FreeType is a software development library used to render text onto bitmaps, and which provides support for other font-related operations.

The FreeType font rasterization engine is free and open-source software with the source code dual-licensed under a BSD-like license and the GPL.

FreeType 2 brought support for more font formats and an evolved source code which the developers stated was "simpler and more powerful".

In 2013 Adobe donated a Compact Font Format rendering engine to the FreeType project which integrated it and made it the default with version 2.5.

[19] As well as being used by the major free software desktop systems, FreeType has been used as a rasterization engine for some modern video games,[20][21][22] and Opera for the Wii.