Encarta is a digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation. As of 2005, the complete English version, Encarta Premium consists of more than 68,000 articles, numerous images and movies, and homework tools, and is available on the World Wide Web by yearly subscription or by purchase on DVD-ROM or multiple CD-ROMs. Many articles can also be viewed online free of charge, a service supported by advertisements.
Microsoft publishes similar encyclopedias under the Encarta trademark in various languages, including German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese. Localized versions may contain contents licensed from available national sources and may contain more or less content than the full English version. For example, the Dutch version has content from the Dutch Winkler Prins encyclopedia.
