Part II: Font Types and Their Application

There are several font types in existence today which have different applications. If you're a designer, the different types are relatively easy to identify and use accordingly. But to the uninitiated, one type may not seem different than any other. In an attempt to demystify this subject, let's go over some of the most common fonts types in existence today.

Type I
Adobe later released the Type 1 format as a published standard for anyone to use. Each Windows Type 1 font has two files that work together--a .PFM (Printer Font Metrics, your screen font) and a .PFB (Printer Font Binary, your printer font) file. A dog-eared page icon with a lower case script 'a' (for Adobe) represents both files. The file with the .PFM extension contains information for displaying the font on your screen. The file with the .PFB extension contains information to print the font. To display and print properly you must have both of the font files installed for each Type 1 font.

TrueType
TrueType accompanied the launch of Mac OS System 7 and Windows 3.1 in 1991. Adobe created Adobe Type Manager (ATM) to scale Type 1 fonts on-screen and for output to any printer, much like TrueType fonts. Although there was an initial cost cot purchase ATM, it became a de facto standard for desktop publishing. Under Windows, a dog-eared page icon with two overlapping T's (for TrueType) represents TrueType fonts. All Windows TrueType fonts have a .TTF extension.

In partnership with Monotype, Microsoft created a set of TrueType fonts that were compatible with the core fonts bundled with PostScript equipment at the time. This included the fonts that are standard with Windows to this day: Times New Roman (compatible with Times Roman), Arial (compatible with Helvetica) and Courier New (compatible with Courier). "Compatible" means that the fonts are similar but not the same in look and have the same character widths so they can typeset documents without reformatting the text.

Open Type
In 1996, Adobe and Microsoft teamed to merge TrueType and Type 1 into a font format called OpenType. Apple extended TrueType with the launch of TrueType GX in 1994, a smart font technology that was part of QuickDraw GX. OpenType has now become the dominant smart font technology. The OpenType font format is an extension or new version of TrueType that can also contain PostScript data. OpenType fonts can contain many more glyphs (characters) than other font formats. In Windows, OpenType fonts can have an .OTF or .TTF suffix. The .OTF fonts contain PostScript data. TrueType fonts converted to OpenType to take advantage of the cross-platform capabilities retain the .TTF extension. The icon for an OpenType font is a dog-eared page icon with an 'O' (for OpenType).

TrueType and PostScript Type 1 fonts come in both Macintosh and Windows formats. You can't use Mac TrueType or Type 1 fonts on a PC running Windows. The newer OpenType font format is cross-platform.

Best Font Format
You may hear often that most printers prefer PostScript Type 1 fonts or that Type 1 fonts are superior to TrueType. Despite some resistance, today Type 1 has no real advantage over TrueType fonts in most cases. However, it is still a good idea to check with your printing service to see if they have a preference (this includes the use of OpenType fonts as well).

While you can have TrueType, OpenType, and Type 1 fonts all installed at the same time, it can cause problems (e.g. display or printing errors) if you have two fonts with the same name in two different formats installed at the same time or use more than one font format in the same document, even if they are different fonts.

It is best to use only one font format (all TrueType/OpenType or all Type 1) in a document, especially for documents destined for commercial printing.

There are approximately 100,000 or more digital fonts, 30,000 of which Adobe identifies are Type 1 fonts. For designers, the barrel of choices just keeps getting bigger.