FREE Tahoma Font For Creating Web-Friendly Designs

Almost everyone has owned or operated a version of the Windows software. Since its founding 1975, the operating system has enjoyed millions of users – and as of recently, that number has become more than a billion. And if you’re one of them, you’d likely be familiar with the Tahoma font.

How Tahoma Began

Designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft and released in 1994, this sans serif is clean, eye-catching, and solves the problem of reading type in small sizes on digital screens.

The font got its name from the Native American name for Mount Rainier. Sometimes compared to Frutiger and sharing a few similarities with Verdana, Tahoma is in a league of its own. Featuring a narrower body, tighter letter spacing, and smaller counters, it also offers a more complete Unicode character set.

Often used as an alternative to Arial, Tahoma has appeared as the default screen typeface used by Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. You should be able to recall it from Skype and Sega’s Dreamcast packaging and promotional materials, too.

Until today, this sans serif is still employed in many digital elements such as dialog boxes and website menus thanks to its versatility and unique characteristics as a TrueType font.

Tahoma Traits and Pairings

As a clean sans serif, it should pair well with almost any font, especially serifs like Stafford Regular or Bembo. But it could also complement similar sans serifs, like Palatino or Lato. Don’t stick too much to the rules. Have fun experimenting and trying out different things.

As one of Microsoft’s most used sans serif typeface families, it’s no surprise that its apps will carry a basic version of the Tahoma font (e.g. Word and Excel). But for those who want individual variants, you can visit MyFonts to make a purchase. For the free variant, check out Free Fonts Family.