typographic perfection with opentype? · typographic perfection with opentype? adam twardoch...

Typographic Perfection with OpenType?

Adam Twardoch

February 26, 2005

Abstract

In September 1999, Adobe Systems declared their PostScript Type 1 font format "obsolete". Until then,this font format was dominating the professional pre-press and printing business, but now was to be replacedwith OpenType – a font format developed by Microsoft and Adobe, with collaboration from Apple. Four anda half years later, OpenType is a fact: both the world’s largest font foundries and individual type designerpublish new fonts in this format.

OpenType fonts have numerous advantages: they can be used in many operating systems without anyconversions (Windows 9x/2000/XP, MacOS 9/X, some Unix environments); they use the universal characterencoding standard Unicode; finally, they can include typographic layout features that allow for comfortableuse of ligatures, small caps, swash alternates or old-style numerals, as well as more advanced functionalitysuch as justification alternates.

You may have heard that Unicode is the only solution for the encoding mess in electronic text processing.You may have also heard that OpenType is the new cross-platform font format that enables unprecedentedtypographic perfection. Adam Twardoch will present these technologies and discuss how much truth andhow much myth these promises hold.

Bio:Born 1975 in Poland, Adam now lives in Frankfurt (Oder), at the German-Polish border. He is Scripting

Products and Marketing Manager at Fontlab Ltd., an international software vendor specializing in fonteditors and typography products. He serves as typographic consultant to MyFonts, a major online fontdistributor. Adam provides consulting services in font creation, font tool development, font technology andmultilingual typography for Adobe, Bitstream, Corel, Linotype, Microsoft and other clients. Adam regularlywrites and lectures about fonts and typography. He is member of Association Typographique Internationale(ATypI) and of the Polish TEX Users’ Group (GUST).

Proceedings EuroTEX2005 – Pont-à-Mousson, France TUT04

Typographic Perfection with OpenType?Adam Twardoch

55

Adam

Tward

och

EuroT

EX 20

05Ad

am Tw

ardoch

Euro

T EX 20

05

Typ

ograp

hic pe

rfecti

on

with

Open

Type

?

3“N

o one

will ev

er nee

d more

than

128 c

harac

ters!”

– AS

CII4

“No o

ne wil

l ever

need m

ore th

an 12

8 cha

racter

s”?

TUT04 Proceedings EuroTEX2005 – Pont-à-Mousson, France

56 Typographic Perfection with OpenType?Adam Twardoch

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o one

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ndow

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enge

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licatio

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d in T

EX



57

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zekł

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ia

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poj

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staw

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czyc

h zn

aków

pow

oduj

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zekł

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ia

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nie

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znak

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kłam

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staw

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atur

jako

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h zn

aków

pow

oduj

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zekł

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ia

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awia

nie

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znak

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staw

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edyn

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h zn

aków

pow

oduj

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zekł

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ia

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awia

nie

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ur ja

ko p

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ów p

owod

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staw

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aków

pow

oduj

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zekł

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pow

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10In

GUI a

pplica

tions,

switc

hing f

onts m

ay lea

d to u

nwan

ted eff

ects,

in T EX

ligatu

re inf

ormati

on sto

red in

sepa

rate fi

les (.t

fm)

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11Un

icode

assign

s num

eric c

odes

to cha

racter

s

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men

t zes

taw

u zn

aków

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code

12Th

e Unic

ode S

tanda

rd enc

odes

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0 cha

racter

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illion

possi

ble



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men

t zes

taw

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aków

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code

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e Unic

ode S

tanda

rd enc

odes

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0 cha

racter

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illion

possi

ble

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men

t zes

taw

u zn

aków

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code

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e Unic

ode S

tanda

rd enc

odes

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0 cha

racter

s, 1 m

illion

possi

ble

Kró

tka

hist

oria

sta

ndar

du U

nico

de

1984

ISO

wor

king

gro

up c

reat

ed to

defi

ne u

nive

rsal

cha

ract

er s

et

1987

Uni

code

wor

king

gro

up c

reat

ed to

defi

ne u

nive

rsal

cha

ract

er s

et (A

pple

, Xer

ox)

1990

Dis

tinct

Uni

code

1.0

and

DIS

-1 1

0646

pub

lishe

d

1991

“Tw

o un

iver

sal c

hara

cter

set

s? N

ot a

goo

d id

ea!”

: Uni

code

and

ISO

106

46 m

erge

d

1993

Mer

ged

Uni

code

1.1

and

ISO

106

46-1

:199

3 pu

blis

hed

1996

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code

2.0

pub

lishe

d, 3

8 88

5 en

code

d ch

arac

ters

1998

Uni

code

2.1

pub

lishe

d, a

ddin

g e.

g. th

e eu

ro c

hara

cter

1999

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code

3.0

pub

lishe

d, 4

9 19

4 en

code

d ch

arac

ters

2000

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/IE

C 1

0646

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publ

ishe

d (U

nico

de 3

.0 e

quiv

alen

t)

2002

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code

3.2

pub

lishe

d, 9

5 15

6 en

code

d ch

arac

ters

(> 6

5 53

6!)

