Trebuchet MS
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| Category | Sans-serif |
|---|---|
| Classification | Humanist sans-serif |
| Designer(s) | Vincent Connare |
| Foundry | Microsoft Corporation |
| Date released | 1996 |
Trebuchet MS is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Vincent Connare for the Microsoft Corporation in 1996. It is named after the trebuchet, a medieval siege engine. The name was inspired by a puzzle question that Connare heard at Microsoft headquarters: "Can you make a trebuchet that could launch a person from main campus to the new consumer campus about a mile away? Mathematically, is it possible and how?" Connare "thought that would be a great name for a font that launches words across the Internet". Trebuchet MS was the font used for the window titles in the Windows XP default theme, succeeding MS Sans Serif. Released freely by Microsoft as part of their core fonts for the Web package, it remains one of the most popular body text fonts on webpages.
Connare commented in 2011 that, "inspiration came from many sources such as the motorway signage in America and sans serif typefaces like Akzidenz Grotesk and Alternate Gothic." Writing on Typophile in 2005 and also in his 1997 article on Trebuchet, he also noted that a goal was to provide a typeface that worked well onscreen while providing a contrast in texture to Verdana.
Notable features of Trebuchet include:
Microsoft refers to Trebuchet MS as "a good web design font", being one of their "Core fonts for the Web". Trebuchet MS is included with several products, including the Windows operating system, components of the Office productivity suite, and Internet Explorer.
In some versions of the font (those shipped with Windows 2000 and early versions of Internet Explorer), the opening quotation mark character was flipped vertically like so, ‟. This error was fixed in later versions.
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