Shoutbox

Well i got a cool looking font off the internet, but whenever i use fonts that aren't default, the person i am talking to sees it as Arial.

Now i suppose it has nothing to do with the operating system and it's default fonts, but instead its about whether the other person has that font too or not. Anyways, i thought it would be nice if there was an option like:
"Download user fonts:
o Always
o Ask me first
o Never"
And then, that would download/install the font the other guy is using so that we can see each others fonts, cause customization is awesome.

I think this isn't impossible, what do you think about it?
Also, i'm sorry if this has already been suggested, i didn't notice it.

Is this a suggestion for Windows Live Messenger or Messenger Plus! Live? It seems much more like something that should be in Windows Live Messenger.

Well it is on the Plus! forums, and here is more likely that people will notice the suggestion haha..

Whether it's for Windows Live Messenger or Plus! Live, technically speaking this is possible to do. If you have enabled a certain option to saying that you allow others to download your current font from your computer, your contacts could send a request which you automatically respond to with a file transfer of your font. After the file is received, their client could then copy it to the Windows Fonts folder.

The problem I see is that not all fonts are free. If you happen to install a paid font and use that in Messenger, it could be illegal for you to share it with others.

Also, in order to install a font on Vista or higher, you need administrator rights since those files have to be copied to "%Windows%\Fonts" which is a system folder by default. Therefore, the process of quickly retrieving a font before you chat could turn out annoying with those UAC prompts popping up all of a sudden.

Besides, I'd rather not have all those crazy fonts my contacts are using - some are just illegible. I don't want my Fonts folder to be filled with those useless dingbat fonts.

In that case, the fonts could be copied in Plus! directory. If that's possible, so that way you wont have junky fonts anywhere else but for usage on msn.

As for the commercial fonts, well the fonts could be locked somehow so you can only see it in MSN but you can't use them.

I don't know, i'm just talking stuff now

quote:

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Originally posted by jod.drummer
As for the commercial fonts, well the fonts could be locked somehow so you can only see it in MSN but you can't use them.

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Unfortunatly, that is not possible.
Also in the legal sense it is not possible...

For starters, the font file format doesn't have such a setting.
But even if they had something like this, such a 'lock' should be applied by the operating system itself in that case, not by the used programs.

Moreover, if they had such a setting and the OS had such a restriction system build in, then it would also be illegal to use them in Messenger anyways (because the user hasn't payed for its use, the contact did -assuming the contact got hold of the font in a legal way in the first place-)

So, nope, not possible, both in the physical way and in the legal way. And the legality of this is also the reason why something like this will probably never be implemented in Windows Live Messenger or Messenger Plus!.