For microsoft vs.net user, before build the cairo library, you need to create a header file "cairo-features.h", and than create a win32 dll project, add the requested source files into the project.
You can get the win32 project from there: The MSVC project of the cairo library
cairo-features.h for msvc using win32 font:
#ifndef CAIRO_FEATURES_H
#define CAIRO_FEATURES_H
#define CAIRO_HAS_IMAGE_SURFACE 1
#define CAIRO_HAS_USER_FONT 1
#define CAIRO_HAS_PNG_FUNCTIONS 1
#define CAIRO_HAS_SVG_SURFACE 1
#define CAIRO_HAS_PDF_SURFACE 1
#define CAIRO_HAS_PS_SURFACE 1
#define CAIRO_HAS_WIN32_SURFACE 1
#define CAIRO_HAS_WIN32_FONT 1
#endif