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TTF converter

TrueType fonts, extension .ttf, describe each glyph as outlines built from quadratic Bezier curves plus hinting programs that fine-tune rendering at small sizes. It has been the workhorse desktop font format for over three decades and remains the base technology inside most fonts installed today.

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Drop TTF files here

Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.

Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.

Where TTF comes from

Apple developed TrueType in the late 1980s to escape Adobe's Type 1 licensing fees and shipped it in System 7 in 1991. Microsoft licensed it for Windows 3.1 the following year, cementing it as the cross-platform standard. Its table-based sfnt container proved so durable that OpenType, WOFF, and WOFF2 are all built on it.

How TTF works

  • An sfnt container of tagged binary tables: glyf for outlines, cmap for character mapping, name for naming, hhea and hmtx for metrics.
  • Glyph outlines use quadratic Bezier curves, in contrast to the cubic curves of PostScript-flavored OpenType.
  • TrueType hinting is a full bytecode language executed by the rasterizer to align stems to the pixel grid.
  • Composite glyphs let accented characters reference and transform base glyphs instead of duplicating outlines.

When to use TTF

  • Installing fonts on Windows, macOS, and Linux desktops
  • Bundling type into applications and games
  • Serving as the source font for web-font conversion
  • Embedding fonts in office documents

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Installs and renders everywhere, from decades-old systems to current ones
  • Excellent small-size rendering when well hinted
  • Its container underlies all modern font formats, so structural conversion is lossless

Limitations

  • Uncompressed, so files are several times larger than their WOFF2 equivalents on the web
  • Quadratic curves need extra points to express shapes designed with cubics, so converted outlines gain complexity

Compatibility

Every operating system — Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android — installs and renders .ttf natively, and all browsers accept it as a web font. On the web it works but wastes bandwidth, which is why the standard split is serving WOFF2 online and keeping TTF for desktop installation.

The name table stores family and style names, version, copyright, trademark, designer, and license URL, while OS/2 table bits declare embedding and installation permissions.

Convert TTF to another format

Convert other formats to TTF