CID to TTF Converter

Transform CID-keyed fonts into universal TrueType format online

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Universal Compatibility

CID fonts only work reliably in Adobe software. Converting to TTF unlocks your CJK typefaces for use in virtually every application and OS.

Cross-Platform Use

The resulting TTF installs natively on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS — giving your CID font reach across all major platforms.

Secure Processing

Uploaded CID fonts are deleted immediately after conversion. TTF outputs are removed from our servers within 24 hours to protect your work.

How to convert CID to TTF

1

Select files from Computer, Google Drive, Dropbox, URL or by dragging it on the page.

2

Choose ttf or any other format you need as a result (more than 200 formats supported)

3

Let the file convert and you can download your ttf file right afterwards

About formats

CID (Character Identifier) is a font architecture developed by Adobe Systems and specified in June 1993 to address the challenges of fonts containing very large glyph sets, particularly for CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) scripts. Traditional PostScript fonts identify glyphs by name, which becomes impractical when a font contains tens of thousands of characters — a typical Japanese font may include over 20,000 glyphs. CID-keyed fonts replace glyph names with numeric identifiers organized by a character collection and ordering (such as Adobe-Japan1 or Adobe-GB1), dramatically reducing overhead for glyph access and subsetting. The architecture defines three PostScript font types: Type 9 (CID-keyed Type 1 outlines), Type 10 (CID-keyed Type 3), and Type 11 (CID-keyed Type 42/TrueType). A primary advantage is efficient handling of massive character sets — the numeric CID approach eliminates the memory and processing cost of maintaining thousands of glyph name strings. CID fonts also support sophisticated CMap resources that map encoding values to CIDs, enabling a single font to serve multiple encoding schemes (Unicode, Shift-JIS, Big5) without duplicating glyph data. The architecture integrates well with PDF subsetting, allowing documents to embed only the glyphs actually used. CID-keyed technology laid the foundation for CJK support in both OpenType and modern PDF workflows, and remains active in print production and document processing systems worldwide.
Developer: Adobe Systems
Initial release: June 11, 1993
TTF (TrueType Font) is a scalable outline font format developed by Apple Computer in the late 1980s and first shipped with Mac System 7 on May 13, 1991. Microsoft licensed the technology shortly after and included TrueType support in Windows 3.1 in 1992, establishing it as the dominant desktop font technology for over a decade. TrueType describes glyph shapes using quadratic Bezier splines — simpler mathematically than the cubic Bezier curves in PostScript fonts — stored alongside a powerful instruction set (the "hinting" language) that controls exactly how outlines are rasterized at each pixel size. This instruction-based hinting gives type designers pixel-level control over rendering at small sizes on low-resolution screens, producing exceptionally crisp text. The format stores all font data — outlines, metrics, kerning, naming, and hinting — in a single file organized as a directory of tagged data tables. One advantage is universal platform support: TTF files render natively on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and virtually every operating system and web browser without conversion or plugins. The byte-code hinting system is another distinctive strength, enabling screen rendering quality that remained superior to competing technologies until high-DPI displays reduced the importance of pixel-level optimization. TrueType's table-based architecture also proved remarkably extensible, serving as the structural foundation for the OpenType specification that added advanced typographic features and PostScript outline support on top of the TrueType container.
Developer: Apple Computer
Initial release: May 13, 1991

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert CID to TTF?

TTF is universally supported on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Converting from CID gives your CJK characters broad application compatibility beyond Adobe tools.

Is my CID file safe during conversion?

Uploaded CID files are deleted immediately after conversion. TTF output files are removed from servers within 24 hours for your privacy.

Will my CJK glyphs survive the conversion?

Yes — the full character set transfers to TTF. All CID-indexed glyphs are mapped to Unicode codepoints in the resulting TrueType font.

Can I use the TTF on websites?

TTF works as a web font via @font-face, though WOFF or WOFF2 is generally preferred for web use due to smaller file sizes and better caching.

Is this conversion free on Convertio?

Absolutely. Upload your CID font, convert to TTF, and download — no payment or account creation required.

CID to TTF Quality Rating

4.4 (20 votes)
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