Typophile

(x) Microsoft system font - MS Sans Serif / Tahoma {Mark S, Grant}

anonymous

I have been reading/following threads here for a long time, but this is my first post ; )
I am doing the interface design for a clients' website and we aim for the look-and-feel of Windows 95 (no comments about this. please...). My question: what is the Windows system typeface called and where can it be bought?

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Mark Simonson

MS Sans Serif.

Grant Hutchinson

Mark, how different is MS Sans Serif from Tahoma? Visually comparing my XP desktop with the Win 95 screenshots on Marcin Wichary's wonderful GUIdebook site, the two look very similar.

Mark Simonson

At screen resolution, they are pretty similar. However, MS Sans Serif is bitmap only. I think Tahoma replaced it when they decided to go with an outline font.

Tahoma was created by Matthew Carter (who, as we all know, also did Verdana, which is very similar). I imagine Microsoft wanted to keep it fairly similar to MS Sans Serif and that may be why they look similar.

Mark Simonson

Also, while I was snooping around for info on this, I found this.

Stephen Coles

Hah, that's funny. That page's comparison clearly shows Tahoma's superiority.

gargoyle

MS Sans Serif was eventually made into an outline font as well. I think it first appeared as an OpenType font with Windows 2000, and is titled "Microsoft Sans Serif" (no abbreviation). The old bitmap MS Sans Serif is named sserife.fon on my system. The outline version is named micross.ttf.

I think Tahoma made its debut with Office 97, at least that's when I first recall seeing it.

anonymous

Thanks fot your input. In the end I decided to go with Tahoma. Disabling aliasing makes it virtually identical to the original systemfont MS Sans...

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