TTF

TrueType Font — the industry-standard binary font format developed by Apple and Microsoft.

What is TTF?

TrueType was developed by Apple in the late 1980s as an alternative to Adobe's PostScript Type 1 fonts, and was later adopted by Microsoft for Windows. It stores glyph outlines as quadratic Bézier curves, which are computationally simpler (and faster to rasterize) than the cubic curves used by PostScript.

TTF quickly became the universal font format for both macOS and Windows. For over two decades, it was the standard way to distribute fonts — from system fonts to custom typefaces. While WOFF/WOFF2 have largely replaced it for web delivery, TTF remains the foundation that all modern web font formats are built upon.

How It Works

A TTF file is a binary container organized into tables, each storing a specific type of data:

• glyf — glyph outlines (the actual vector shapes)
• cmap — character-to-glyph mapping (which Unicode code point maps to which glyph)
• head — font metadata (units-per-em, creation date, flags)
• hmtx — horizontal metrics (advance width and left side bearing for each glyph)

For icon fonts, each icon is assigned a Unicode code point in the Private Use Area (U+E000 to U+F8FF) — a range specifically reserved for application-defined characters that won't conflict with standard text.

@font-face {
  font-family: 'MyIcons';
  src: url('myicons.ttf') format('truetype');
}

.icon {
  font-family: 'MyIcons';
  font-style: normal;
  font-weight: normal;
}

.icon-home::before {
  content: '\E001';
}

The format('truetype') hint tells the browser what kind of font file to expect, so it can skip the download if TrueType is not supported (though virtually all browsers support it).

Pros & Cons

Browser Support

TTF enjoys 98%+ browser support, including all modern browsers and Internet Explorer 9+. It is also natively supported by every major desktop operating system — Windows, macOS, and Linux — meaning you can install a TTF file directly as a system font without any conversion.

While TTF works everywhere, for web delivery you should prefer WOFF2 (which is simply a compressed TTF). Reserve raw TTF for desktop use, development, and as the base format in your build pipeline.

When to Use TTF

• Desktop applications — install as a system font for use in native apps, design tools, or IDEs.
• Electron and native apps — bundle the TTF directly with your application for offline font rendering.
• Development and testing — TTF is easy to inspect with font tools like FontForge, fontTools, or system font viewers.
• System font inspection — when you need to verify glyph metrics, hinting, or cmap tables using OS-level utilities.