I think you need to do a good deal of background reading about the OpenType format. It is pretty crucial to understand and use the terminology of the technology in a consistent and accurate way. For instance, your phrase ’OpenType encoding’ is problematic and doesn’t obviously relate to anything in the format or in OT Layout (and understanding the distinction between the file format and the layout handling is also crucial).

I recommend starting with the material on the MS Typography website.

Is OpenType going to become the standard format in the near future putting apart TrueType and PostScript fonts?

An OpenType font is a TrueType font insofar as it shares the same sfnt table structure as other flavours of TrueType. What practically distinguishes the OpenType format from TrueType is the optional presence of OpenType Layout tables and/or a CFF PostScript outline table. [The format distinction between TT and OT is the presece of a ’dsig’ table, but this isn’t a very practical distinction for most users.]

Will OpenType allow for better typographical usage from general users?

In many cases, it will effectively enforce better typographic usage by improving the default behaviour. So, for example, one can expect standard ligatures and contextual alternates to be on by default. Likewise, when users select a smallcaps function, there will be a better chance that they will get true smallcap glyphs, rather than scaled uppercase letters.

Will the internet benefit from the use of OpenType?

It already does for the millions of people who access websites in e.g. Arabic, Hindi, Thai, etc. Smart font layout is required for the correct shaping of many of the world’s writing systems. It is important to understand the degree to which the typographic niceties that most English-language typographers associate with OpenType are riding on the back of software internationalisation and complex script support.

Will most common applications become OpenType savvy?

Yes. In many cases, they will become so through system level libraries and services. For instance, my browser and e-mail software are already OT savvy when it comes to the complex scripts that I work with on a daily basis, and that is simply through utilising capabilities that the operating system makes available. As the operating systems expose more typographic features, these too will become widely available.

The biggest problems cases for OpenType adoption are large and very popular programs like MS Word, which have a massive legacy code base and backwards compatibility commitments. New applications have it easier.

Is OpenType going to become the standard format in the near future putting apart TrueType and PostScript fonts?

No technology is ever put aside completely. I predict/guess that OpenType will gain slowly but surely. But It could be a long time before it dominates. 10 years or more.

Will OpenType allow for better typographical usage from general users?

No. Good use of type is always going to be a deliberate act bourne of sensitivity insight and knowledge. Asking this is like asking if highway medians will make people better drivers. Of course not. But the medians make accidents less likely and less bad (mostly) when they do happen. So it might seem like you have better drivers with medians in place. If the end result is less carnage then that’s great. Of course accidents still happen and Opentype will not prevent all Typographic accidents.

Thanks Giovanni!

I have been wondering how far can we take the encoding of OpenType fonts. Any thoughts?

many thoughts...

Christina Schulz’s Picture Ligatures is really interesting. Although she no longer has the demo online, I’m sure she’d be willing to answer some questions.

Hopefully, you are already aware of House Industries’ Artificial Ed-telligence and Christian Schwartz’s Local Gothic

OpenType affords many more possibilities for customization, but my question is: to what end? What do you hope is the outcome of your research?

I suggest you focus your efforts on both learning more about OpenType and also, thinking about the “to what end” question...In my case, I probably would have never come up with the idea of visualizing linguistic behaviors in a font if I had not been serendipitously studying sociolinguistics...

feel free to contact me if you have any questions, etc...

Amy

I wrote a piece about OT for Graphic Exchange in 2002. “Big Thing” (it’s in PDF at my site). Phil Baines had something in Eye at the same time.

I think OT is about to break, now, for many reasons.

First will be support from Quark 7, still a big force in the graphics industry, despite routine vilification at Typophile.

Second is “push” from type designers enthralled by its possibilities. These are folk who started off as grunge mac artists and have followed a career trajectory that’s become increasingly professional. Their creative output is engaging with OT.

Three is the role of trans-national corporations and their support from MS and Adobe — if you’re launching a product in the EU and packaging requires Greek (presently a member) and Cyrillic (Ukraine on the wait list) blurb, it’s no longer good enough just to have optional CE fonts. MS (ClearType upcoming) and Adobe (Minion etc.) are really pushing the market by bundling fonts with massive language support — other foundries will have to do likewise — Peter Bilak’s Fedra at Typotheque is off and running, and many others (myself included) have similar projects under development.

Four is the penetration of OT support in Adobe apps — they’ve been plugging away at this and InDesign is now well established, and the GaramondPro registration offer is a nice idea, putting a premium on the OT format. I should also mention that distributors like Myfonts are doing their bit to explain and promote, with their system of icons to indicate feature support.

Five: third time lucky — after GX and Multiple Master, it’s about time for a new font format that sticks.

I could go on, but it seems to me that OT is well established, and proceeding on many fronts. The fact that it hasn’t yet been a huge immediate “killer app” is a testament to the serious nature of the format — Unicode and what we once called “Expert” typographic features.

> started off as grunge mac artists

I think those guys mostly moved on to deconstruct stuff
besides fonts... And those type of people* don’t usually
have the stomach for heavily technical stuff (including
good spacing btw) anyway. The current crop of candidates
for leveraging the benefits of OpenType seem to have a
much more sober, “quiet craftsman” type of constitution.

* Note for example how Licko has given the OT work to outside help.

hhp

Hi.

Thanks to all for your comments.
I will follow your recommendations and might be back with more questions soon.

BTW. Excuse my lack of proper terminology both technical and grammatical,
as I am new to this concerns and English is my fourth language.

Again, thank you.

Giovanni.

Is OpenType going to become the standard format in the near future putting apart TrueType and PostScript fonts?

Besides agreeing with earlier comments, I’d like to point out that there is a big difference between three things in terms of what constitutes “the standard format”:

• The installed base of fonts, what people have available to work with. Because fonts last virtually forever, the installed base will remain overwhelmingly non OpenType for a long time.

• Which of the fonts they have available people choose to actually use. OpenType will do pretty well here, at least among professional designers and graphic artists.
• What fonts people buy. I think that by the end of 2006, if not sooner, OpenType fonts will be the majority of fonts being sold.

Will OpenType allow for better typographical usage from general users? Will the internet benefit from the use of OpenType?

I agree with John’s comments on these issues. Eben is right insofar as the difference won’t be overwhelming, but it should be noticeable.

Will most common applications become OpenType savvy?

If “most common applications” comprises Microsoft Office, key Apple applications, Adobe/Macromedia applications, and QuarkXPress, then the answer is clearly “yes.” But I think it may be a very long time before your average accounting software becomes OpenType savvy.

Cheers,

T