![]() These formats excel at representing most iconography compactly, and as vectors, they offer infinite scalability.īitmap-based color fonts define glyph shapes using embedded raster graphics, such as PNG images. They may use the traditional font outline syntax coupled with color palettes (via OpenType’s ‘COLR’ and ‘CPAL’ tables), or they may use embedded SVG assets (via OpenType’s ‘SVG ’ table). Vector-based color fonts define glyph shapes using mathematical curves and lines. The different approaches are summarized below. Starting in Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Windows supports all of these approaches. The OpenType specification defines several ways to embed color information in a font. For more information, see Vector iconography: Using SVG images in your app.) What kinds of color fonts does Windows support? ( Note: Starting in Windows 10 Creators Update, you can also achieve scalable vector iconography by using standalone SVG images directly in your XAML app. With color fonts, you can pack rich, scalable, full-color icons into a single icon font. Some app developers prefer using icon fonts to standalone image files, due to the convenience and layout functionality offered by fonts. If you find yourself frequently generating raster images of text from multicolored artwork, consider using a color font instead.Ĭolor fonts can also be used for your app’s iconography. Although raster graphics are commonly used in these scenarios, they do not scale well to all display sizes, nor do they provide the same accessibility features as real text. To apps and the operating system, text rendered in a color font is the same as any other text: It can be copied and pasted, parsed by accessibility tools and so on.Ĭolor fonts are a better alternative to raster graphics for rich text scenarios like website headers or document section titles. Color fonts offer a way to implement rich text effects with the simplicity and functionality of regular fonts. They excel at that task, but they are useful for other scenarios as well. Now that you know what color fonts are, let’s talk about how they can be useful.Ĭolor fonts were originally designed to enable multicolored emoji in text communication scenarios. Below, you can see an example of a glyph from Segoe UI Emoji rendered in monochrome (left) and in color (right). One color font you may be familiar with is Segoe UI Emoji-the default font used in Windows to display emoji. In those situations, color fonts are rendered as normal monochromatic fonts. ![]() Color fonts typically include fallback information for platforms that do not support color fonts or for scenarios in which color functionality has been disabled. Some approaches even allow fonts to include multiple color palettes, giving the font artistic flexibility. At draw time, a text renderer fills the glyph shape using a single color (the “font color”) specified by the app or document being rendered.Ĭolor fonts, on the other hand, contain color information in addition to shape information. These fonts define only the shape of the glyphs they contain, either with vector outlines or monochromatic bitmaps. Most fonts for reading and writing-the fonts you are probably most familiar with-are not color fonts. Color fonts allow apps and websites to draw multicolored text with less code and more robust operating system support than ad-hoc techniques implemented above the text stack. What are color fonts?Ĭolor fonts, also referred to as “multicolor fonts” or “chromatic fonts,” are a relatively new font technology that allows font designers to use multiple colors within each glyph of the font. We’ll discuss what color fonts are, when they can be useful and how to use them in your Windows 10 apps. In this post, we’ll introduce you to a text technology called color fonts.
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