If you recently switched from Microsoft Windows to Ubuntu MATE, you might have noticed that some of the fonts that you commonly used are missing. Comic Sans MS (Bold) Courier New (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic) Georgia (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic) Impact. It will take a little while to download and install all of the Microsoft True Type Core.
Core fonts for the Web was a project started by Microsoft in 1996 to create a standard pack of fonts for the World Wide Web. It included the proprietary fonts Andalé Mono, Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, Courier New, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, Verdana and Webdings, all of them in TrueType font format packaged in executable files ('.exe') for Microsoft Windows and in BinHexedStuff-It archives ('.sit.hqx') for Macintosh. These packages were published as freeware under a proprietary license imposing some restrictions on distribution.[1]
Microsoft terminated the project in 2002,[2][3] but because of the license terms, the distributed files are still legally available from some third-party websites. Updated versions of the fonts produced since 2002 have not been published as freeware and are usually available only after purchasing a license or as a part of some commercial products.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
Overview[edit]
The fonts were licensed to Microsoft by Monotype Corporation or designed for Microsoft by Microsoft's own font designers or external designers. The fonts were designed to:
- Be highly legible on screen;
- Offer a wide range of typographic “timbres” within a small number of typefaces; and
- Support extensive internationalisation.
These design goals and the fonts' broad availability have made some of them extremely popular with web designers. However, these proprietary fonts (or some of them) are not distributed with some modern operating systems by default (e.g. in Android, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OpenSolaris or some Symbian versions)[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] and they are substituted by other fonts (e.g. by free software fonts, such as Liberation fonts, Ghostscript fonts,[21]Droid fonts, DejaVu fonts and others). All of these fonts in their latest versions are installed by default in the latest versions of Mac OS X (i.e. Mac OS X 10.4 and newer), but older versions of Mac OS X did not install some of them by default (e.g. Andalé Mono, Impact) and old versions of Mac OS also did not include many of them (e.g. Arial).[4][22][23] Some of these fonts are also not installed by default in iOS (e.g. Andalé Mono, Comic Sans MS, Impact, Webdings).[24]
While the project has formally ended, the benefits of using broadly available fonts remain: to increase the likelihood that content will be displayed in the chosen font, or in a metric-compatible alternative.In addition to the Core fonts for the Web, some newer fonts, such as those packaged with Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org or other software could form a new canon of core fonts. Broader web browser adoption of the web fonts specification may ultimately render the notion of core fonts obsolete by allowing the real-time downloading and display of specific fonts.
Program termination and software licence agreement issues[edit]
The project was terminated in August 2002, allegedly because of frequent EULA violations. A Microsoft spokesman declared in 2002 that 'Microsoft has also found that the downloads were being abused—repackaged, modified and shipped with commercial products in violation of the EULA.' 'Most users who wanted the fonts have downloaded them already.'[2][25][26] However, that same EULA allows redistribution if the packages are kept in their original format (.exe or .sit.hqx) and original filenames (e.g. times32.exe) and not used to add value to commercial products.[1][27] As a result, these packages are still available for download on third-party websites under the terms of the original web fonts end user license agreement.
The EULA referenced below also requires[28] that a copy be applied to transferees. The EULA is therefore directly linked to: for example, on the documentation page for the Sourceforge 'corefonts' download package.[29] If a third party offering the fonts for download does not offer a copy of the EULA, the legal status of such a download is questionable. However, a copy of the EULA is obtainable via the FAQ maintained on Microsoft's typography website and from some other third-party websites.[3][1][27]
For Windows, the fonts are provided as self-extracting executables (.exe); each includes an embedded cabinet file that contains a font file in TrueType format (.ttf). For the Macintosh, the files are provided as BinHexedStuff-It archives (.sit.hqx). It is forbidden to rename, edit or create any derivative works from the executables (e.g. arial32.exe) or archives (Arial.sit.hqx), other than subsetting when embedding them in documents.[1][27] The fonts can be installed and used on non-Windows or non-Macintosh operating systems, as long as they are distributed in original form (original .exe files or .sit.hqx files) and with original name (e.g. arial32.exe). A cabinet file can be extracted in an end-user's system with appropriate software, if such software is available.
