TrueType is a scalable font technology designed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s. Apple and Microsoft then worked together to push the technology into the market as alternative to Type 1 from Adobe. Apple implemented the font system and Microsoft the printing engine.

A TrueType font file contains data, in table format, that comprises an outline font. Rasterizers use combinations of data from the tables contained in the font to render the glyph outlines. The TrueType format only supports glyph outlines with quadratic bezier curves and lacks support for layout features.