FS#12547 - Tahoma Bold missing from ms-ttf-fonts

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Jamie (SuperJamie) - Monday, 22 December 2008, 23:15 GMT
Last edited by Thayer Williams (thayer) - Monday, 02 February 2009, 00:28 GMT
Task Type Bug Report
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Thayer Williams (thayer)
Architecture All
Severity Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version None
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

Description: Tahoma Bold (tahomabd.ttf) is missing from ms-ttf-fonts. As a result, when trying to use Tahoma Bold, a bold font is "created" from the existing Tahoma (tahoma.ttf), which looks very ugly. If one puts tahomabd.ttf into ~/.fonts/, the font displays as expected.

(Technically, Tahoma isn't an MS Core font, but it is the main display font in XP, and quite popular for desktop use. I think the Arch decision to include Tahoma, and by extension Tahoma Bold, in ms-ttf-fonts is a good idea.)

Additional info:
* package version 2.0-1, Last Updated: 2008-09-13

Steps to reproduce:
Install ttf-ms-fonts, try use Tahoma Bold as window titles in Openbox, compare the same to using proper Tahoma Bold by copying the file into ~/.fonts/tahomabd.ttf. The difference is very evident around size 7 and 8.
This task depends upon

Closed by  Thayer Williams (thayer)
Monday, 02 February 2009, 00:28 GMT
Reason for closing:  Won't implement
Additional comments about closing:  Tahoma has been removed entirely.
Comment by Thayer Williams (thayer) - Tuesday, 23 December 2008, 18:53 GMT
I believe this is a matter of licensing. tahoma.ttf was included in the wd97vwr32.exe (Word viewer) archive, however tahomabd.tff was not. I'll see what I can do, but in the meantime if anyone else sees Tahoma Bold in a legally redistributable package, please let me know.
Comment by Jamie (SuperJamie) - Tuesday, 23 December 2008, 21:41 GMT
It appears you're right. Researching further, it appears one needs a valid Windows license to use and distribute either Microsoft's Tahoma (information conflicting) or Tahoma Bold (definitely not redistributable).

Ubuntu removed Tahoma from their msttcorefonts package in version 2.2 (May 2007):
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/msttcorefonts/

BSD includes detection of the Tahoma font if the user has installed it, but do not distribute the font themselves:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-ports-bugs/2005-October/069676.html

The openSUSE Wiki has found a downloadable package with Tahoma Bold, but again licensing restricts its' use:
http://zh_tw.opensuse.org/TrueType#Getting_some_TrueType_fonts

Someone found a downloadable Tahoma and Tahoma Bold in Microsoft WEFT, but again not redistributable:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/baltix/+bug/50529/comments/40

However, the Wine project distribute a GPL version of Tahoma and Tahoma Bold, which we could legally include in Arch:
http://wiki.winehq.org/CreateFonts
http://source.winehq.org/source/fonts/

I'll give these GPL fonts a try and let you know how they look.
Comment by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Friday, 26 December 2008, 19:45 GMT
I think we should remove tahoma from the ttf-ms-fonts package, as it's distributed with different terms than the other ones. In the meanwhile, we should add licensing information about the other fonts to ttf-ms-fonts.
As for tahoma-bold:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/ie6sp1/finrel/6_sp1/W98NT42KMeXP/EN-US/IELPKTH.CAB includes both tahoma.ttf and tahomabd.ttf, but it requires a windows license. I think an AUR package is the solution for tahoma, as it's nondistributable in binary form.
Comment by Jamie (SuperJamie) - Friday, 26 December 2008, 23:31 GMT
Tahoma and Bold from Wine are pretty ordinary, certainly not as pretty as the original, or even most MS fonts.

Jan's idea of removing Tahoma from ms-ttf-fonts and making an AUR package with the real Tahoma and Tahoma Bold, with licensing info in that, is an awesome idea.
Comment by Thayer Williams (thayer) - Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 05:00 GMT
If someone takes care of the Tahoma package for AUR, I'll remove Tahoma from the ttf-ms-fonts package and push the update.

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