fonttechnology

Font technology encompasses the formats, rendering systems, and tooling used to store, render, and manage typefaces in digital environments. It covers outline formats, hinting, glyph metrics, licensing, and the software components that select, substitute, and display glyphs across operating systems and devices.

Common outline formats include TrueType and OpenType, which store scalable vector outlines and metadata such as kerning and OpenType features. Web-oriented formats such as WOFF and WOFF2 provide compressed, embeddable fonts for browser use.

Rendering involves font engines and rasterizers in operating systems and browsers. Techniques such as hinting, anti-aliasing, and subpixel rendering aim to maximize legibility on raster displays at various sizes and resolutions.

OpenType supports a wide range of typographic features, including ligatures, contextual alternates, fractions, and stylistic sets. Variable fonts consolidate multiple axes (weight, width, optical size, and more) into a single font file, enabling dynamic typography.

Color and multi-master fonts extend capabilities through color glyphs and multiple layers. Color fonts use tables such as COLR/CPAL or SBIX; variable and color fonts influence web and app typography but can raise performance considerations.

Web deployment relies on CSS @font-face, licensing considerations, and font delivery optimization. Subsetting and compression reduce file sizes, while caching and robust fallbacks help ensure readability when fonts fail to load.

The field has evolved from metal type and bitmap fonts to scalable vector outlines and advanced layout features. Ongoing developments focus on performance, accessibility, and expressive typography through new formats and rendering techniques.