| Originally designed
by Apple Computer, the TrueType font technology was first seen fully
implemented in 1990 on the Macintosh System 7 operating system. The
technology was subsequently used by Microsoft in 1991 in the Windows
3.1 operating system and both companies have used the font technology
in their main operating systems ever since.
The technology consists
of two components, firstly a TrueType font which contains all
the required information about a specific font and secondly a
TrueType rasterizer which interprets the information stored in
the TrueType font and enables it to be displayed on any suitable
output device, such as screen or printer. TrueType fonts have
been commercially available for many years and are available
in thousands of different typestyles. The TrueType rasterizer
is a piece of software built into the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft
Windows operating systems.
Since 1991 Microsoft
have refined the rasterizer to include new features such as font
smoothing (anti-aliasing) which was introduced with Windows 95.
Microsoft are currently working with Adobe to produce a new specification
called TrueType Open which will work on both Microsoft and Apple
machines allowing both TrueType and PostScript data to be stored
in a single font.
TrueType
Fonts
Each character within
a TrueType font is defined as a precise mathematical outline.
The advantage of using this method over a simple bitmap or graphic
is that the outline can be mathematically scaled to any size
with no loss of quality. With the bitmap approach you would need
an image for every size required whereas a single TrueType font
can be used for all sizes.
the letter 't'
from the font Verdana defined as a mathematical outline
In addition to the
font outline information it is also possible to store instructions
(often called hints) which are acted upon whenever the font is
rendered to an output device. These instructions ensure that
the image produced is of the highest quality by making slight
adjustments to the outline to fit the resolution (or grid) of
the chosen output device. See the TrueType
hinting section for more information.
TrueType fonts are
easy to install, easy to use and produce high quality results
on both screen and printed output. Historically TrueType fonts
have contained just typefaces, but now Formula Solutions have
utilised the TrueType technology to be able to offer fonts containing
company logos, symbols, quality marks and signatures.
For more information
please visit our products page.
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