The latest font-versions that were available from Microsoft's Core fonts for the Web project were 2.x (e.g. 2.82 for Arial, Times New Roman and Courier New for MS Windows[30]), published in 2000. Later versions (such as version 3 or version 5 with many new characters) were not available from this project. A Microsoft spokesman declared in 2002 that members of the open source community 'will have to find different sources for updated fonts… Although the EULA did not restrict the fonts to just Windows and Mac OS they were only ever available as Windows .exe's and Mac archive files.'[2]
Even though the fonts are available from some third-party web sites (such as an anonymous SourceForge project) and are included with Mac OS, Håkon Wium Lie (Chief technical officer of Opera Software) cited the cancellation of the project as an example of Microsoft resisting interoperability.[31]
In July 2007, Apple announced that it had renewed its licensing agreement with Microsoft for the use of the latest versions of Microsoft Windows core fonts.[4][5][6][32][33]
List of fonts and files[edit]
The TrueType core fonts for the Web project included the following files under a proprietary license:[30][34]
File name | Font name | Variants | Last version | Copyright[9] | Sample |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
arial32.exe | Arial for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000 | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 2.82 | Monotype | |
Arial.sit.hqx | Arial for Apple Mac OS | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 2.90 | Monotype | |
arialb32.exe | Arial Black for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000 | black | version 2.35 | Monotype | |
ariblk.exe | Arial Black for Windows 3.1 and 3.11 | black | version 2.20 | Monotype | |
ArialBlack.sit.hqx | Arial Black for Apple Mac OS | black | version 2.35 | Monotype | |
andale32.exe | Andalé Mono for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000 | regular | version 2.00 | Monotype | |
andalemono.sit.hqx | Andalé Mono for Apple Mac OS | regular | version 2.00 | Monotype | |
mtcom.exe | Monotype.com for Windows 3.1 and 3.11 (later versions released as Andalé Mono) | regular | version 1.10 | Monotype | |
courie32.exe | Courier New for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000 | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 2.82 | Monotype | |
CourierNew.sit.hqx | Courier New for Apple Mac OS | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 2.61 | Monotype | |
comic32.exe | Comic Sans MS for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000 | regular, bold | version 2.10 | Microsoft | |
comic.exe | Comic Sans MS for Windows 3.1 and 3.11 | regular, bold | version 1.20 | Microsoft | |
ComicSans.sit.hqx | Comic Sans MS for Apple Mac OS | regular, bold | version 2.10 | Microsoft | |
georgi32.exe | Georgia for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000 | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 2.05 | Microsoft | |
georgia.exe | Georgia for Windows 3.1 and 3.11 | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 1.00 | Microsoft | |
Georgia.sit.hqx | Georgia for Apple Mac OS | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 2.05 | Microsoft | |
impact32.exe | Impact for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000 | regular | version 2.35 | Monotype | |
impact.exe | Impact for Windows 3.1 and 3.11 | regular | version 2.20 | Monotype | |
Impact.sit.hqx | Impact for Apple Mac OS | regular | version 2.35 | Monotype | |
times32.exe | Times New Roman for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000 | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 2.82 | Monotype | |
TimesNew.sit.hqx | Times New Roman for Apple Mac OS | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 2.91 | Monotype | |
trebuc32.exe | Trebuchet MS for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000 | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 1.22 | Microsoft | |
trebuc.exe | Trebuchet MS for Windows 3.1 and 3.11 | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 1.00 | Microsoft | |
Trebuchet.sit.hqx | Trebuchet MS for Apple Mac OS | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 1.15 | Microsoft | |
verdan32.exe | Verdana for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000 | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 2.35 | Microsoft | |
verdana.exe | Verdana for Windows 3.1 and 3.11 | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 1.01 | Microsoft | |
Verdana.sit.hqx | Verdana for Apple Mac OS | regular, bold, italic, bold italic | version 2.35 | Microsoft | |
webdin32.exe | Webdings for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000 | symbol | version 1.03 | Microsoft | |
webdings.exe | Webdings for Windows 3.1 and 3.11 | symbol | version 1.01 | Microsoft |
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ abcdMicrosoft (2001-12-28). 'TrueType core fonts for the Web EULA'. Archived from the original on 2009-12-08. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ abcMark Hachman (2002-08-14). 'Microsoft Withdraws Free Web Fonts'. ExtremeTech. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ abMicrosoft (2002-07-25). 'TrueType core fonts for the Web FAQ'. Archived from the original on 2002-01-24. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^ abcPaul McDougall (2007-08-03). 'Microsoft, Apple Strike Font Agreement'. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
- ^ abJose Vilches (2007-08-03). 'Microsoft and Apple extend font licensing agreement'. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
- ^ abMicrosoft (2007-08-02). 'Microsoft and Apple Extend Font Licensing Agreement'. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
Microsoft Corp. and Apple announced they have renewed their font licensing agreement, giving Apple users ongoing use of the latest versions of Microsoft® Windows® core fonts
- ^'MONOTYPE IMAGING, INC - END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT'. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
- ^'Monotype Imaging - Licensing Options'. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
- ^ ab'Microsoft Typography - Fonts - Core fonts for the Web'. Retrieved 2011-06-24.
