Vista fonts in Wine

Written by Tom Wickline

Wednesday, 31 October 2007 04:28

Last month I posted about Microsoft's PowerPoint 2007 Viewer with Wine. Even if you don't need the PowerPoint 2007 Viewer it bundles Microsoft's new Vista fonts that may become useful as more Windows users move over to Vista.

Back in the 90's Microsoft donated their standard Web Core Fonts that most every browser uses and those fonts remained unchanged up to Windows XP. With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft has released 6 new web fonts (all begin with C as in core) Cambria, Calibri, Candara, Consolas, Constantia, and Corbel.

In addition to the above fonts, Vista also ships with Nyala and Segoe however these fonts are not a part of the free download and are unavailable, legally, to non-Vista/Office owners.

Non-vista, Windows users can get the new fonts by downloading and installing Microsoft's Powerpoint Viewer. Installing the viewer installs the new Vista C fonts into ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/fonts and they are, for the most part, worth the download. If you're a web designer and not using Vista then this download is mandatory since it will let you see your page as Vista users see it.

The new C fonts aren't necessarily designed to stand on their own, but rather to replace existing web-fonts, giving them a much needed face-lift. This is actually a good thing. A unique font couldn't really be used for fear that non-vista users wouldn't be able to render a page or document correctly.

Read the PowerPoint 2007 EULA before you proceed with this.