EOT (Embedded OpenType font)
Also known as: .eot file, Embedded OpenType, how to open EOT
EOT (Embedded OpenType) is a legacy web-font format Microsoft created for older versions of Internet Explorer. It packages an OpenType/TrueType font for use on web pages, but it is obsolete today and has been replaced by WOFF and WOFF2.
- Legacy web-font format for old Internet Explorer
- Wraps a TrueType/OpenType font; IE-only
- Superseded by the open WOFF and WOFF2 formats
What EOT was for
In the early days of web fonts, EOT was the only way to embed a custom typeface that Internet Explorer would load. It wraps a TrueType/OpenType font and was designed to discourage casual copying of the font file.
EOT only ever worked in Internet Explorer; other browsers never adopted it. With IE retired, the format no longer serves any modern purpose.
What replaced EOT
Today’s standard web-font formats are WOFF and WOFF2, which are open, broadly supported across browsers, and compressed for fast loading — WOFF2 most aggressively. They draw on the same OpenType (OTF) and TrueType (TTF) outlines that desktop fonts use.
If you still have an EOT in an old project, you can convert it to WOFF2 (and WOFF as a fallback) with a font converter so it loads in current browsers.