TTF vs OTF vs WOFF: Which Font Format Is Right for Your Project?

If you have ever downloaded a font pack and found files with .ttf, .otf, and .woff extensions inside the same folder, you may have wondered which one to actually use. The short answer: for most web projects, any of the three works, but WOFF gives you a slightly smaller file with no quality tradeoff. For desktop apps or print design software, TTF or OTF is the right choice. Here is how they compare — and how subsetting can shrink any of them regardless of format.

TTF (TrueType): The Universal Standard

TrueType was developed jointly by Apple and Microsoft in the 1980s and has been the default font format on both operating systems ever since. TTF files contain glyph outlines stored as quadratic Bezier curves, plus extensive hinting instructions that tell the renderer how to align outlines to pixels at small sizes.

TTF files are supported everywhere: every operating system, every browser, every design application. If you can only host one format and want the broadest compatibility, TTF is the safe choice. The main drawback compared to WOFF is file size — TTF has no built-in compression.

OTF (OpenType): More Features, Same Compatibility

OpenType is a joint Microsoft and Adobe format that extends TrueType to support cubic Bezier curves (the same curves used in PostScript/PDF), more advanced typographic features (ligatures, small caps, contextual alternates, fractions), and larger glyph sets — up to 65,536 glyphs per file.

For web use, OTF and TTF are functionally equivalent in terms of browser support and rendering quality. Where OTF shines is in professional print and design work: InDesign, Illustrator, and high-quality PDF output take better advantage of OpenType feature tables. If your font ships as OTF, keep it as OTF — there is no reason to convert.

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WOFF: The Web-Optimized Wrapper

WOFF is not a fundamentally different kind of font — it is a compressed container that wraps a TTF or OTF file with zlib compression and a small metadata header. The result is typically 20–40 percent smaller than the uncompressed TTF equivalent, with identical rendering quality.

WOFF is supported in all modern browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If your font provider offers a WOFF download alongside TTF, use the WOFF — the smaller size improves load times with no other tradeoff. The subsetter on this site accepts WOFF files and returns a subsetted WOFF, so the two optimizations stack.

WOFF2: Better Compression, Different Toolchain

WOFF2 uses Brotli compression instead of zlib and typically achieves 30 percent better compression than WOFF. Browser support is universal in modern browsers. If your font supplier provides WOFF2 files, use them — they are the best format for web delivery.

The subsetter on this site currently handles TTF, OTF, and WOFF but not WOFF2. If you have a WOFF2 file and need to subset it, one option is to first convert it to TTF using the Font Converter, subset the TTF, then convert back. Alternatively, subset the original TTF and convert the result to WOFF2.

Practical Recommendation: Which Format to Use

For web: serve WOFF2 as the primary format with WOFF as a fallback for older browsers. Use the @font-face src list with WOFF2 first so modern browsers take the smaller file. If you only have TTF or OTF, either works fine in all current browsers — the size difference matters but will not break anything.

For desktop design tools (Illustrator, Photoshop, Figma, InDesign): install TTF or OTF. WOFF is a web format and most desktop apps do not accept it.

For subsetting: upload whatever format you have. The tool returns the same format, subsetted. You can then convert between formats using the Font Converter if you need a different output.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is OTF better than TTF for web use?

Not significantly. Both render identically in browsers. OTF has richer typographic feature support in professional print software, but for web, the choice between them matters less than whether you have subsetted the file.

Can I convert TTF to WOFF for better compression?

Yes. The Font Converter tool can convert between TTF, OTF, and WOFF. Converting a subsetted TTF to WOFF adds zlib compression on top of the glyph reduction — both optimizations together give the smallest possible WOFF output.

Does subsetting work the same way for TTF, OTF, and WOFF?

Yes. The subsetter removes the same unused glyphs regardless of which of the three formats you upload, and returns a subsetted file in the same format.