# SFNT

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/SFNT
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/SFNT.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SFNT
> Source revision: 1243871314
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{Short description|Font file format}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox file format
| name                   = SFNT
| logo                   =
| screenshot             =
| caption                =
| extension              = .ttf .otf<ref name="iana">{{cite web |title=Font-SFNT |url=https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/font-sfnt |website=[Internet Assigned Numbers Authority](/source/Internet_Assigned_Numbers_Authority) |access-date=20 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404211753/https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/font-sfnt |archive-date=2023-04-04 |language=en |date=2013-03-29 |url-status=live}}</ref>
| mime                   = {{unbulleted list|font/sfnt|application/font-sfnt (deprecated)}}<ref name="iana-media-types">{{cite web |url=https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml |title=Media Types |publisher=[IANA](/source/Internet_Assigned_Numbers_Authority) |date=2017-10-12 |accessdate=2017-10-17}}</ref>
}}

'''SFNT''' is a [font](/source/font) file format which can contain other fonts, such as [PostScript](/source/PostScript_fonts), [TrueType](/source/TrueType), [OpenType](/source/OpenType), [Web Open Font Format](/source/Web_Open_Font_Format) (WOFF) fonts. SFNT stands for ''[spline](/source/Spline_(mathematics)) font'' or ''scalable font'', and was originally developed for TrueType fonts on the Macintosh and used by [Apple Computer](/source/Apple_Computer)'s [QuickDraw](/source/QuickDraw).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 'sfnt' format |work=Apple Developer Connection |publisher=Apple |url = https://developer.apple.com/fonts/tools/tooldir/TrueEdit/Documentation/TE/TE1sfnt.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131023054643/https://developer.apple.com/fonts/tools/tooldir/TrueEdit/Documentation/TE/TE1sfnt.html |archive-date=2013-10-23 |accessdate=2010-10-18}}</ref> SFNT was named after the resource tag the Macintosh used internally to track font data. 

Many existing font formats are based on the table-based SFNT format, such as [TrueType](/source/TrueType), [OpenType](/source/OpenType) and Open Font Format, [Web Open Font Format](/source/Web_Open_Font_Format) (WOFF), [SIL Graphite](/source/Graphite_(SIL)) and many others. 

SFNT is flexible, extensible and offers an opportunity to introduce additional table structures when needed, in a way that would not affect existing font rendering engines and text layout implementations.<ref name="iana" /> However, due to the limitation of SFNT system, a maximum number of 16{{sup|4}} = 65536 characters can be put in one font ''table''.<ref name="AppleDev">{{Cite web|url=https://developer.apple.com/fonts/TrueType-Reference-Manual/RM06/Chap6.html#Directory|title=The TrueType Font File|accessdate=2018-12-06|author=|date=|publisher=Apple Developer}}</ref> This limitation is partially overcome in the derived formats using "[OpenType](/source/OpenType) Collections", formerly known as "TrueType collections", so that a file can contain multiple fonts with up to 65536 characters.

==See also==
*[Web typography](/source/Web_typography)

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Digital-typography-stub}}

Category:Font formats

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [SFNT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SFNT) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SFNT?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.