- [Instructor] When it comes to font formats,
there are actually three different formats.
PostScript fonts were created by Adobe
as part of the PostScript page-description language.
That's what gave birth to the desktop publishing revolution.
Now, a PostScript font consists of two separate parts:
the screen font that's used for displaying on screen,
and then a printer font that's a separate file
that's downloaded to an imaging device.
Now, PostScript fonts are a little bit limited
in that they are not cross-platform.
So a separate font version
would be required for a Mac and a PC.
And PostScript fonts are limited to 256 characters.
TrueType fonts were developed by Apple Computer
in the late 1980s as a competitor to PostScript.
And TrueType fonts were first released
as part of Mac System 7 in 1991.
And then ultimately TrueType was added
to the Windows Operating System.
Now, TrueType font is a single file format.
No separate printer and screen font.
And TrueType works on both Mac and PC.
Again, TrueType is limited to 256 characters.
Now, that might sound like plenty
until you start thinking about
the way OpenType fonts work.
OpenType was developed as a collaboration
between Microsoft and Adobe.
And the intention was to provide support
for multilanguage characters and accent marks.
And that takes you beyond the 256 characters
that was a limit for TrueType and PostScript.
OpenType fonts can be used cross-platform,
which is really helpful,
and a font can contain up to 65,536 glyphs,
and that provides the support
for all the characters that would be needed
in multilingual publishing.
Now, all of these font formats are perfectly fine for print,
but if you're buying new fonts, given the choice,
you should opt for OpenType.
It's a newer format, has much more flexibility,
and it's cross-platform.