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Creating New Fonts

Wine, and the free software community in general, currently lacks free fonts. Windows relies on several standard fonts to be installed and as a result Wine must also provide them. All of the infrastructure is in place for Wine to use new fonts, in fact we already have a number of fonts. However we also need to create other new ones. The most important fonts to replace are True``Type ones. Working on this project requires minimal coding skills, most of which will only be needed to hook the new fonts into the Wine build system.

To get started, you can read about what has been done in the past in Wine Weekly News issues #240, #241, and #261. At this point Wine uses fonts created with FontForge. To create more fonts, you'll first want to figure out a game plan. You'll probably want to pursue one of three methods after researching them all:

Getting others to relicense existing fonts

Several free TrueType fonts already exist, we just need to get them to be licensed under the LGPL. If you contact the authors and politely explain what you're trying to do you may be successful. At that point you just need to import the fonts into FontForge and generate .sfd "spline font database files". This method might be easiest.

Tracing glyphs

This method relies on tracing an existing glyph into an image and then building a new font based on the image. The process is described in detail on FontForge's website, however the question of the legality remains to be answered. You'll need to find out how legal that is as part of the project.

Doing it all from scratch

This method involves the most work. You are essentially creating new glyphs from scratch. Again, FontForge has all the information regarding this.

What fonts need to be replaced?

With regards to what fonts need to be replaced, we should start with:

  • Terminal (bitmap font)
  • Microsoft Sans Serif ( TrueType and different than MS Sans Serif)

From there, we also need replacements for the following TrueType fonts (this list may be wrong, you should check whether existing fonts can replace these):

  • Arial
  • Comic Sans MS
  • Courier
  • Georgia
  • Impact
  • Times New Roman
  • Trebuchet MS
  • Verdana
  • Wingdings [implemented, but still missing many glyphs] see Bug 7156
  • Webdings


More information about fonts in wine here

What fonts exist in Wine?

As of wine version 0.960 the following fonts (in the wine/fonts directory) exist:

Bitmap Fonts

The following FontForge .sfd's "spline font database files" create the Bitmap Fonts listed:


Bitmap fonts and under Windows come in localized versions and also in two resolutions (96 and 120 dpi). (1250 - east europe, 1251 - cyrillic, 1252 - latin 1)

    Code Page  1250     1251    1252
      System 	1/1 	1/1 	1/1
     Courier 	1/3 	1/3 	1/3
MS Sans Serif 	2/6 	2/6 	3/6


  • system.sfd - "System Bold" (C) 2004 Huw D M Davies, Dmitry Timoshkov" - Font``Forge - Created:2004-7-15 Version: 001.000

Creates system.ttf

vgasys.fon: /system.ttf 16,1252,7

vgasyse.fon: /system.ttf 16,1250,7

vgasysr.fon: /system.ttf 16,1251,7

vgasysg.fon: /system.ttf 16,1253,7

vgasyst.fon: /system.ttf 16,1254,7

vgas1255.fon: /system.ttf 16,1255,7

vgas1256.fon: /system.ttf 16,1256,7

vgas1257.fon: /system.ttf 16,1257,7

vgas874.fon: /system.ttf 16,874,7

jvgasys.fon: /system.ttf 18,932,8

svgasys.fon: /system.ttf 16,936,7 16,1252,7

hvgasys.fon: /system.ttf 16,949,7

cvgasys.fon: /system.ttf 16,950,7 16,1252,7
  • small_fonts_jp.sfd - "Small Fonts Medium" "(C) 2006 Huw D M Davies, Dmitry Timoshkov, Aric Stewart" - Font``Forge - Created: 2006-4-1 Version: 001.000

Creates small_fonts_jp.ttf

jsmalle.fon: /small_fonts_jp.ttf 11,932,7
  • small_fonts.sfd - "Small Fonts Medium" "(C) 2006 Huw D M Davies, Dmitry Timoshkov" - Font``Forge - Created:2006-4-1 Version: 001.000

Creates small_fonts.ttf

smalle.fon: /small_fonts.ttf 11,1252,5

smallee.fon: /small_fonts.ttf 11,1250,5

smaller.fon: /small_fonts.ttf 11,1251,5

smalleg.fon: /small_fonts.ttf 11,1253,5

smallet.fon: /small_fonts.ttf 11,1254,5

smae1255.fon: /small_fonts.ttf 11,1255,5

smae1256.fon: /small_fonts.ttf 11,1256,5

smae1257.fon: /small_fonts.ttf 11,1257,5
  • ms_sans_serif.sfd - "MS Sans Serif Medium" "(C) 2004 Huw D M Davies, Dmitry Timoshkov" - Font``Forge - Created:2004-6-17 Version: 001.000

Creates ms_sans_serif.ttf

sserife.fon: /ms_sans_serif.ttf 13,1252,5 16,1252,7 20,1252,8

sserifee.fon: /ms_sans_serif.ttf 13,1250,5 16,1250,7

sserifer.fon: /ms_sans_serif.ttf 13,1251,5 16,1251,7 20,1251,8

sserifeg.fon: /ms_sans_serif.ttf 13,1253,5 16,1253,7 20,1253,8

sserifet.fon: /ms_sans_serif.ttf 13,1254,5 16,1254,7 20,1254,8

ssee1255.fon: /ms_sans_serif.ttf 13,1255,5 16,1255,7 20,1255,8

ssee1256.fon: /ms_sans_serif.ttf 13,1256,5 16,1256,7 20,1256,8

ssee1257.fon: /ms_sans_serif.ttf 13,1257,5 16,1257,7 20,1257,8

ssee874.fon: /ms_sans_serif.ttf 13,874,5 16,874,7 20,874,8
  • courier.sfd - "Courier Medium" "(C) 2004 Huw D M Davies, Dmitry Timoshkov" - Font``Forge - Created:2004-8-6 Version: 001.000

Creates courier.ttf

coure.fon: /courier.ttf 13,1252,8

couree.fon: /courier.ttf 13,1250,8

courer.fon: /courier.ttf 13,1251,8

coureg.fon: /courier.ttf 13,1253,8

couret.fon: /courier.ttf 13,1254,8

coue1255.fon: /courier.ttf 13,1255,8

coue1256.fon: /courier.ttf 13,1256,8

coue1257.fon: /courier.ttf 13,1257,8

Truetype Fonts

  • marlett.ttf - "Marlett Regular" Version: 0.2 (C) TransGaming Technologies. All rights reserved. GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1
  • symbol.ttf - "WineSymbol" Version 1.1 (c) 2009 Jon Parshall for CodeWeavers GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1
  • tahoma.ttf - "Wine Tahoma Regular" Version 0.001 (C) 2004 Larry Snyder Based on Bitstream Vera Sans (C) Bitstream Inc GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1
  • tahomabd.ttf - "Wine Tahoma Bold" Version 0.001 (C) 2004 Larry Snyder Based on Bitstream Vera Sans (C) Bitstream Inc. GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1
  • wingding.ttf - "WineWingdings" Version 001.000 (C) 2013 Dmitry Timoshkov GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1

See Also


This page was last edited on 18 June 2022, at 00:51.