Computer font

A computer font (or font) is implemented as a digital data file containing a set of graphically related glyphs, characters, or symbols such as dingbats. Although the term font first referred to a set of movable metal type pieces in one style and size, since the 1990s it is generally used to refer to a set of digital shapes in a single style, scalable to different sizes. A font family or typeface refers to the collection of related fonts across styles and sizes. There are three basic kinds of computer font file data formats: Bitmap fonts consist of a matrix of dots or pixels representing the image of each glyph in each face and size. Vector fonts (including, and sometimes standing as a synonym for outline fonts) use Bézier curves, drawing instructions and mathematical formulae to describe each glyph, which make the character outlines scalable to any size.