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I designed my app's look with Tahoma before realizing it was not available on Linux.

If I want to maintain the same look on Linux, what should I do?

I found the actual Tahoma ttf on several sites, but I assume it would be illegal to bundle it with my app? I also found a Tahoma font by Wine project, which Wikipedia says is "designed to have identical metrics to the Tahoma font". I wasn't able to find a comparison between the real Tahoma and the one by Wine project, but I assume "identical metrics" = "looks different"?

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    The Wine Tahoma font is intended to be a drop-in replacement. If you can't drop it in and use it instead of Tahoma, it's not doing it's job :). But if you are developing a web app, a decent font-stack will do just fine for us Linux users.
    – Scribblemacher
    Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 17:06

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I assume it would be illegal to bundle it with my app?

Without a proper license, yes.

what should I do?

Two options.

  1. Buy the font with a license that allows the use you need. You can purchase it from fonts.com here (it is available with an app or server license, one of which should cover you for what you need, be sure to read the licenses though). It is available elsewhere so you may want to shop around.

  2. Find a similar font. With regards to the other version you found; "identical metrics" is a bit ambiguous but should actually mean "looks the same", or at least similar in proportions and size etc. Comparing the fonts shows some differences in details but the Wine Tahoma font was designed as a drop-in replacement for the original so the differences are subtle or unnoticeable at smaller sizes.

    You can also use something like WhatTheFont or Identifont to find a similar font.

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    Thanks. It turns out I cannot tell the difference between official Tahoma and Wine Tahoma. Maybe they are exactly the same.
    – bkoodaa
    Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 19:14
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    A minor point: '"identical metrics" should actually mean "looks exactly the same"' is not entirely true. When Windows was starting up, Microsoft could not (or did not want to) license the expensive Times, Helvetica, and Courier fonts, and so they created look-a-likes with the same metrics for compatibility. However, the designs are slightly different, as a straight copy would infringe copyright. (Spotting an Arial where it is claimed to be Helvetica is one of my hobbies 😄)
    – Jongware
    Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 22:29
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    @Rad very true of course. In truth "identical metrics" could mean a lot of things; what metrics exactly? My point was more that it doesn't mean "looks different", my wording could be a bit better I think... I'll edit shortly :)
    – Cai
    Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 22:59
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    As a long time free software user, I've always interpreted "identical metrics" for these free alternatives to mean "you can replace that X font with this one and the text will take up the same amount of space, but there are minor variations in characters that the average person won't notice"
    – Scribblemacher
    Commented Jan 26, 2017 at 13:17

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