Goran,
Are you sure that the problem is in your fonts and not in the TypeTester?
Have you tried your TypeTester with Minion, for example? Does it work?

Nope. No, OpenType font actually works with the tester fully. Well, it works, but some characters are missing and some gets mixed up.

At the same time it’s rather strange that if I just export as a .ttf it works fine. I dont need to do anything else, isnt that strange?

I was thinking that _if_ I export an OpenType font with the same kind of encoding as a TrueType font, it may work, but I dont know the main principles on what differ them both.

The Typetester is written for TrueType fonts, I know that, but since "half" of the OpenType font works, it must be a way to make the whole work aswell. (?)

I guess my main question really is, what is the real difference between a Truetype and an OpenType when it comes this matter?

What’s the difference in the encoding-things? Is there some things that I could try perhaps in the Font options in Fontlab, I’ve seen there is a lot to choose (cmap etc...)

Maybe it’s not that simple, but I’m just reaching out and trying to learn :)

(The very helpful person who helped me create the tester is however going to give it a try and see if there is some code that could be re-written in the tester)

I am supremely confident that someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but...

The Truetype fonts which Fontlab produces are, in fact, Opentype fonts, but TTF-flavored instead of CFF flavored. However, in order for the TTF fonts to carry the .otf extension, they must be digitally signed, while the CFF fonts do not require the dsig. In any event, it has been my experience the TTF-flavor fonts seems to behave better overall that the CFF versions. I suspect this may be because Adobe has a few bugs to work out...which is perhaps why a new and improved version of the OT FDK is under development.

In the meantime, why don't you go with what works? Generate TTF fonts to use on your website and continue to sell your OTF fonts.

> in order for the TTF fonts to carry the .otf extension

This part is incorrect. An OpenTpe-TTF font will never have a .otf extension. One of the reasons why a TTF font needs to be digitally signed, is so it gets the correct icon under Windows.

> I suspect this may be because Adobe has a few bugs to work out…

Yep, we spend a lot of time working out bugs, especially the ones in OSes and non-Adobe apps... :^/

> which is perhaps why a new and improved version of the OT FDK is under development.

Like any other app, the FDK is (and has been) _always_ under development. The reason why you're currently hearing a lot of buzz about it, is because all the version between 1.6 and 2.0 were not made public. The last release (v1.6) before the current one, had been made available more than three years ago.

In the meantime, why don’t you go with what works? Generate TTF fonts to use on your website and continue to sell your OTF fonts.

Yeah I know, probably that is the best thing to do – but I’m the kind of person that sometimes just can’t let things be as they are or accept that it’s not optimal and adjust to that. It gives me some kind of "itch" ;-)

> An OpenTpe-TTF font will never have a .otf extension.

This is an obscure trivia point, but... actually, it is perfectly legal for it to do so. The reason for it to have a .ttf extension is purely for backwards compatibility. Microsoft has often made noises that they may change all their .ttf extensions to .otf one of these days.

T

Thomas,

thanks for bringing it up. Indeed, it is correct to assume and rely on the fact that a font file with a .ttf extension is an OpenType TT font, but a font file with an .otf extension may be either an OpenType PS font or an OpenType TT font. I haven't yet seen any retail OT TT fonts with an .otf extension but I'm sure it's only a matter of time until they appear.

Adam