Core fonts for the Web

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 BinHexed Stuff-It archives (".sit.hqx") for Macintosh. These packages were published as freeware under a proprietary license imposing some restrictions on distribution.<ref name="eula">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Microsoft terminated the project in 2002,<ref name= "extremetech">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="ms-faq8">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="apple-infoweek">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="apple-techspot">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Overview

The fonts were licensed to Microsoft by Monotype Corporation or designed for Microsoft by Microsoft's own font designers or external designers.Template:Citation needed 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.Template:Citation needed

These design goals and the fonts' broad availability 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)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and they are substituted by other fonts (e.g. by free software fonts, such as Liberation fonts, Ghostscript fonts,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Droid fonts, DejaVu fonts and others). All of these fontsTemplate:Which 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 even older versions of Mac OS also did not include many of them (e.g. Arial).<ref name="apple-infoweek" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Some of these fonts are also not installed by default in iOS (i.e. Andalé Mono, Comic Sans MS, Arial Black, Webdings).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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. Eventually, modern Web browsers added support for embedding web fonts (especially the Web Open Font Format) over the course of the 2010s, allowing the real-time downloading and display of fonts that the Web designer specified. Thus the "core fonts for the Web" became technologically obsolete, since the package was never licensed for Web embedding and a majority of websites as of 2020 use embedded Web fonts instead.<ref>Richard Fink (2016-09-06)Webfonts on the Prairie, Alist Apart</ref>

Later history and licensing

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."<ref name= "extremetech" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="eula" /><ref name="eula-corefonts">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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<ref>"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</ref> 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.<ref name="corefonts-sourceforge-net">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="ms-faq8" /><ref name="eula" /><ref name="eula-corefonts" />

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 BinHexed Stuff-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.<ref name="eula" /><ref name="eula-corefonts" /> 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<ref name="fontpack-2002-08">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>), 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."<ref name= "extremetech" />

In Debian and Ubuntu, the fonts are installable via a package named ttf-mscorefonts-installer in the contrib repo.<ref>Debian - Package Search Results - ttf-mscorefonts-installer</ref><ref>Ubuntu – Package Search Results - ttf-mscorefonts-installer</ref> This installer downloads the cabinet files and extracts them, providing an easy way for end-users to get the fonts installed in a Debian or Ubuntu environment.

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name="apple-infoweek" /><ref name="apple-techspot" /><ref name="apple-microsoft">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Excessive citations inline

List of fonts and files

The TrueType core fonts for the Web project included the following files under a proprietary license:<ref name="fontpack-2002-08" /><ref name="fontpack-1999">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

File name	Font name	Variants	Last version	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Sample
arial32.exe	Arial for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000	regular, bold, italic, bold italic	version 2.82	Monotype	File:Arial sample.svg
Arial.sit.hqx	Arial for Apple Mac OS		version 2.90
arialb32.exe	Arial Black for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000	black	version 2.35		File:Arial Black sample.svg
ariblk.exe	Arial Black for Windows 3.1 and 3.11		version 2.20
ArialBlack.sit.hqx	Arial Black for Apple Mac OS		version 2.35
andale32.exe	Andalé Mono for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000	regular	version 2.00		File:Andale Mono sample.svg
andalemono.sit.hqx	Andalé Mono for Apple Mac OS		version 2.00
mtcom.exe	Monotype.com for Windows 3.1 and 3.11 (later versions released as Andalé Mono)		version 1.10
courie32.exe	Courier New for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000	regular, bold, italic, bold italic	version 2.82		File:Courier New sample.svg
CourierNew.sit.hqx	Courier New for Apple Mac OS		version 2.61
comic32.exe	Comic Sans MS for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000	regular, bold	version 2.10	Microsoft	File:Comic Sans sample.svg
comic.exe	Comic Sans MS for Windows 3.1 and 3.11		version 1.20
ComicSans.sit.hqx	Comic Sans MS for Apple Mac OS		version 2.10
georgi32.exe	Georgia for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000	regular, bold, italic, bold italic	version 2.05		File:Georgia sample.svg
georgia.exe	Georgia for Windows 3.1 and 3.11		version 1.00
Georgia.sit.hqx	Georgia for Apple Mac OS		version 2.05
impact32.exe	Impact for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000	regular (font is actually black condensed)	version 2.35	Monotype	File:Impact sample.svg
impact.exe	Impact for Windows 3.1 and 3.11		version 2.20
Impact.sit.hqx	Impact for Apple Mac OS		version 2.35
times32.exe	Times New Roman for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000	regular, bold, italic, bold italic	version 2.82		File:Times New Roman sample.svg
TimesNew.sit.hqx	Times New Roman for Apple Mac OS		version 2.91
trebuc32.exe	Trebuchet MS for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000	regular, bold, italic, bold italic	version 1.22	Microsoft	File:Trebuchet MS sample.svg
trebuc.exe	Trebuchet MS for Windows 3.1 and 3.11		version 1.00
Trebuchet.sit.hqx	Trebuchet MS for Apple Mac OS		version 1.15
verdan32.exe	Verdana for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000	regular, bold, italic, bold italic	version 2.35		File:Verdana sample.svg
verdana.exe	Verdana for Windows 3.1 and 3.11		version 1.01
Verdana.sit.hqx	Verdana for Apple Mac OS		version 2.35
webdin32.exe	Webdings for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000	symbol	version 1.03		File:Webdings-big.png
webdings.exe	Webdings for Windows 3.1 and 3.11		version 1.01

See also

• Liberation fonts
• Free software Unicode typefaces

External links

• Template:Web archive