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Color Font Formats»

Color font formats are complicated, because there are four different formats, with different capabilities, each supported in different places. FontLab will export all four formats, if your font uses color glyphs and you select a format that has underlying color support (TTF or OTF, including WOFF).

  • SVG is a pre-existing format, adapted for color fonts by Adobe and Mozilla (Firefox). It can do outlines, bitmaps, or both in a single font. It is supported in Adobe Photoshop 2017, TransType 4, Mozilla Firefox, and also in the Microsoft Edge browser as of the Windows 10 Creators Update and later. It supports complex effects. FontLab believes it is likely to be the most popular color font format in the long run.
  • COLR was invented by Microsoft. It uses outlines, but does not handle gradients. It is supported in TransType 4, some Windows 8.1 apps that do platform-native font handling, and also in the Microsoft Edge browser as of the Windows 10 Creators Update and later.
  • sbix was invented by Apple. It uses bitmaps, with multiple-size bitmaps possible. It is supported in TransType 4, in MacOS apps that do platform-native font handling, on iOS, and also in the Microsoft Edge browser as of the Windows 10 Creators Update and later.
  • CBDT was invented by Google. It uses bitmaps. It is supported in Android, and also in the Microsoft Edge browser as of the Windows 10 Creators Update and later.
Category Kind SVG COLR SBIX CBDT
Inventor Mozilla + Adobe Microsoft Apple Google
Font type vector support ✓ ✓*
Font type bitmap support ✓ ✓ ✓
Browser Microsoft Edge ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Browser Mozilla Firefox ✓ ✓ ✓
Browser Internet Explorer 10 ✓***
Browser Safari ✓*
Browser Chrome on Android ✓*
OS Windows 10 ann. upd + apps ** ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
OS Windows 8.1 + apps ** ✓
OS MacOS 10 + apps ** ✓
OS iOS ✓
OS Android OS ✓
App Adobe Illustrator 2018+ ✓ ✓
App Adobe Photoshop 2017+ ✓
App Pixelmator * ✓ ✓
App QuarkXPress ✓ ✓ ✓
App Sketch * ✓ ✓

* with limitations
** Includes apps that use the right system services for font handling
*** on Windows 8.1 only, with limitations

NOTE: Many other apps, including Adobe InDesign, do not recognize color font functionality.