- ^'Microsoft Typography - Arial'. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
- ^'Software Packages in 'lucid', Subsection fonts'. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
- ^'Software Packages in 'lucid', Subsection x11'. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
- ^'Package: ttf-mscorefonts-installer (3.2) -multiverse-'. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
NOTE: the package ttf-liberation contains free variants of the Times, Arial and Courier fonts. It's better to use those instead unless you specifically need one of the other fonts from this package.
- ^'Fonts supplied with UNIX / XFree and GhostScript'. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
- ^Brian Leonard (2009-06-17). 'The Observatory - A closer look at using Oracle Solaris - TrueType Fonts'. Retrieved 2011-06-29.
As a user of OpenSolaris you may be wondering why it's missing all the popular fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman and the ever popular Wingdings. The license for these fonts prohibit their distribution with the operating system, however, they are freely available to you in the extra repository.
- ^'Web Safe Fonts Cheat Sheet v.3 – With @font-face Fonts and OS Breakdown'. 2010. Retrieved 2011-06-28.
If you are wondering why no other mobile platform is included, even though Symbian, Blackberry and Android have similar or better worldwide market share compared to iOS, this is because there are no standard font installs on any of these platforms. Each handset manufacturer puts whatever fonts they see fit on a device, making it impossible to generate any meaningful statistics.
- ^'Nokia Sans font for download?'. Archived from the original on 2012-09-29. Retrieved 2011-06-28.
If you are wondering why no other mobile platform is included, even though Symbian, Blackberry and Android have similar or better worldwide market share compared to iOS, this is because there are no standard font installs on any of these platforms. Each handset manufacturer puts whatever fonts they see fit on a device, making it impossible to generate any meaningful statistics.
- ^'Licenses for Fonts Used in Qt for Embedded Linux'. Archived from the original on 2011-10-08. Retrieved 2011-06-28.
- ^'FreeBSD - webfonts'. Retrieved 2011-06-28.
- ^'fonts/msttcorefonts – Microsoft TrueType core fonts'. OpenBSD ports.
- ^'Linux and Unix family font survey results'. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2011-06-28.
- ^Bob Baumel (1999-10-27). 'Improving Appearance of Arial Font on the Macintosh'. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
One of the most widely specified fonts is Arial, a basic sans-serif font which is always present on Windows systems, but only sometimes on Macintosh computers, and hardly ever on UNIX systems.
- ^'Mac OS X 10.3: Fonts list'. 2008-07-24. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
- ^'iOS Fonts'. Retrieved 2010-12-05.
- ^Jesse Burgheimer (2002-08-13). 'Microsoft Cuts the Line to Web Core Fonts'. archive.org. Archived from the original on 2008-01-11. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^'Microsoft Cuts the Line to Web Core Fonts'. 2002-08-13. Archived from the original on March 13, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
- ^ abcMicrosoft. 'Core fonts for the Web – End-user license agreement'. Retrieved 2010-04-13.
- ^'Reproduction and Distribution. You may reproduce and distribute an unlimited number of copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT; provided that each copy shall be a true and complete copy, including all copyright and trademark notices, and shall be accompanied by a copy of this EULA. Copies of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT may not be distributed for profit either on a standalone basis or included as part of your own product.' -- The font EULA
- ^Noa Resare. 'An easy way to install Microsoft's TrueType core fonts on linux'. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
- ^ abMicrosoft (2001-12-26). 'TrueType core fonts for the Web'. Archived from the original on 2002-08-02. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
- ^'Opera to MS: Get real about interoperability, Mr Gates — Opera CTO Hakon Lie responds to Bill's clarion call'. 2005-02-11. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
- ^Mac users’ Internet experience to remain 'seamless' thanks to Microsoft, MAC.BLORGE, archived from the original on 2007-09-28, retrieved 2007-08-03
- ^'Fonts supplied with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard'. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
- ^Microsoft (1999-01-15). 'TrueType core fonts for the Web'. Archived from the original on 1999-01-17. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
External links[edit]
- Former Core fonts for the Web homepage (Courtesy of the Internet Archive)
- Current Core fonts for the Web home page, which no longer provides the fonts themselves.
