The Current Web Font Formats

Ralf Hermann

The relatively new possibility of embedding any font you like into Web sites
via @font-face is an additional stylistic device, which promises to abolish
the monotony of the usual system fonts. But it would have been all too
easy, if there was only one web font format. Instead there՚s quite a variety
which we are going to present here.

Web Font Formats

EOT, TTF, OTF, CFF, AFM, LWFN, FFIL, FON, PFM, PFB, WOFF, SVG, STD, PRO,

XSF, ...

To find one՚s way in this veritable jungle of font formats is not exactly easy.
On the following pages we՚ll have a closer look at the pros and cons of
those font formats that are particularly relevant for their use on Web sites.

TrueType

This format was developed in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe՚s
Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. As a scalable outline format, it replaced the
at that time common bitmap fonts being used for screen display. Microsoft
took up the TrueType format as well and it soon evolved into the standard
format for system fonts due to the fact that it offered fine-tuned control for
a precise display of font at particular sizes.