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 for Microsoft Windows and in BinHexed Stuff-It archives for Macintosh. These packages were published as freeware under a proprietary license imposing some restrictions on distribution.
Microsoft terminated the project in 2002, 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.

Overview

The fonts were licensed to Microsoft by Monotype Corporation or designed for Microsoft by Microsoft's own font designers or external designers. The fonts were designed to:
These design goals and the fonts' broad availability have made some of them extremely popular with web designers. However, these proprietary fonts are not distributed with some modern operating systems by default and they are substituted by other fonts. All of these fonts in their latest versions are installed by default in the latest versions of Mac OS X, but older versions of Mac OS X did not install some of them by default and old versions of Mac OS also did not include many of them. Some of these fonts are also not installed by default in iOS.
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.
In addition to the Core fonts for the Web, some newer fonts, such as those packaged with Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org or other software could form a new canon of core fonts. Broader web browser adoption of the web fonts specification may ultimately render the notion of core fonts obsolete by allowing the real-time downloading and display of specific fonts.

Program termination and software licence agreement issues

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." However, that same EULA allows redistribution if the packages are kept in their original format and original filenames and not used to add value to commercial products. 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 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. 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.
For Windows, the fonts are provided as self-extracting executables ; each includes an embedded cabinet file that contains a font file in TrueType format. For the Macintosh, the files are provided as BinHexed Stuff-It archives. It is forbidden to rename, edit or create any derivative works from the executables or archives, other than subsetting when embedding them in documents. The fonts can be installed and used on non-Windows or non-Macintosh operating systems, as long as they are distributed in original form and with original name. 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, published in 2000. Later versions 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."
Even though the fonts are available from some third-party web sites and are included with Mac OS, Håkon Wium Lie cited the cancellation of the project as an example of Microsoft resisting interoperability.
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.

List of fonts and files

The TrueType core fonts for the Web project included the following files under a proprietary license:
File nameFont nameVariantsLast versionCopyrightSample
arial32.exeArial for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000regular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 2.82Monotype
Arial.sit.hqxArial for Apple Mac OSregular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 2.90Monotype
arialb32.exeArial Black for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000blackversion 2.35Monotype
ariblk.exeArial Black for Windows 3.1 and 3.11blackversion 2.20Monotype
ArialBlack.sit.hqxArial Black for Apple Mac OSblackversion 2.35Monotype
andale32.exeAndalé Mono for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000regularversion 2.00Monotype
andalemono.sit.hqxAndalé Mono for Apple Mac OSregularversion 2.00Monotype
mtcom.exeMonotype.com for Windows 3.1 and 3.11
regularversion 1.10Monotype
courie32.exeCourier New for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000regular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 2.82Monotype
CourierNew.sit.hqxCourier New for Apple Mac OSregular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 2.61Monotype
comic32.exeComic Sans MS for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000regular, boldversion 2.10Microsoft
comic.exeComic Sans MS for Windows 3.1 and 3.11regular, boldversion 1.20Microsoft
ComicSans.sit.hqxComic Sans MS for Apple Mac OSregular, boldversion 2.10Microsoft
georgi32.exeGeorgia for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000regular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 2.05Microsoft
georgia.exeGeorgia for Windows 3.1 and 3.11regular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 1.00Microsoft
Georgia.sit.hqxGeorgia for Apple Mac OSregular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 2.05Microsoft
impact32.exeImpact for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000regularversion 2.35Monotype
impact.exeImpact for Windows 3.1 and 3.11regularversion 2.20Monotype
Impact.sit.hqxImpact for Apple Mac OSregularversion 2.35Monotype
times32.exeTimes New Roman for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000regular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 2.82Monotype
TimesNew.sit.hqxTimes New Roman for Apple Mac OSregular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 2.91Monotype
trebuc32.exeTrebuchet MS for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000regular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 1.22Microsoft
trebuc.exeTrebuchet MS for Windows 3.1 and 3.11regular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 1.00Microsoft
Trebuchet.sit.hqxTrebuchet MS for Apple Mac OSregular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 1.15Microsoft
verdan32.exeVerdana for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000regular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 2.35Microsoft
verdana.exeVerdana for Windows 3.1 and 3.11regular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 1.01Microsoft
Verdana.sit.hqxVerdana for Apple Mac OSregular, bold, italic, bold italicversion 2.35Microsoft
webdin32.exeWebdings for Windows 9x, NT and Windows 2000symbolversion 1.03Microsoft
webdings.exeWebdings for Windows 3.1 and 3.11symbolversion 1.01Microsoft