A. FeaturesOpenType is a new font format developed jointly by Adobe and Microsoft. This technology is promising to be the new worldwide standard for font development. There are three major advantages over older formats such as TrueType and Postscript Type 1:
1. Cross-platform compatibility OpenType fonts come in a single file which can be installed on a PC as well as on a Mac offering absolute compatibility between the two platforms.
2. Multilingual support It is now possible to include multiple language character sets in one font (i.e. Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, etc.) and be able to access all these without having to choose a different font for every language. This is particularly useful to advertising agencies, publishing houses and multinational corporations. All Parachute fonts come complete with a full range of characters to support all European countries.
3. Advanced layout features OpenType fonts may also contain special character sets which provide access to advanced typographic features such as small caps, ligatures, oldstyle figures, swashes, etc. They enable the discriminating designer to set text professionally and add a touch of class to the page. Parachute openType fonts that contain advanced layout features are distinguished from the other “simple” openType fonts by the word “Pro” which is part of the font name. The advanced layout features cannot be accessed unless they are supported by your programs. Currently, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Quark 7 support these features. The OpenType palette in Fig. 1 shows all the Advanced Layout Features supported by InDesignCS.
Following is a short list of several OpenType features supported by Parachute fonts and an explanation of how they are used. Please note, that in order to find out the available alternate glyphs, ligatures, etc. for specific Parachute fonts, go to the fonts section and download the appropriate pdf file. Small caps: This feature formats lowercase text as small caps. These are not computer generated scaled-down versions of capitals, but rather they are glyphs which have been designed to match the weight and proportions of the rest of the family characters. They are often used in combination with oldstyle figures, for acronyms and abbreviations and some use them stylistically at the beginning of a paragraph.
Oldstyle figures: Changes selected numbers from the default lining to oldstyle i.e. numbers of varying height. These are appropriate for use with lowercase text. They come in two different styles: tabular and proportional. Tabular figures have equal widths -useful for tables, so that numbers line up from one line to the next- whereas proportional have varying widths and are basically used within a sentence.
Lining figures: This feature changes selected figures from oldstyle to the default lining form. Lining figures are numbers which fit better with all-capital text and they are of the same height as capitals or a bit smaller. They also come in two different styles: tabular and proportional. Lining tabular is the default form for all Parachute fonts.
Ligatures: Replaces a sequence of glyphs with a single glyph, creating a professional-looking text with no peculiar collisions among letters. This feature covers the standard f-ligatures, as well as a few other ones used in normal conditions.
Discretionary ligatures: Replaces a sequence of glyphs with a single glyph. It differs from the previous feature in the fact that it activates special (non-standard) and historical ligatures.
Superiors: Replaces lining and oldstyle figures with superior figures and lowercase letters with superior letters. These superiors glyphs are not computer generated scaled-down versions but are rather redesigned to match the weight of the regular glyphs. Superior figures are used mainly for footnotes and superior letters for abbreviated titles.
Scientific inferiors: Replaces lining and oldstyle figures with inferior figures. They have been designed to match the weight of the regular glyphs and sit lower than the standard baseline. Used primarily for mathematical and chemical notations.
Numerators: Substitutes selected numbers (and basic punctuation) which precede a slash with numerator glyphs and replaces the typographic slash with the fraction slash.
Denominators: Substitutes selected numbers (and basic punctuation) which follow a slash with denominator glyphs and replaces the typographic slash with the fraction slash.
Fractions: Figures separated by slash, are replaced with diagonal fractions.
Alternate fractions: Figures separated by slash, are replaced with an alternate form of function.
Ordinals: Replaces alphabetic glyphs which follow numbers with superscripted glyphs and the sequence No with the numero character.
Endings/Beginnings: Replaces glyphs at the beginning or end of words with alternate forms which provide a better aesthetic result. Primarily used in script fonts.
Stylistic alternates: Replaces non-standard glyphs with alternate forms purely for aesthetic reasons. Parachute fonts often contain alternate glyphs for letters such as latin 'g', greek 'beta', greek 'zeta', etc.
Capital spacing: Globally adjusts inter-glyph spacing for all capitals. This feature can be applied (opens up the space in-between them) when text is set all-capital in order to make it more legible.
Small caps from capitals: Replaces capital glyphs with small caps.
B. OpenType font formats
There are two possible forms of OpenType fonts: OpenType TT (TrueType-flavoured) and OpenType PS (Postscript-flavoured or CFF-flavoured). Both formats offer the same functionality, having only a few technical differences. Both will work on both platforms. Parachute fonts are shipped as OpenType PS which is recommended for prepress/publishing applications, providing better rendering quality and postscript compatibility. They contain postscript outlines (3rd-order).
C. System support
Current versions of Windows (2000/XP) and MacOsX support both OpenType flavors. For older systems the following is true: In order to get basic Latin support for OpenType PS in MacOs 8.x/9.x and Windows 98/ME/NT, you need to install the Adobe Type Manager (ATM). On MacOs you need ATM 4.6 or later and ATM 4.1 or later on Windows. It has been noticed that of all programs, only InDesign 2.0 supports well other languages (such as Greek) in MacOs 8.x/9.x with OpenType PS fonts. OpenType TT fonts are not supported in MacOs 8.x/9.x systems. Instead they work well in a Windows 98/ME/NT environment since OpenType TT fonts are basically the same format as Windows TrueType fonts.
Here is a list of the type of support that these popular applications offer: