License Microsoft fonts from Tiro Typeworks

Since 1998, Tiro Typeworks has developed numerous typefaces for Microsoft Corporation, including award winning multilingual text types, groundbreaking complex display faces, and user-interface and branding fonts for major global writing systems. Beginning in the autumn of 2025, we are pleased to be able to offer select Microsoft fonts for licensing from Tiro Typeworks. These include typeface families that we have designed, as well as some for which we provided technical production to implement the work of other designers, notably Matthew Carter’s Sitka.

The first tranche of Microsoft fonts from Tiro Typeworks is now available, and more will be added later in the year. Please visit the individual typeface pages for samples of more styles, and for links to specimens and glyph set documentation.

Constantia was designed in the early 2000s as part of the ClearType Font Collection commissioned by Microsoft’s Advanced Reading Technologies group. This collection of serif, sans serif and monospaced fonts was developed to demonstrate the enhanced rendering of text on screens using Microsoft’s ClearType rasterisation and subpixel display technology.

Constantia is a wedge-serif text face originally intended for use in e‑books and online journals. Since its release, it has also proven popular for reports, business communications, and corporate branding. In Constantia, sharp triangular serifs and open apertures are applied to classic book face proportions, creating a design that has remained contemporary over two decades of on-screen use while also able to function in traditional typesetting layouts for print. As Adobe’s typographic experts said of it: ​‘If you’re creating a document or publication that will have both a printed and a digital form, Constantia is the perfect text typeface.’

The Latin (pan-European, Vietnamese), Greek (Monotonic) and Cyrillic (Slavic) character sets were designed at the same time, with each script contributing ideas that influenced proportions and details in the others. This ensures that Contantia works well in multilingual documents, or as an element in branding for companies operating in multiple countries.

The robust structures of the glyphs carry small, subtle details—e.g. the sheared terminals of the serifs—that become apparent when Constantia is used at larger sizes.

Constantia is available in roman, italic, bold, and bold italic styles.

Constantia Display is a new release, commissioned by Microsoft Office. The design is lighter and narrower than the text face, suitable for use at larger sizes. As well as conventional features of optical size designs for titling use, such as shorter x‑height, Constantia Display includes distinct details, such as the flared, serifless arms of E and F and related forms in Greek and Cyrillic.

Constantia Display harmonises beautifully with Constantia text faces, of course, but can also be used contrastively with other types, including sans serif. The fonts cover the same character set as Constantia, plus an extended set of currency symbols. Use Constantia Display in titles and headlines, in books, reports, or presentations.

Constantia Display is available in a single weight, in roman and italic styles.

Gabriola is a complex display typeface commissioned by Microsoft’s Advanced Reading Technologies group to help drive OpenType Layout adoption in Office apps. Although designed in single weight, the font consists of more than 4,500 glyphs, including eight different stylistic sets, numerous ligatures, many contextual and swash forms, and dynamic ornamentation. John Hudson was inspired in the design by an idea from music: that the same melody can be played in different keys, or modes, producing different tonal and emotional registers. Text set in Gabriola can be made progressively more elaborate and ornamented using stylistic sets inspired by different historical calligraphic modes.

Gabriola supports a pan-European Latin character set, both polytonic and monotonic Greek, and Slavic languages in Cyrillic script. In each script, the elaboration of styles reflects traditions in the writing system, e.g. the proliferation of ligatures in Greek cursive. The typeface is popular in packaging design and in the branding of stores and products. Use the friendly elegance of the default style, or explore the more exuberant character of the other stylistic sets in titles, headlines and subheads.

Gabriola is available as a single font.

Sitka is an extensive family of optical size and weight variant typefaces designed by legendary type design Matthew Carter. Sitka was commissioned by the Advanced Reading Technologies group, and developed through an iterative process of letter recognition tests conducted by Microsoft researcher Kevin Larson. Tiro Typeworks provided technical production on the project, working with Matthew and the ART team to determine the ranges for the different optical size designs, and mastering the first, static versions of the fonts. Later, with the advent of OpenType font variations technology, Tiro was commissioned to build the variable version with opsz and wght axes.

Sitka supports Latin (pan-European, Vietnamese), Greek (Monotonic) and Cyrillic (Slavic) scripts, all of which underwent iterative legibility testing with native readers. Each of the named size designs—Small, Text, Subheading, Heading, Display, and Banner—are tailored to a range of sizes, with proportions and features to maximise legibility at smaller sizes and enhance elegance at larger sizes. Use the variable font version to further refine optical adjustments to specific text sizes. 