- Microsoft's TrueType core fonts for Linux (contains a copy of the EULA, the FAQ, and all the font packages)
- An Initiative started by Andrei Herasimchuk, sends an Open Letter to Adobe in order to improve Web-Typography. Also Designer Jeff Croft proposes the new Windows Vista Typefaces made available in an Open Letter to Apple and Microsoft
- Web Design is 95% Typography (Part 1) and (Part 2) — Two articles on web design and typography that caused controversy.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Core_fonts_for_the_Web&oldid=930431672'
-->Overview
Comic Sans MS is the groovy script font which was first supplied with the Windows 95 Plus! pack. Although it might be seen as a novelty typeface, which is great for titles, it's also extremely readable on-screen at small sizes, making it a useful text face.
A note from Vincent Connare, Comic Sans' designer.
During 1994 I noticed that a large number of cartoon/comic style software titles were under development at Microsoft. As Microsoft Creative Writer had a need for fun fonts, I had an idea to make a lettering script similar to the lettering used by the major comic books. There was a consistent style used in comics, which was quite unlike the style of lettering you see in newspaper cartoon strips. I also noticed that many people were inappropriately using drafting lettering in comic speech balloons.
I started to make the font in October 1994. Initially it was picked up by the team working on Microsoft 3D Movie Maker for use in speech balloons. As 3D Movie Maker progressed, the programmers added sound so that the characters didn't use balloons. However, the regular weight was still used for help pop-ups and dialog boxes.
Because the regular weight was cleanly hinted for the screen it was also included with the Windows 95 OEM version, the Windows 95 Plus pack, Publisher and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Hope you find the font fun.
Interesting fact - the euro has eyes.
Comic Sans MS version history
Version 2.10 - This version includes some minor table updates, but no new glyphs.
Version 2.00 - Comic Sans version 2.00 was added to our core fonts for the Web page on 4 March 1998. This WGL4 version includes the euro currency symbol.
Version 1.20 - Comic Sans MS version 1.20 was first supplied with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3, and included as one of the original Microsoft core fonts for the Web. This version was also supplied with Internet Explorer 4.
Version 1.10 - This version of Comic Sans MS was supplied with the Windows 95 Plus! pack.
File name | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf comicz.ttf comici.ttf |
Styles & Weights | Comic Sans MS Comic Sans MS Bold Comic Sans MS Bold Italic Comic Sans MS Italic |
Designers | Vincent Connare |
Copyright | © 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. |
Font vendor | Microsoft Corp. |
Script Tags | dlng:'Cyrl', 'Grek', 'Latn' slng:'Cyrl', 'Grek', 'Latn' |
Code pages | 1252 Latin 1 1250 Latin 2: Eastern Europe 1251 Cyrillic 1253 Greek 1254 Turkish 1257 Windows Baltic Mac Roman Macintosh Character Set (US Roman) |
Fixed pitch | False |
Licensing info
- License Microsoft fonts for enterprises, web developers, for hardware & software redistribution or server installations
- Purchase & Download Microsoft fonts for personal, professional or business use on workstations
- License Microsoft fonts for use with CSS @font-face rule in websites.
Products that supply this font
Product name | Font version | Fonts |
---|---|---|
Access 2000 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Access 97 SR2 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Age of Empires 1.0a | 1.20 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Creative Writer 2 | 1.20 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Excel 2000 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
FrontPage 2000 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
FrontPage 98 | 1.01 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Greetings 99 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Home Publishing 99 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Internet Explorer 4.0 | 1.20 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Internet Explorer 4.01 SP1 | 1.20 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Internet Explorer 4.01 SP2 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Internet Explorer 5 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Office 2000 Premium | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Office 97 Small Business Edition SR2 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Office 97 SR1a | 1.20 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Outlook 2000 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
PhotoDraw 2000 | 1.20 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Picture It! 2000 | 2.10 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Picture It! 2002 | 2.10 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Picture It! 98 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Picture It! 99 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Plus 95 | 1.00 | comic.ttf |
Plus! 98 | 1.20 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
PowerPoint 2000 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Publisher 2000 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Publisher 97 | 1.20 | comic.ttf |
Publisher 98 | 1.20 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Windows 2000 | 2.10 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Windows 7 | 5.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Windows 8 | 5.11 | All |
Windows 95 | 0.21 | comic.ttf |
Windows 98 | 1.20 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Windows 98 Second Edition | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Windows Server 2003 | 2.10 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Windows Server 2008 | 5.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Windows Vista | 5.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Windows XP | 2.10 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Windows XP SP2 | 2.10 | comicbd.ttf |
Windows XP SP2 | 2.20 | comic.ttf |
Word 2000 | 2.00 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |
Works 9 | 2.21 | comic.ttf comicbd.ttf |