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No longer a strange new font format, OpenType was developed jointly by Microsoft and Adobe in the mid '90s and is now firmly an industry standard among design professionals. Initially the adoption of the format was slow, but with the introduction of Quark 7 the last group of users can now jump aboard as PostScript Type 1 sails off for the history books.

For font developers, the transition from PostScript T1 to OpenType has been fascinating. The spread of a globalized economy, the opening of the EU and the development of a borderless world media on the internet has rendered the largely Western European based PostScript T1 format irrelevant. In its place, OpenType delivers a robust Unicode font structure capable of handling over 65,000 glyphs - more than enough to satisfy the language needs of the worlds users and bring fonts into the 21st century.

OpenType also means flexibility. OpenType fonts are a single cross platform file capable of functioning on both Mac and PC platforms - something all the more necessary with the interchange of documents between platforms becoming common place. The sneaky hidden error characters like "?" can now be avoided with the use of OpenType fonts on each end.

And of course, the typographic features. Small caps, multiple numeral styles, ligatures, stylistic alternates - these are just a few of the options. OpenType has made several new typographic features possible and many more, much easier. Gone are the days of hunting through separate fonts for "sc" and "osf" for small caps and old style figures respectively.

On our end, the switch from PostScript T1 to OpenType isn’t the LP to CD switch of the ’80s in which one had to return to the record shop only to buy the favorites already owned on vinyl. All of our previous PostScript T1 users may upgrade free of charge to a comparable OpenType version of the font. Just get in touch and be sure to include your order number.