 TrueType

TrueType is a computer font technology whose glyph outlines use quadratic Bézier curves and straight segments. The stored coordinates describe a scalable design in font units. Rendering scales that geometry to the requested size and applies rasterization to obtain pixels.

At small display sizes, geometrically accurate scaling can place important strokes between pixels. Font hinting supplies instructions that adjust the scaled outline relative to the output grid, helping preserve recognizable strokes and spacing. A small capital letter can therefore require more than shrinking a large image: the useful result depends on the relation between its geometry and the pixel grid.^[ref]

TrueType outlines can be stored in an OpenType computer font. The outline technology and the larger table-based file format describe different layers of the same rendering system.