.ttf — TrueType Font
Font font/ttf
What a .ttf file is
The font format Apple and Microsoft developed in the late 1980s, still ubiquitous on the desktop.
How to open it
Double-click to install on Windows or macOS.
Worth knowing
For the web, convert to WOFF2 — it is the same outlines with much better compression.
How to identify a .ttf file
A file's extension is only its name — renaming a.png to a.ttf changes nothing inside. What software actually reads is the magic number, the first few bytes of the file.
| Signature | 00 01 00 00 |
| MIME type | font/ttf |
| Category | Font |
A version number rather than text.
# what is this file really?
file mystery.ttf
# look at the first bytes yourself
xxd mystery.ttf | head -2
head -c 16 mystery.ttf | xxd
# Windows PowerShell
Get-Content mystery.ttf -AsByteStream -TotalCount 16 | Format-HexFrequently asked questions
What is a .ttf file?
The font format Apple and Microsoft developed in the late 1980s, still ubiquitous on the desktop.
How do I open a .ttf file?
Double-click to install on Windows or macOS.
Is .ttf safe to open?
Yes. A .ttf file is data, not code — opening one cannot execute anything by itself.
Can I change a file's extension to convert it?
No. Renaming changes the label, not the bytes. The one place it appears to work is between formats that genuinely share a container — renaming .docx to .zip works because a DOCX is a ZIP. Everything else needs a real converter.