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Forty Industry Leaders Including Hewlett-Packard, Macromedia and Oracle Support Solution Based on Industry-Standard TrueType Technology BOSTON - Feb. 27, 1996 - Microsoft Corp. today announced that its TrueType® font technology has been extended to the World Wide Web, allowing designers to create great-looking Web pages that consumers can view - even if they haven't bought the specific typefaces for their PCs. Forty industry leaders - including Hewlett-Packard Company, Macromedia and Oracle Corp. - have announced support for the Microsoft® solution. The TrueType-for-the-Web solution will include a core set of no-charge fonts designed for superb on-screen appearance and readability; embedding technology that downloads TrueType fonts to consumer PCs as needed; and a royalty-free cross-platform licensing program for Microsoft's high performance TrueType rasterizer, which allows all platforms to support TrueType technology.
"For too long, Web designers were free to use any font - as long as it was Times," said Brad Silverberg, senior vice president of the Internet platform and tools division at Microsoft. "Web designers have been demanding the same typographic flexibility on the Web as they have in print and in other PC applications. By extending the industry-standard TrueType technology to the Web, we have combined the best of Windows® with the best of the Internet to unleash a new generation of dazzling creativity, style and individuality on Web pages that will make the Internet a more attractive and compelling place
Today, most Web designers who want attractive typefaces are forced to turn their type into bitmapped graphics that are memory-intensive, take a long time to download, cannot be updated easily, cannot be resized by the user, and are invisible to search engines looking for text. By extending TrueType to the Web, Microsoft will expand the typographic options for Web designers. TrueType is already integrated into the Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows® for Workgroups, Windows® 95 and Windows NT TM operating systems as well as the Apple® Macintosh®, making it the most-used font technology in the world, with over 3 billion TrueType fonts shipped. Unlike other font technologies that optimize type for the printed page at the expense of the screen, anti-aliased TrueType fonts provide the highest-quality text on screen as well as on the "TrueType is the best solution for type on the screen," said Roger Black, president of Interactive Bureau. "Microsoft's new set of fonts gives people a better way to read the billions of words available on the Internet, and the font-embedding technology allows content providers to show their sites in their own chosen typefaces. It's like getting to wear your own clothes instead of "Microsoft's TrueType and anti-aliasing technologies give everyone the opportunity to use and experience better fonts," said David Siegel, president of v e r s o. "This technology will take the quality of on-screen type up two Also, TrueType technology can be supported on all computer platforms with Microsoft's high-performance TrueType rasterizer, which extends the TrueType solution to platforms, such as UNIX®, that do not already support the technology. Hewlett-Packard is the first to announce that it will license the TrueType rasterizer, for implementation on HP-UX®, and will distribute the core set of fonts to HP-UX users. The TrueType rasterizer is already shipping with HP® printers and HP personal computers. "The licensing of this technology means that the same set of fonts and font technology will now be available across the entire HP product line," said Richard (Dick) C. Watts, vice president and general manager of the computer systems organization at Hewlett-Packard. "For document authors, these common fonts and font technology will provide enterprisewide sharing across heterogeneous environments."
With TrueType font-embedding technology, Web designers and users can access high-quality fonts without having to download entire font files across the Internet. Authoring tools will provide the option to download only the characters used, saving bandwidth and enabling pages to download faster. Users can view Web sites as intended by the designer, without having to purchase special font software. In addition, a font manufacturer can specify an embedded font as read-only, for viewing and printing; editable within that particular document; or fully installable, therefore helping protect the intellectual property of font designers. The technology will be incorporated into Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft authoring tools later "The ability to embed TrueType fonts creates a clear market for fonts on the Web," said David Berlow, president of The Font Bureau. "It allows Web publishers to buy and include read-only fonts in their Web sites without licensing hassles. It gives readers the quality of well-hinted TrueType fonts, and gives font publishers protection, with read-only embedding. It's a win for everyone concerned."
Microsoft will make available to developers a core set of world-class, royalty-free TrueType fonts designed to look good on computer screens. They include fonts developed by Matthew Carter, one of the world's premier font designers. The first set of TrueType fonts designed for the Web is expected to be available this quarter from the Microsoft TrueType Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/). Any Internet browser that implements the proposed hypertext markup language (HTML) stylesheet standard from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) can use these core fonts immediately.
Microsoft will submit the technology for embedding TrueType fonts to W3C as a proposed specification to support the W3C's efforts to define stylesheets, a standard graphic design language for HTML. Microsoft has been working with W3C and its members on HTML stylesheets since Microsoft will also freely license the technology for downloading fonts to developers of browsers, authoring tools and other applications, enabling the thousands of TrueType fonts already on the market to be used on
Web site and font designers, publishers, software developers and hardware manufacturers supporting TrueType for the Web technology include:
AGENCY.COM, Chan Suh or Kyle Shannon, (212) 522-6882
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Apple, TrueType and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Ltd. HP and HP-UX are registered trademarks of Hewlett-Packard Co.
Madeline Cox, Waggener Edstrom, (503) 245-0905, madeline@wagged.com
Windows Web Page: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft home page at http://www.microsoft.com/corpinfo. To receive Microsoft press releases by fax, please call (800) 859-5915 in the United States or (201) 333-0314 internationally.
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| Microsoft Typography | About fonts | Microsoft extends TrueType fonts... | |||
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