Redistributing Segoe UI Font

[Smokey Grindle]

So back in the vista beta we were told start using Segoe UI as our GUI
font... well what happens when we backport the app to XP? I don't want to
change the font just for a different windows version, if we get it looking
right in one place, why spend the time trying to get it to look right in a
different one with a different font? Now I vaguely remember them telling us
Segoe UI was licensed for redistribution for apps that are writing for XP
and Vista... is this true? anyone know anything about this? havent heard
about it since Beta 2 of Vista... thanks!

 

[Joergen Bech]

This question was brought up on the Microsoft forum a while ago
and a Microsoft employee replied:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1756263&SiteID=1

But more precisely:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511282.aspx

"Win32 or WinForms: Extensible components or pre-Windows Vista:

To target Microsoft® Windows® XP and Windows 2000, use the 8 point MS
Shell Dlg 2 pseudo font, which maps to Tahoma.
To target earlier versions of Windows, use 8 point MS Shell Dlg pseudo
font, which maps to Tahoma on Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and to MS
Sans Serif on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, and
Windows NT 4.0."

Regards,

Joergen Bech

 

[Smokey Grindle]

doesn't really solve my problem though... If I load the project in vista I
want Segoe UI... but if you specify it to Shell Dlg 2, in vista it ALSO maps
to Tahoma... they never made a Shell Dlg 3...

 

[Joergen Bech]

Well, then you just have to implement a fall-back mechanism.

Or should that be fall-forward?

If you are not allowed to redistribute the font, you will just have
to write for the lowest common denominator and replace the
fonts at runtime if you find what you need on the system.

Should be easy to write a method that walks the hierarchy
of controls on a form and uses reflection to determine if a
control has a font property and finally whether this property
value is one of those that need to be replaced.

If you are "spending time getting it to look right" with one font,
I wonder how your application is going to look/survive on a
machine with a vastly different dpi setting for the monitor than
the one you are developing it on?

/Joergen Bech

 

[Smokey Grindle]

thats why you spend time getting it to look right, you validate DPI scaleing
and such thats what I ment by that

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

To target earlier versions of Windows, use 8 point MS Shell Dlg pseudo
font, which maps to Tahoma on Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and to MS
Sans Serif on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, and
Windows NT 4.0."

I doubt that. According to my tests using VB6 on a German Windows XP SP2
system, "MS Shell Dlg" maps to MS Sans Serif and "MS Shell Dlg 2" maps to
Tahoma.

 

[Joergen Bech]

I doubt that. According to my tests using VB6 on a German Windows XP SP2
system, "MS Shell Dlg" maps to MS Sans Serif and "MS Shell Dlg 2" maps to
Tahoma.

Well, it was a direct copy/paste quote from the guidelines, but yes,
MS Shell Dlg maps to MS Sans Serif on my English XP SP2 as well.

Regards,

Joergen Bech