License of fonts included with Windows? [closed]

Question

I'm wondering what is the license of the fonts included with Windows. Does anybody know where I could find the EULA for them? In general, can I freely use these fonts in my open source software?

In general, I know I cannot distribute the font file itself, but how about simply displaying some text with this font? For example, Arial is used in many websites, I guess these websites don't pay some extra license fee to Microsoft?

Unrefined

This question is off-topic because it is about licensing or legal issues, not programming or software development. See here for details, and the help center for more. – Implicate

@Implicate this question could be moved to graphicdesign.stackexchange.com where such questions seem to be relevant. – Lemmy

@insaner: That's only possible in the first 30 days of a questions life... Anyway, they probably have a dupe if you are right. – Implicate

Ah ok, I didn't know that. I found this question here when googling for it myself. If I find the equivalent on graphicdesign.se, I will try to link to it here. – Lemmy

@Lemmy This question is absolutely relevant for every Windows developer who has to deal with font substitution in his application. – Proteiform

Answer 1

The Arial wikipedia article describes the licensing terms of Microsoft fonts. And, it also specifies free alternatives available that are metrically equivalent to Arial. Liberation Sans is a good choice IMO. Look at relevant wiki articles to know all the free alternatives available.

Most of the Windows fonts are licensed to Ascender corporation. They now provide license for software and hardware developers to use them. See Type Foundry: Microsoft for more information, and the fonts available.

In addition to that, if you go to right-click -> properties, there's a tab called license. It provides the information about licensing terms as well.

When it comes to use of fonts like Arial in websites, I think it's allowed because the website itself doesn't embed the font, but merely specifies the font name. It's the browser that does the mapping. If you are talking about a stand-alone software, you need to have a closer look.

Bonus

Thanks and +1 for "if you go to right-click -> properties, there's a tab called license. It provides the information about licensing terms". Very good to know. – Unrefined

Answer 2

You are free to use the fonts supplied with Windows, free to write software that uses them, but you cannot distribute them.

Costplus

cannot distribute in what sense? the font file? the "likeness"? what about screenshots? what if I draw text with a font into an image and use the image in a game? – Maestro

You can't install these fonts in another machine – Costplus

But you can send a PDF using the embedded font to another computer, right? :^) Or this is considered as "distribution"? – Orphaorphan

When a font producer marks the font as embeddable, they are granting permission to do this. – Costplus