Microsoft's strategies

This document contains a series of links to detailed information on TrueType functionality.

TrueType fonts, browsers, and operating systems
The TrueType fonts a user sees on Web pages result from the interaction between the operating system, font files, the browser, and the HTML source. Web font solutions may have engineering ramifications at many levels.

• Operating system - handles rasterization, scaling, anti-aliasing, hinting and installation.
• Font - contains outline and hinting information.
• Browser - allows user to control relative font sizes and default faces.
• HTML source - may contain font face and size information.

The TrueType font file format
TrueType was designed to address the many issues surrounding on-screen display of text. The TrueType Font File Format is well-established and currently supported by the bulk of Web clients.
    The TrueType Font File Format is a publicly-available font specification and fonts can be created with no royalties due to either Apple or Microsoft. There are several mass-market tools for creating TrueType fonts, and there are well-developed specialty tools available to higher-end font developers.
    Thousands of TrueType fonts exist, including many free. Core sets of fonts exist on both Macintosh and Windows platforms, allowing users certainty that common fonts will exist on client machines.
    For more information on the TrueType Font File Format, see our Introduction to TrueType. TrueType specification documents may be accessed from our Specifications page.

 
TrueType Open
TrueType Open is an extension to the TrueType font standard. TrueType Open fonts contain additional information that extends the capabilities of the fonts to support high-quality international typography:

• TrueType Open can associate a single character with multiple glyphs, and - conversely - it can associate combinations of characters with a single glyph.
• TrueType Open includes two-dimensional information to support features for complex positioning and glyph attachment.
• TrueType Open contains explicit script and language information, so a text-processing application can adjust its behavior accordingly.
• TrueType Open has an open format that allows font developers to define their own typographical features.
  

For more information on TrueType Open, see our Welcome to TrueType Open document.

The rasterizer
The TrueType Rasterizer is built into Windows 95, Windows NT, the Macintosh, and a variety of printer hardware. The Rasterizer is extremely stable, efficient, and well-tested. The TrueType Rasterizer can be licensed for use on other operating systems or within applications.

 
Core fonts for the Web
Microsoft currently ships a selection of common fonts as "Core Windows Fonts." (For a list of fonts supplied with Windows 95, the Plus! pack and Microsoft Office please see our Popular fonts list.) Knowing that these fonts are available under Windows on any machine allows users more certainty in the portability of their documents. Microsoft is enlarging the set of core fonts to include on-line and Web-related fonts, thus avoiding issues of embedding or downloading for common documents. This set of core fonts will contain large international character sets, and virtually guarantee that users can view text on any Web page in the world.

 
Hinting
Quality hinting is essential to ensure the readability of text on screen. TrueType fonts can be hinted to higher standards than other font formats because the TrueType instruction set is so rich and powerful. To ensure the availability of well-hinted TrueType fonts, Microsoft and others have created TrueType hinting tools that are available under license.

The above examples show hinted and unhinted text. On the left an example of unhinted text. On the right an example of hinted text where stroke weight is consistent, diagonals and curves are controlled, and the overall effect is much more appealing than the example at left.
    For more information on hinting in TrueType fonts, see our TrueType hinting document.

 
Anti-Aliasing / grayscaling / font smoothing
Microsoft has built anti-aliasing into the Windows 95 operating system (and soon into Windows NT). ANY TrueType font can be anti-aliased on-the-fly in Windows 95. Font vendors can put information into TrueType fonts controlling the size ranges at which anti-aliasing occurs. Users can turn anti-aliasing on or off.

The above examples show a passage of text, before and after smoothing is switched on.
    For more information on anti-aliasing in Windows 95, see our Smooth fonts in Windows 95 document.

 
Embedding fonts
Font embedding is a technology that allows fonts to travel with the documents in which they are used and works with both Type 1 and TrueType fonts.
    TrueType embedding technology has already received approval during a Windows Open Services Architecture review by major font vendors. In fact, TrueType pioneered font embedding and the industry has been supportive of these embedding methods. Font vendors can specify several levels of distribution and use within a font file, and the operating system and applications legally mediate license protection. Subsetting and core Web fonts can provide good solutions to the problem of downloading and embedding large fonts.
    For more information on embedding TrueType fonts, see our Embedding TrueType document.

 
Unicode
The TrueType Font Format has supported Unicode from the start. Unicode encoding provides the only means of unambiguously identifying characters, especially across different fonts. Windows and NT support Unicode. Apple has stated that Unicode will be supported in the next generation of Mac system software.
    For technical information on Unicode support, see our Character sets document.

 
Specifying fonts and sizes in Web documents
Microsoft supports a strategy allowing designers to specify fonts and size ranges. Currently the Microsoft Internet Explorer allows HTML authors to specify font face and font size using the <FONT FACE> and <FONT SIZE>  tags.
    Microsoft also supports the implementation of the proposed Cascading Style Sheets standard [external link please see our disclaimer] from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
    For more information on the font-related features of Microsoft Internet Explorer, see our Fonts in Microsoft Internet Explorer document.

 
Font naming and mapping
To help mediate font naming conflicts and assist the operating system (or application) in mapping fonts appropriately, TrueType fonts contain information that identifies vendor ID, PANOSE information, and character sets. Font vendors are responsible for making their font names unique. An operating system can legally contain tables that map copyrighted font names to alternate fonts.
    For a list of registered vendors, see our Vendor ID registry.

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this page last updated 9 March 1996
© 1996 Microsoft Corporation. all rights reserved.
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