What are Open Type Fonts?

Open Type Fonts

Open Type Font is a co-operative conception developed by Microsoft and Adobe. OpenType is the latest extension of TrueType and PostScript Type 1 font formats. It offers much more advanced typesetting features, such as small capitals, old-style numerals, ligatures, kerning, and more. They can be scaled to any size to be readable and clear, can be printed from any device supported by Windows. OpenType fonts can comprise thousands of characters, including numeral sets, style sets, and contextual substitutions integrated into a single font. In a word, with the help of code blocks, OpenType creates amazing things for you. It offers the extended capabilities to support a high-quality international typography.

One of the key benefits of OpenType fonts is a full compatibility across platforms. Designed to perform on all electronics documents, most Macintosh and Windows apps support OpenType. Let’s face it - everyone who uses both platforms wins. Moreover, OpenType fonts are usable as web fonts for most platforms and browsers. However, there are some older ones that require a TrueType format.

It shortens the font management workflow and ensures all the expected glyphs (the altered forms for characters) are added to one font file. Thanks to the glyph substitution feature, the precise swash will be entered immediately to avoid collapsing into adjacent characters. This feature comes built-in. Still, make sure the inserted characters are the ones you wish.

OpenType fonts may have the extension .otf (PostScript based) or .ttf (TrueType based). It depends on the kind of outlined data it contains. These fonts are treated as regular TrueType fonts.

OpenType Configurations

  • OpenType STD is a source of all OpenType formats. It contains an extended Latin character variations of 21 languages.
  • OpenType PRO is a set of all the languages located in OpenType STD format, including several Central European and Latin-based written languages.
  • OpenType COM fonts are a great way to go if you aim for multicultural communication. It comes with the Linotype Extended European Character set (LEEC), which comprises 56 languages held by every OpenType Com font.
  • OpenType W1G/WGL4 set of fonts contains over 600 characters variations supported by 89 languages. The best option for creating an amazing typography style for the Latin and Cyrillic characters, as well as monotonic Greek alphabet.

All in all, OpenType Fonts is a set of all the extra swashes and alternatives you may need to make a compelling case simple as that.

Related termsCMYK, content.

References and further reading: