Trebuchet MS font family

Overview

The Trebuchet typeface family, like Verdana and Georgia, was created for use on the screen. Designed and engineered in 1996 by Microsoft's Vincent Connare, it has a strong and unmistakable appearance. Borrowing elements from both the geometric and humanist classifications of sans serif type - Connare acknowledges the influence of designs as diverse as Gill Sans, Erbar, Frutiger, Akzidenz Grotesk, and the US Highway signing system - Trebuchet infuses any page with energy and personality. Its letterforms, loosely based on sans serif typeface designs of the 1920s and 1930s, carry a large x-height and clean lines designed to promote legibility, even at small sizes.

Vincent Connare is no stranger to designing and working with type in restrictive environments. He has spent as many years as anyone solving problems in displaying type on various kinds of screens, from small handheld devices to wide-screen television sets. Although much of his working life has been spent making existing typeface designs work in new environments and technologies, he is already well known for his Comic Sans, which among other faces of his has received an immediate and warm response from users all over the world. With Trebuchet, Connare has managed to create a face that has become an instant classic, winning more admirers day after day.

Perhaps Connare's greatest achievement with the Trebuchet family is to have created a font that works at heading and display sizes as well as small sizes and low resolutions; no mean task given the low resolution of the computer screen, which tends to dilute the characteristics of letterforms, rendering them dull and boring. After all, a lowercase e, which at 8pt on the screen can be at most four or five pixels high, can only be drawn in a limited number of ways.

One of Connare's intentions when designing Trebuchet was to instill personality into the letterforms, even at small sizes, while retaining clarity and readability. He wanted to create a typeface that was 'significantly distinguishable from Verdana and MS Sans'. He has accomplished this by departing from the classical model in characters such as the lowercase g and uppercase M, unique yet reminiscent of some of Paul Renner's alternate designs for Futura. Less noticeable details include the serif-like bars of the lowercase i and j, and the curled, kicking stem of the lowercase l - efforts intended to make each character as distinct and recognizable as possible.

Trebuchet is well-suited to use for extended texts, User Interface scenarios, and spreadsheet design, given the font's narrow letterforms. Trebuchet works brilliantly on the screen and has quickly become a classic choice for Web page design.

Version history

Version 1.22 - On 1 May 2001 we posted this Trebuchet MS update that includes support for the full WGL4 character set, including support for Greek and Cyrillic.

Version 1.15 - This version includes some minor table updates, but no new glyphs.

Version 1.10 - In August 1998 the Windows 98 update site's Web font pack was updated to include Trebuchet MS version 1.10. This version of the font includes the euro currency symbol but does not feature the full WGL4 character set.

Version 1.00 - Trebuchet MS version 1.00 was added to our collection of 'Core fonts for the Web' on 11 October 1996. Version 1.00 was also included in the Internet Explorer supplemental font pack.

Licensing and redistribution info

• Font redistribution FAQ for Windows
• License Microsoft fonts for enterprises, web developers, for hardware & software redistribution or server installations

Products that supply this font

This typeface is also available within Office applications. For more information visit this page.

Style & weight examples

Trebuchet MS

Trebuchet MS Bold

Trebuchet MS Bold Italic

Trebuchet MS Italic