What Is a Font File?
Although designing web pages and paper newsletters with attractive fonts is easier than ever because of more font options, some file types don't work with all computer programs. A basic understanding of what font files are can help you avoid wasting time. When you search for fonts, you'll be able to choose font file types that are pretty much universally supported.
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Font File Types
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There are literally dozens of font file types. You can tell the difference by noting the different file extensions. A file extension is the sequence of three letters after the period in a file name. For example, a file named arial.OTF is an Arial font of the file type OTF. The same font can come in a different file type, for example arial.TTF or arial.FNT.
What Font Files Do
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Font files hold the computer code that tells a particular program, for example a word processor, how to render a particular kind of font. If you change the font in your word processor from Arial to New Times Roman, you're telling the word processing program to use the New Times Roman font file, not the Arial font file, to render the letters.
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Choosing Font Files With the Right Extensions
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Before you download a font file you're interested in, make sure that your computer program uses the same font file extension. Search your computer for font files. Use the search terms "font", "arial" (which is almost universal to every font collection) and the extension of the font you are wondering about, for example, ".TTF." If you find the file type extension in a directory used by the computer program, then you're in luck.
Some Universal Font File Types
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The .OTF, or OpenType, and .TTF, or TrueType, are the most universal font file types. They'll work on all Windows computers as well as Macs.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit font image by andrey polichenko from Fotolia.com
