OpenType

The OpenType font format, jointly developed by Microsoft and Adobe, offers a new generation of typographic features and benefits for users, type designers, and application developers.

OpenType users will enjoy easy access to advanced typographic features and extended character sets. There will be only one font file - with no outward distinction between Type 1 and TrueType fonts.

Font developers will be able to enhance their products while making font development and distribution easier than ever. Since only a single font file need be produced for either Type 1 or TrueType fonts - font production, mastering, and QA (quality assurance) will be significantly simplified. The extended character sets (including characters such as small caps, old style figures, etc.) will allow font developers to provide characters that are essential for effective typographic communication, but which were not easily available to users with previous formats.

Application developers will benefit by only having to support a single format for both Type 1 and TrueType fonts, and for having a consistent API (Application Programmers Interface) for both TrueType and Type 1 fonts and for multiple platforms. This will greatly simplify basic font support issues, and make it easier to add advanced typographic features to the application.

Advanced Typographic Features supported by OpenType include:

Glyph positioning
Multi-script baselines
Substitutional positioning
Glyph classification and attachment
Glyph substitution (small caps, swash variants, old-style figures, etc.)
Ligature definition, and decomposition
Accent attachment for mixed-script setting
Specification of justification policy
Pair/Class contextual kerning

OpenType: Specifications and Information

The OpenType Font Format specifications can also be found at the Microsoft Typography home page. Also see below for specifications for the Type 1 aspects of OpenType.

For general information, see the Introduction to OpenType Fonts.

OpenType Type 1

A Type 1 OpenType font consists of the OpenType file "wrapper" and the PostScript outline font program which is stored in the font data structure as a table. The "Type 1" portion actually consists of a CFF (Compact Font Format) font file (PDF: 251 KB), with character descriptions are expressed as Type 2 charstrings (212 KB). For an overview of these component formats, see the CFF/Type2 Q & A.

OpenType Developer Tools

OpenType fonts can by converting PostScript fonts using our free tool.
You may also use the commerical font editing program FontLab.