Better Fonts for Graphic Communicators
Not all fonts are created equal. Some fonts work better than others – depending on how and where you work. In the past, the majority of the professional quality fonts purchased for traditional design and publishing were PostScript Type 1. If, however, you worked in a corporate environment, or if you used a Windows machine or did a lot of Internet publishing, then you more than likely used TrueType fonts. Both font formats have advantages and disadvantages – depending upon your needs.
Up to this point, TrueType fonts held the most advantages for on–screen use, while high–resolution imaging has been the domain of Type 1 fonts. Now OpenType, a new font format, can give you the best of both worlds.
What is OpenType
Developed jointly by Microsoft and Adobe and supported by Monotype Imaging’s compression technology, OpenType provides a series of enhancements to the TrueType format, the most significant of which allows PostScript font data to nest inside a TrueType software “wrapper.”
The main goals of OpenType are:
- Broader multiplatform support
- To enable fonts to have large character sets.
- Improved Internet and PDF (Portable Document Format) publishing
- Better protection for fonts
Application and Sytsem Support
Application and system support information can be found in our FAQ section.
Multiplatform Support
OpenType is a superset of the existing TrueType and Type 1 formats, and provides support for both type in print and on-screen. Technically, an OpenType font can contain Type 1 outline data only, TrueType outline data only, or both. The Type 1 data is rasterized by a Type 1 rasterizer such as Adobe Type Manager or converted to TrueType data for rasterization by a TrueType rasterizer. The good news is: OpenType fonts works right “out of the box.” Both PostScript and TrueType versions of OpenType are supported across all platforms, making fonts easier to use – and more versatile.
Large Character Sets
OpenType allows type designers and font foundries to create larger character sets within fonts. Within the parameters of the TrueType and Type 1 formats, fonts are limited to 256 characters. If a typeface designer wanted to create an extended ligature set, small caps, swash and alternate characters, or characters to support multiple languages, these had to be put into another font. To use these additional characters, you would need to switch back and forth between the fonts – not particularly efficient or user-friendly.
Technically, 65,000 characters can be put into one OpenType font. Unless you are setting languages such as Japanese or Chinese, however, a few hundred characters are probably sufficient for most of us. The large character set capabilities of OpenType allows type designers much more latitude in typeface design, resulting in better graphic communication. More good news: not only does OpenType support more characters, but OpenType is smart enough to know how to use them.
Swash letters are a great example. If, for example, you set the word “Free” in an OpenType font, an OpenType savvy application could automatically add a swash “r” (if one were available in the font) that gracefully arched over the first “e” in the word. If you change the word, however, to “Liberty,” the swash “r” would probably be removed because it would run into the ascender of the lowercase “t”. In each case your spelling checker would know that even though the design of the letter changed, the alphabetical character did not.
Improved Internet and PDF Publishing
OpenType makes it possible for Web page creators to include high quality on–screen fonts with their online documents. This means that designers are able to produce typographically richer documents and reduce the time required to download and display these documents on screen. Additionally, readers will see on–screen pages as they are intended to be seen.
Better Font Protection
OpenType fonts also contain a “digital signature” that allows operating systems and browsing applications to identify the source and integrity of fonts – including embedded font files obtained in Web documents. In addition, font developers are able to encode embedding restrictions in OpenType fonts to maintain better control over how their fonts are used.
Font Embedding
The OpenType format allows for font embedding. This means that a font can be included with a file and sent to someone else. There are four approaches to OpenType font embedding:
- Font embedding that allows the document to be viewed on screen and printed
- Font embedding that allows viewing, printing, and document editing
- Font embedding that allows viewing, printing, editing, and installing onto a hard drive
- No embedding allowed
Fonts developed at Monotype Imaging allow font embedding for the purpose of viewing and printing. This makes sense for readers to be able to see your documents as they were intended, but less sense for them to be able to edit your work – and no sense for them to be able to get your fonts for free
.