Sitka is available as two OpenType variable fonts, as a super-family of 36 static fonts, as nominal size families, or individual size, weight and style fonts.

Skeena is a modulated sans serif typeface family designed by John Hudson and Paul Hanslow. The design originated in trials for possible new user interface fonts, and was then built out into a basic western European character set as one of five candidate types to replace Calibri as the default font in Microsoft Office. The Skeena family has now been extended to cover a pan-European Latin character set, with a new black (ultra bold) and intermediate weights.

The regular to bold weights of Skeena work well in text settings, where the modulation of thick and thin strokes, open apertures, and generous proportions are emminently readable. The dynamic stroke contrast in the heavier weights are suited to dramatic display typography, eye-catching signage, and packaging design.

A separate, Skeena Indigenous family has been derived from the design and released under a libre license for North American Indigenous language support.

Skeena is available as two wght axis variable fonts, or as twelve static fonts.

Skeena Display was designed alongside the Skeena text faces when the latter were being developed as possible replacements for the default fonts in Office apps. Skeena Display is not a straight optical size variant of the Skeena text faces, but a distinct design focused on increasing the contrast between thick and thin strokes. By modulating the dynamics in this way, the display cut of Skeena preserves the highly readable body proportions of the text faces but in a more dramatic outfit.

For this release, the character set of Skeena Display has been extended to match the pan-European Latin coverage of the Skeena text fonts. The nominal weight range is from regular to bold. Consider Skeena Display for titling in documents and presentations, and for larger uses in posters or billboards.

Skeena Display is available as two wght axis variable fonts, or as eight static fonts.

Cambria is a family of extensive text types, plus a dedicated font for mathematical typesetting. Since Jelle Bosma’s original Latin design was selected as the primary serif type in Microsoft Office apps, many designers have contributed to its further development, most recently Ruben Tarumian who designed the Armenian script set. Tiro Typeworks has worked on Cambria since immediately after its initial release, being reponsible for several Latin, Cyrillic and Greek extensions, as well as development of Cambria Math—the first OpenType math font—in coordination with the math layout team at Microsoft.

Cambria is the epitome of a workhorse typeface. It was designed from the outset for onscreen readability, and is a robust, generously spaced text face that functions well at smaller sizes and across a wide range of device resolutions and print quality. The extensive character set includes global Latin support, including IPA and other phonetic notation, both polytonic and monotonic Greek, full Unicode Cyrillic coverage, Armenian script, and a large set of currency and other symbols. The math font includes more than 7,600 glyphs, including multiple alphanumeric styles, super- and subscript scaling forms, growing variants and assemblies for delimiters and operators in mathematical typesetting.

Cambria text faces are available in available in roman, italic, bold, and bold italic styles. The Cambria Math font is available as a single font.

Microsoft fonts from Tiro are available under the terms of the M‑Products License Agreement. This is substantially similar to our General License Agreement, and like it is linked to use types and limitations selected during the purchase process. The key differences in the M‑Product license are:

• There is no separate use type for e‑books; rather, use of fonts in e‑book titles is covered by the device use type.
• Modification of the fonts is not permitted even for personal use.

These differences are to keep the license in line with Microsoft’s own permissions and restrictions for fonts available with their products.

Who needs to purchase a license?

If you have a legitimate license for any of the Microsoft products with which these fonts ship, you do not need any additional license from Tiro to use the fonts as permitted by Microsoft’s own software license. This includes the right to use the fonts in Microsoft’s own apps and, in the case of fonts that ship with Windows, in third-party apps running within the Microsoft operating system. You do not need an additional license to create documents, artwork, or other output using the fonts, including output for commercial use.

You will need an additional license if you want to

• use the fonts as webfonts, served to websites using the CSS @font-face rule;
• use the fonts in third party software outside of Microsoft operating systems or other environments not covered by Microsoft’s product licenses;
• embed the fonts in apps;
• install the fonts on servers connected to workstations that are not running Microsoft operating systems or other enterprise software.

If you are unsure whether you need to purchase a license for a particular purpose, please contact us.

Microsoft, Cambria, Constantia, Gabriola, Sitka, and Skeena are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Used with permission.