itself a fork of STIX Fonts (© 2001–2011 STI Pub Companies, © 2009–2019 Khaled Hosny), and its copyright notice also lists portions © 2014–2015 (URW)++ Design & Development for Arabic mathematical glyphs. Those Arabic glyphs are not present in SemplificaSymbol: the subset used here covers only the 189 code points defined by the original Symbol encoding (Greek letters, mathematical operators, and typographic symbols). This was verified programmatically — zero glyphs from the URW++ Arabic contribution appear in the final font.
• SemplificaDingbats glyph outlines are taken from Noto Sans Symbols 2 (© 2017 Google Inc. — OFL 1.1).
• Advance widths for all glyphs are derived from the corresponding advance widths in the original legacy fonts (Symbol.ttf / ZapfDingbats.ttf), ensuring metric compatibility with existing documents.
• Both fonts include the Symbol encoding aliases required for correct rendering in PDF viewers and legacy applications: ASCII code points (e.g. U+0041 A) are mapped to the corresponding Greek/symbol glyphs (e.g. Α Alpha), replicating the original Symbol encoding behaviour.
• Fonts are built programmatically via fontTools using scripts/font_builder.py and scripts/maps.py. See scripts/requirements.txt for dependencies.
• Specimen PDFs showing all glyphs at various sizes are available in specimens/.

License chain verification

All glyph outlines present in the distributed fonts have been verified to originate exclusively from OFL-licensed sources:

Font	Glyph source	License	Copyleft?
SemplificaSymbol	XITS Math / STIX Fonts	OFL 1.1	No
SemplificaDingbats	Noto Sans Symbols 2	OFL 1.1	No

The OFL 1.1 is a permissive open font license. It allows use, embedding, and redistribution in any software — including proprietary and commercial products — without imposing any copyleft requirement on the containing work. No AGPL, GPL, or other copyleft-licensed glyphs are included.

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License

This repository contains two components with separate licenses:

Component	License	File
fonts/*.ttf	SIL Open Font License 1.1	OFL.txt
scripts/font_builder.py, scripts/maps.py	Apache License 2.0	LICENSE-Apache.txt

See the respective license files for full terms.

Copyright 2025 Semplifica s.r.l. (https://semplifica.ai)
Derived from OFL-licensed font(s):
  - XITS Math (SemplificaSymbol):
      Copyright (c) 2001-2011 by the STI Pub Companies
        (ACS, AIP, AMS, APS, Elsevier, IEEE)
      Portions copyright (c) 1998-2003 by MicroPress, Inc.
      Portions copyright (c) 2009-2019 by Khaled Hosny
      Note: XITS also lists URW++ portions (c) 2014-2015 for Arabic
      mathematical glyphs; those glyphs are NOT present in SemplificaSymbol.
  - Noto Sans Symbols 2 (SemplificaDingbats):
      Copyright 2017 Google Inc. All Rights Reserved.