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TQL: Trebuchet MS

Trebuchet MS 

(The "Today QiYun Learnt" Digest: Origins of Terms Series)

TrebuchetMS SP.svg
Trebuchet MS Font Face

Alright, so the context was: I saw on my YouTube feed, some video about a trebuchet. Now a trebuchet is a gravity-operated catapult device used in the olden days for sieges against castles and fortified embankments. The name seemed really familiar to me and I wondered where I had seen it before. Then it dawned on me - it was the name of a nice font that I used to use, before I came to try out Helvetica, Century Gothic etc. 

And then came my million dollar question: what could possibly be the link between that font and an ancient gravity-operated catapult?

So today I learnt that, according to Wikipedia:
  1. The name was inspired by a puzzle question that Vincent Connare (the font's designer) 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?"
  2. Connare "thought that would be a great name for a font that launches words across the Internet".[1] 
As such, Trebuchet MS was the font used for the window titles in the Windows XP default theme, succeeding MS Sans Serif and Tahoma. Released free of charge by Microsoft as part of their core fonts for the Web package, it remains one of the most popular body text fonts on webpages.[2]

Alright, that is all for today. Till next time!

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