Font Format Breakdown Web/Mobile

Michael Jarboe

For a font that would be primarily digital use only, is the breakdown below generally correct? Trying to minimize the amount of variants, especially being that for web up to four formats are needed because of legacy etc.

Formats for use with iOS (can be used with OS X of course, but maybe not for print without Postscript hinting):
OpenType TrueType Un-hinted (.ttf)

Formats for WEB use, medium to large sizes, ALL platforms (dependent on font design how it holds up at med-large sizes on web):
WOFF Postscript Hinted (.ttf, .woff, .eot, .svg)

Formats for WEB & MOBILE use, small sizes, WINDOWS platform:
WOFF TrueType Hinted (.ttf, .woff, .eot, .svg)

Michael Jarboe

Also, if iOS and OS X ignore hinting data, is there any point to having Postscript hinted webfonts? Does the Postscript hinting have any effect on Windows rendering at large sizes, does it factor in at all?

Dave Crossland

I would say like this - mainly, mobile doesn't use TTF hints so can be removed, saving filesize in the app bundle

Formats for use with iOS & MOBILE (can be used with OS X of course, but maybe not for print without Postscript hinting):
OpenType CFF (.otf) or TTF (.ttf), if TTF then unhinted

Formats for WEB use, text sizes, ALL platforms (dependent on font design how it holds up at med-large sizes on web):
OpenType TTF (.ttf) Hinted (.ttf, .woff, .woff2, .eot)

Formats for WEB use, medium to large sizes, ALL platforms (dependent on font design how it holds up at med-large sizes on web):
OpenType CFF (.otf, .woff, .woff2, .eot)

http://blog.typekit.com/2011/09/01/postscript-comes-to-typekit/ has some background on the use of TTF or CFF for web fonts at text or display sizes

Michael Jarboe

Thanks Dave!