TrueType
TrueType is one of the two shapes a typeface file comes in, and the one most typefaces are delivered as.
In more detail
A typeface has to be written down as a file before a machine can set anything in it. TrueType is one way of doing that: the outline of each letter, the room to leave on either side of it, and a set of instructions for keeping the letter crisp when it is drawn very small.
The file ends in `.ttf`, and a machine you buy comes with dozens of them already in place. It is also what a typeface bought from a foundry usually arrives as.
What it does on a real document
A document carries the typefaces it is set in inside itself, so it opens looking the same on a machine that has never had them. Only the letters actually used are carried, which is what keeps the file small even when the typeface is large.
A request hands the file over beside its description, and every piece of text names it by the name the request gave it.
Where it comes from, and why
It was drawn up in the late nineteen eighties as an answer to a format that had to be licensed, and it was given away with the two systems of the day, which is how it came to be everywhere.
It was later folded into a wider format that also takes the older outlines, which is why a modern typeface is often both at once.
See it on a finished document
The rules behind this word, and the texts they are read from
Glossary
- font
- The drawing of every letter, digit and mark a document writes, held in a file of its own. A PDF carries the fonts it is set in inside itself, which is why it opens looking the same on a machine that has never had them. Leave them out and a reader puts another font in their place, and the layout moves.
- request
- One call to the service: you send what the document should say, and get the document back. Your bill counts these calls, one for each document. The number of pages inside a document is never counted.