Fonts? What fonts?

[woody649]

I was reminded (again) that Windows 10 will reach end-of-life in October of 2025. Sure, that's more than two years in the future, but time flies when you're having fun ... or just trying to survive. My situation is that I have three desktop computers, two laptops, and two tablets running Windows 10 ... and not one of them meets the minimum specifications to run Windows 11 (even if I wanted to run Windows 11 -- which I don't.)

I can't afford to replace seven computers, so that means it's time to start doing some homework.

I write books and self-publish through Amazon KDP and Barnes and Noble Press. Despite pronouncements of doom from many people on writers' and desktop publishing forums that you "can't" properly format a book for print using Microsoft Word ... that's what I do. I know that there are minor technical flaws in my books from a typesetting/layout perspective, but 99.73% of readers will never notice, so I'm not worried about it.

Because as an author I try to respect the copyrights of other creators of intellectual property, I won't pirate fonts. But when it comes to fonts and the permissions, there are some quirks. Windows includes a lot of fonts, and Microsoft Office adds more fonts. If you use Windows Professional and/or any of the professional flavors of Office (Office Pro, Office Home & Business, or Office Enterprise) you can use the fonts provided by Microsoft for any commercial purpose. However, if you have Windows Home or Office Home & Student, you CAN'T (legally) use those same fonts for commercial purposes.

So what happens if I start a book on my desktop computer, running Windows Professional and Office Professional, but I finish the book on a laptop running Windows Home and Office Home & Student? Or, just to mix it up a bit, a laptop running Windows Home but Office Home & Business?

Anyhoo ... to do anything useful with these infernal devices, we need fonts. For those of you who have switched to some flavor of Linux -- what do you do for fonts? After reading as much as I can digest about variations of Linux, it seems most of the distros come with LibreOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird. And I know my non-Microsoft office suite of choice, SoftMaker Office, is available for Linux. But nobody mentions fonts.

Does Linux come with fonts, or do you have to download what you want from Font Squirrel?

[Barrie Greed]

Woody


I have the Ubuntu 22.10 running on my Linux box which has hundreds of fonts on it including all the standards like arial, times new roman, georgia, etc. It even has versions of things I thought were Microsoft inventions such as trebuchet and comic sans. Plus lots and lots of free fonts.


If you let me know what fonts interest you I can let you know if they are on my system.


But I am afraid I am no expert on licensing arrangements.


Barrie Greed

[woody649]

Thanks, Barrie.

I don't have an extensive list of fonts I might be looking for. The stand-bys are things like Palatino, Century (or Century Schoolbook), Bookman Pro, Crimson Pro, Georgia, Baskerville, Futura, and a few more of the publishing regulars.

I just didn't know if the Linux distros include fonts. Good to know that at least one of the does. Do you know what directory the fonts are stored in? I will be creating a couple of portable Linux installs on USB sticks for testing. It'll be easier if I know where to look.

[Andrew B.]

Why don't you replace one of the seven computers and use it as your dtp computer.

[woody649]

Originally Posted by Andrew B.

Why don't you replace one of the seven computers and use it as your dtp computer.

It may come to that. My situation is that I'm in what is now deemed to be a "suburb," but that's really a lie. The house was built in 1950, when this was a rural, farming community. The utility infrastructure dates to the 1940s, or before, and power outages are frequent. So are other power anomalies; twice in the past two years, I have experienced 240 volts coming through my 120-volt outlets -- resulting in lots of fried equipment. So I have a primary desktop computer, but I keep the two previous primaries pretty much updated to match the daily use machine, so I can have a fall-back if something gets fried again.

Then there are the laptops and tablets. I don't use them often enough to justify spending the money to replace them, but when I travel I want to be able to access the Internet and not have to worry that I'm using an unsecured operating system.

[Steve Rindsberg]

You might be better off spending a few bucks on a whole-house electrical protection device (the generic name for which I can't call to mind at the moment). Personally, I think the whole hooha from MS about security is a con, or at least something directed at idiots who'll click on any damfool thing (or the IT staff who have to deal with the aftermath). IMO if you have decent AV software and you're careful what you click on/open from email, the risks aren't that bad.

I'm stuck staying updated, at least on Office, because I have to be able to support whatever my customers are using, but I can do pretty much anything I need to do for myself on a Win7 laptop with an older copy of Office (2016 or so ... 2019 wouldn't let me install on Win7).

[woody649]

Originally Posted by Steve Rindsberg

You might be better off spending a few bucks on a whole-house electrical protection device (the generic name for which I can't call to mind at the moment).

Whole house surge protector. Yes, I have bought one, and when the weather warms up a bit so I'm comfortable working in the garage (where the panel is), I'll install it. My breaker panel is full, so I need to shift a few things around to fit it in.

[woody649]

Originally Posted by Steve Rindsberg

I'm stuck staying updated, at least on Office, because I have to be able to support whatever my customers are using, but I can do pretty much anything I need to do for myself on a Win7 laptop with an older copy of Office (2016 or so ... 2019 wouldn't let me install on Win7).

Your laptop is probably running 32-bit Windows. I think Office 2016 was the last version that had a 32-bit version. (Not certain on that). It shouldn't matter -- the file format hasn't changed since Microsoft introduced the new file format with Office 2007. (.docx, .xlsx. and .pptx)

[Steve Rindsberg]

Originally Posted by woody649

Your laptop is probably running 32-bit Windows. I think Office 2016 was the last version that had a 32-bit version. (Not certain on that). It shouldn't matter -- the file format hasn't changed since Microsoft introduced the new file format with Office 2007. (.docx, .xlsx. and .pptx)

No, other than a couple random VMs, I don't have any PCs running 32-bit Windows. It's not a matter of "bitness" ... even 2021 has a 32-bit version, but 64-bit became the default install a few versions back.

This is just MS trying to force folk into Win10 and beyond.

[Barrie Greed]

Woody

It's not looking good. Only URW Bookman and Georgia appear on my copy of Ubuntu. That is not to say you cannot get fonts elsewhere to add to the collection. You wil lnot get Palatino as it is still copyrighted. You should be able to get zapf calligraphic as a stand in. There will no doubt be clones for the others available from free font download sites.

On Ubuntu the fonts normally live in /usr/share/fonts with some other font files in the same area of /usr/share.

Barrie Greed