Comments on OpenOffice.org Ninja: Install Free Office 2007 Fonts for Linux and XP

version 1.02 of the Vista fonts, included in a bet...

2008-06-23T14:27:00.000-06:00

version 1.02 of the Vista fonts, included in a beta update for PPViewer, look much better at lower-point resolutions. I've lost the link to the download page, though :(

I got them installed but the fonts look wretchedly...

2008-06-22T16:14:00.000-06:00

I got them installed but the fonts look wretchedly ugly in, for example, Open Office.

Panarchy: Thanks for your comment, but it may not ...

2008-04-24T06:37:00.000-06:00

Panarchy: Thanks for your comment, but it may not legal to share those files in that way. Sorry: I had to delete it.

Pat: Is there anything unique about your system? W...

2008-03-15T08:32:00.000-06:00

Pat: Is there anything unique about your system? Which operating system? Which version of OS? Did you test in multiple applications (OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Notepad, Gedit)?

it all works for me but calibri and cambria dont w...

2008-03-07T17:13:00.000-07:00

it all works for me but calibri and cambria dont work...ive looked around and things seem to be in the right spot..

any ideas?

I don't care about Microsoft's "monopoly" or who's...

2008-03-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

I don't care about Microsoft's "monopoly" or who's font is prettier or cuter or whatever. If it were a true monopoly I would be using linux now.. and the entire college here wouldn't have nearly 100% apple products.

What I care about are my eyes and the headache after about an hour on Linux. I love linux and use it over everything else... The fonts,, just aren't up to par...

Since installed fonts like this..
My screen is MUCH easier on the eyes. I don't have to strain to read and I can spend more time programming and not taking ibuprofen

Thank you for this tutorial.

Hi Andrew,I only have words of appreciation for yo...

2008-02-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

Hi Andrew,
I only have words of appreciation for your work. So, thanks for the content you provide.
You have a great blog. Thank you.

Tuxero

M. le Prof d'Anglais:Did the previous commands suc...

2008-02-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

M. le Prof d'Anglais:

Did the previous commands succeed? Is /usr/share/fonts a directory? Which Linux do you use? Perhaps your system-wide fonts folder is not /usr/share/fonts? If so, you can either find the system-wide folder or substitute ~/.fonts for a user-level installation.

Andrew

I followed your instruction, copying and pasting t...

2008-02-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

I followed your instruction, copying and pasting the commands to avoid errors, but when I got to "sudo mv {CALIBR,CAMBRIA,CANDARA,CONSOLA,CONSTAN,CORBEL}*.TT? \ /usr/share/fonts/vista" I got the message "mv: target ` /usr/share/fonts/vista' is not a directory"

"some people warned against using the Microsoft fo...

2008-01-31T16:49:00.000-07:00

"some people warned against using the Microsoft fonts because eventually Microsoft would make the license more restrictive"

I don't think they did. Do you have a reference? The MS Web fonts EULA made adding extra restrictions impossible.

Ascender also made the Android fonts for Google - which will go OS. Thanks Ascender!

Thanks for the instructions. On the site is very n...

2008-01-31T10:55:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the instructions. On the site is very nerving box at the top, I guess it is not your idea to have it there.
BTW I once bought MS-fonts, for about $7,- you must only wait a bit and someone wants to sell such an official package for very little.
But if MS is the defacto standard then what is produced by MS should be readable for everyone!

Josiah: Thanks for pointing out the TTC (TrueType ...

2008-01-31T07:24:00.000-07:00

Josiah: Thanks for pointing out the TTC (TrueType Collection). On my system, it works fine with the .TTC extension, so I left it that way. I updated the article to move the TTC file with the TTFs.

Anonymous1, Anonymous3: Sorry. The link to a tarball with these files likely violates the license, so I must delete the comment.

Anonymous2, Raindog469: Thanks for the insights!

Andrew

The file associated with Cambria regular has a typ...

2008-01-30T23:12:00.000-07:00

The file associated with Cambria regular has a typo. It is listed as CAMBRIA.TTC, so it can be extracted by something like the following:

$ cabextract -F '*.TTC' ppviewer.cab

$ mv CAMBRIA.TTC CAMBRIA.TTF

Otherwise you will have bold, italic, and bold italic, but no regular.

Of course, if you want to pay less than the US$300...

2008-01-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Of course, if you want to pay less than the US$300 Ascender is charging for the Microsoft font set, you could buy Office Home and Student which includes all of them and costs about half that. Not that I have any kind of beef with Ascender, since they're partially responsible for the GPLed Liberation fonts which are really nice. It just seems kind of silly to pay an extra $150 just to avoid getting a copy of Office, unless the Ascender EULA is a lot less restrictive than Microsoft's.

Legitimate versions of the 95 through XP fonts may also be obtained from corefonts.sourceforge.net, due to Microsoft going through a phase of wanting everyone to use their fonts on the web back in 1998 or so, and making the license more liberal than current offerings.

At the time of the Core Fonts release, some people warned against using the Microsoft fonts because eventually Microsoft would make the license more restrictive once they got popular, and sure enough, they did. If you doubt what the anonymous poster up above was saying about Microsoft's fonts benefiting them more than you when you use them.... that would be a pretty good example.

Linux users who want to purchase a legitimate lice...

2008-01-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

Linux users who want to purchase a legitimate license to use the Microsoft Office fonts can obtain them here: … http://www.ascendercorp.com/ctfonts.html

Ascender Corp is the official licensee of Microsoft's fonts for folks who want any of the new Vista & Office fonts, or any of their older fonts.

I think there are a few places where the above sub...

2008-01-30T16:27:00.000-07:00

I think there are a few places where the above substitution table is misleading. Specifically, I'd make the following substitutions from old-style Windows fonts to free fonts (I offered multiples where they're very similar in look and/or metrics.)

Arial -> FreeSans, Liberation Sans, Caslon Roman, URW Helvetica or Nimbus Sans

Times New Roman -> FreeSerif, Liberation Serif, Linux Libertine or Nimbus Roman (or Gentium if you want something a little more Garamondesque)

Georgia -> Bitstream Vera Serif or DejaVu Serif

Trebuchet MS -> Lucida Sans

Lucida Console -> Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, DejaVu Sans Mono, Liberation Mono, Lucida Sans Typewriter

Courier New -> FreeMono, URW Courier

Book Antiqua/Palatino -> URW Palladio/Palatino

Tahoma -> DejaVu Sans Condensed or Toga Sans

Verdana -> Bitstream Vera Sans or DejaVu Sans

So there's really no need to be downloading pirated Vista fonts. I don't think the absence of common fonts is really an issue for free software anymore, just the lack of proprietary font names.

Of course, using these fonts to compose your own d...

2008-01-28T04:58:00.000-07:00

Of course, using these fonts to compose your own documents will only increase Microsoft's monopoly. They should only be used to view documents that others have composed.

If it's not my boss or a client sending the document, I would almost prefer to have them recompose the document using one of the older fonts... or print it as a PDF if they must.