TrueType Font (TTF) is a scalable font format developed by Apple and Microsoft, using quadratic Bézier curves to define glyph outlines. It enables high-quality font rendering across different screen resolutions and print media, storing font metrics, character mappings, and vector-based letterform descriptions in a single file. TTF supports advanced typography features like kerning, ligatures, and multilingual character sets.
Scalable without quality loss, compact file size, supports advanced typography features, cross-platform compatibility, embedded font hinting for improved screen readability, and supports wide range of international character sets and Unicode encoding.
Large file sizes for complex fonts, potential licensing restrictions, limited compression compared to newer font formats like WOFF, potential rendering inconsistencies across different devices and operating systems, and less efficient for web use compared to web-optimized font formats.
TTF is widely used in graphic design, digital publishing, web typography, operating system font rendering, and cross-platform document creation. Common applications include website design, desktop publishing software, graphic design tools, mobile app interfaces, and professional print production. It's a standard format for font distribution in Windows, macOS, and many Linux distributions.