2003

Uni

code

4.0

pub

lishe

d, 9

6 51

3 en

code

d ch

arac

ters

2005

Uni

code

4.1

bet

a, 9

7 78

6 en

code

d ch

arac

ters

15Bri

ef hist

ory of

the U

nicod

e Stan

dard

1975

Pete

r K

arow

ann

ouce

s Ik

arus

at t

he A

TypI

con

fere

nce

in W

arsa

w

1985

Ado

be S

yste

ms

crea

tes

the

Post

Scri

pt la

ngua

ge a

nd d

efine

s th

e Po

stSc

ript

Typ

e 1

font

form

at (t

he s

peci

ficat

ion

is c

onfid

entia

l)

1987

App

le C

ompu

ter

and

Mic

roso

ft C

orp

star

t cre

atin

g th

eir

own

font

form

at

that

wou

ld b

e in

depe

nden

t fro

m a

n A

dobe

lice

nse

1990

Ado

be p

ublis

hes

the

Post

Scri

pt T

ype

1 sp

ecifi

catio

n

1991

Ado

be p

ublis

hes

ATM

, App

le a

nd M

icro

soft

pub

lish

the

True

Type

form

at

1993

–96

App

le d

evel

ops

True

Type

into

Tru

eTyp

e G

X (l

ater

: AAT

), Tr

ueTy

pe G

X (l

ater

: AAT

), Tr

ueTy

pe G

XM

icro

soft

dev

elop

s Tr

ueTy

pe in

to T

rueT

ype

Ope

n

1998

Ado

be jo

ins

the

Mic

roso

ft in

itiat

ive

and

crea

tes

the

CFF

form

at

CFF

form

at

CFF

that

allo

ws

plac

ing

Post

Scri

pt fo

nt d

ata

into

the

True

Type

file

str

uctu

re

1999

Ado

be a

nd M

icro

soft

ann

ounc

e O

penT

ype

base

d on

Tru

eTyp

e O

pen

and

CFF

2000

Firs

t Ope

nTyp

e fo

nts

publ

ishe

d by

Ado

be a

nd M

icro

soft

16Th

irty ye

ars of

digit

al outl

ine fo

nt tec

hnolo

gy: 19

75–2

005



59

Ope

nTyp

e je

st fo

rmat

em u

niw

ersa

lnym

17On

e form

at, m

any p

latfor

ms: O

penTyp

e18

One c

harac

ter, m

any g

lyphs

01

2A

Ka

be

s0030

0031

0032

0041

004B

0061

0062

0065

0073

onum

smcp

fina

init

salt

hist

19In

addit

ion to

defau

lt cha

racter

form

s, Open

Type fo

nts ca

n have

varian

t glyp

hs ass

ociate

d with

so-ca

lled la

yout fe

atures

20Bri

oso Pr

o (Ro

bert S

limba

ch, Ad

obe S

ystem

s)Lay

out fe

atures

: stan

dard

ligatu

res (li

ga)



21Po

etica

Std (R

obert

Slim

bach,

Adob

e Syst

ems)

Layou

t Feat

ures: l

iga, d

lig, sa

lt, orn

mC

zter

y po

dsta

wow

e

form

y lit

er a

rabs

kich

isol

init

medi

fina

t 062Aت

ســتـ

ســتـ

ســـ

سـت

سـت

ســتســ

h 062Dح

سـحـ

سـحـ

ســ

سـح

سـح

ســـحـس

22In

the Ar

abic w

riting

syste

m, ea

ch let

ter ha

s four

differe

nt for

ms:

isolat

ed, in

itial, m

edial

and fi

nal

Ope

nTyp

e um

ożliw

ia p

opra

wny

skł

ad w

języ

ku a

rabs

kim

i inn

ych

języ

kach

sto

sują

cych

kal

igra

ficzn

e sy

stem

y pi

sma

23Th

e Open

Type fo

nt con

tains

appro

priate

layou

t featu

res (in

it, me

di, fin

a) tha

t map

the d

efault

form

to th

e con

textua

l form

s

Lite

ra ł

w p

iśm

ie d

ruko

wan

ym i

odrę

czny

m

Fals

ki 1

974

24So

me la

ngua

ges ha

ve loc

alized

glyph

form

s in ha

ndwr

iting



61

Wład

ysław

Jag

iełło

intern

ation

al form

s

Wład

ysław

Jag

iełło

localiz

ed for

ms

Wład

ysław

Jag

iełło

ligatur

es

25Op

enType

allow

s for la

ngua

ge-sen

sitive

subst

itutio

nsso

for Po

lish la

ngua

ge, th

e call

igrap

hic lsl

ash ca

n be s

ubsti

tuted

War

iant

y zn

aków

dia

kryt

yczn

ych

z ac

ute

dost

osow

ane

do ję

z. p

olsk

iego

i hi

szpa

ński

ego

Fenw

ay, M

atth

ew C

arte

r 20

01

26Op

enType

allow

s for la

ngua

ge-sen

sitive

subst

itutio

nsso

differe

nt gly

ph va

riants

can b

e sele

cted d

epend

ing on

lang

uage

Dw

a w

aria

nty

font

ów w

form

acie

Ope

nTyp

e

27Op

enType

fonts

exist

in tw

o “fla

vors”

: Op

enType

TT an

d Open

Type P

S28



Cal

ligra

phic

Typ

efac

e by

Her

man

n Z

apf

Publ

ishe

d

in O

pen

Typ

e Fo

rmat

by L

inot

ype

Libr

ary

2930

31Ori

ginall

y pub

lished

as a s

eries

of Typ

e 1 fo

nts32

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o Extr

a LT P

ro con

tains

an ex

tensiv

e set

of con

textua

l featu

restha

t simu

late c

alligr

aphic

“ran

domn

ess”



63

33Wo

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ing No

tepad

,als

o Ado

be InD

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trator

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S, soo

n Mac

OS X

34Up

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: Gara

mond

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ier Pr

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Slim

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